What makes a good coffee shop
For us, several things have to come together for a coffee shop to be considered good.
A good coffee shop has to, firstly, have good coffee.
Our preference is for coffee roasted on site and sold within a few days or hours of being roasted. Blends of different beans are not needed. Rather, beans sourced and chosen for richness of flavour is the preference. Coffees roasted so that there is an initial flavour which changes as it rolls over the pallet is best. Fair trade and organic beans are a given. It matters that the people who did the work to grow the beans get paid for their efforts.
When preparing coffee, the water cannot be too hot lest it burn the beans. Coffee should be weighed (or the barista so good that this is not needed). Milk drinks need to be perfect, and consistent. Coffee art is nice for presentation, but far more important is the quality of flavour and mouth feel. No plastic shall touch our coffee at any step of preparation. Ideally, water will be poured from a copper kettle after it is heated in steel.
A good coffee shop has to have good food.
This does not always mean that the shop has to have a full kitchen, but the food that is there needs to be fresh, consistent, and come at the correct time. If, for example, a pastry would sit well with an espresso drink, it has to show up with the espresso drink. Every single time. Warmed food must be warmed in an actual oven, not a microwave oven, lest pastries be turned into leaden masses.
A good coffee shop has to have excellent ambiance.
It does not have to be a hipster paradise, and look like it fell out of a pinterest page on "coffee shops of the world", but it does have to be comfortable, have wifi, seat many, and have excellent staff.
A good coffee shop has to be bicycle friendly.
Simply put, this means outdoor seating or no complaints when the bicycles are brought into the shop. It surprises me how many shops are ok when the bicycles come into the shop with us. Outdoor seating should have tables, and portable shade. It also means that the shop needs to be easily accessible by bicycle: either on a good trail system, or accessible via roads which will not reduce a rider to a rather unfortunate statistic.
Those are the things we shall rate every shop we ride to in this blog.
Enjoy the ride,
Christopher and Cedric
A good coffee shop has to, firstly, have good coffee.
Our preference is for coffee roasted on site and sold within a few days or hours of being roasted. Blends of different beans are not needed. Rather, beans sourced and chosen for richness of flavour is the preference. Coffees roasted so that there is an initial flavour which changes as it rolls over the pallet is best. Fair trade and organic beans are a given. It matters that the people who did the work to grow the beans get paid for their efforts.
When preparing coffee, the water cannot be too hot lest it burn the beans. Coffee should be weighed (or the barista so good that this is not needed). Milk drinks need to be perfect, and consistent. Coffee art is nice for presentation, but far more important is the quality of flavour and mouth feel. No plastic shall touch our coffee at any step of preparation. Ideally, water will be poured from a copper kettle after it is heated in steel.
A good coffee shop has to have good food.
This does not always mean that the shop has to have a full kitchen, but the food that is there needs to be fresh, consistent, and come at the correct time. If, for example, a pastry would sit well with an espresso drink, it has to show up with the espresso drink. Every single time. Warmed food must be warmed in an actual oven, not a microwave oven, lest pastries be turned into leaden masses.
A good coffee shop has to have excellent ambiance.
It does not have to be a hipster paradise, and look like it fell out of a pinterest page on "coffee shops of the world", but it does have to be comfortable, have wifi, seat many, and have excellent staff.
A good coffee shop has to be bicycle friendly.
Simply put, this means outdoor seating or no complaints when the bicycles are brought into the shop. It surprises me how many shops are ok when the bicycles come into the shop with us. Outdoor seating should have tables, and portable shade. It also means that the shop needs to be easily accessible by bicycle: either on a good trail system, or accessible via roads which will not reduce a rider to a rather unfortunate statistic.
Those are the things we shall rate every shop we ride to in this blog.
Enjoy the ride,
Christopher and Cedric
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