30 Cups Crossed
My family and I set out on August 1st to navigate our beautiful country in the hopes of finding perspective, interesting cuisine and some great coffee. Now that we’re back home, I can emphatically say that we found all three, and much more. America is truly an incredible place, and needs to be seen, at least once in a person’s life, from the ground.
Each state, every city and town, and the national parks we visited are amazing in their own way. As for the coffee? We experienced the best brew in, sometimes, the most unexpected places. At least I should say, wrongly ‘unexpected.’ Artisanal craft coffee and roasting companies can be found coast-to-coast. Which was the best? I can only offer our highlights because I’m fully aware that everyone has their own definition of ‘best.’ And because it was not an exhaustive survey; but rather one of allowing places to present themselves to us, providentially.
Our best pour-overs were in Sioux Falls, SD and Greenville, SC. Best espresso for us was found in Harrisburg, PA and Cloverdale, CA. Then there was Petaluma, San Francisco, Seattle (of course) and many other places where excellent coffee, served with warmth and personality, could be found in abundance.
Yet I was also surprised by the lack of top-level coffee options in some of the places we stopped in Michigan and California (outside of Google, which had wonderful coffee options). The Valley, Sedona and St. Louis also escaped us. To be fair, we could have been more exploratory, but lacked the time. Had to keep moving; next trip perhaps.
In all though, it was a wonderful experiment which I hope to continue in these pages. But for now, I’ll simply report briefly on the final stop of our trip, my hometown of Annapolis, MD. Again, since we lacked the time to fully explore a few places of note in the area, we hit an old standby near the city dock, mainly out of nostalgia — City Dock Coffee.
We were merely passing through, and so I ordered a short mocha to keep myself awake for the home stretch up to New Jersey. It was serviceable, and caffeinated, but that’s about it. I did, however, enjoy sipping the rich liquid as we strolled around the dock area, admiring the boats and watching the mallards paddling about in the brackish water.
And then it was time to go. The trip had been magnificent, and a blessing to all of us. We continued on to home.
The next morning, I knew that I would end things as I began, with a well-made home brew. Salute, my friend the coffee cup; I’m ready to begin another day.
To learn more about our thirty day adventure across America, check out our other publications WHERE DO WE FIT IN? and BEST (HEALTHY) ROAD FOOD.
