Coffee and cycling, more specifically coffee and cyclists, go together like mafia members in a strip club. Rides frequently, or should, begin, stop in the middle, or end at a café (bar in Italy) if of sufficient length. A huge complaint I have about cyclists and Americans in general are their complacency with mediocre, bad coffee. In being swayed by the image over the quality, they buy the logo and false belief they are buying "good coffee." As awesomely put by Roger Greenberg, "Dear Starbucks, in your attempt to manufacture culture out of fast food coffee you've been surprisingly successful for the most part. The part that isn't covered by 'the most part' sucks."
I love coffee; which covers espresso and american coffee. I am very much a traditionalist with my coffee: never any sugar or milk in my coffee, never an espresso based drink with milk (ie cappuccio, macchiato, etc) after noon, I only put sugar in my espresso when in Italy, and then only sometimes, or on rare occasions when I am on a ride. This is another reason I love riding in Italy. It is not hard to find a bar. In fact, it is so easy, that time is spent finding the right bar and deciding which of the lot is "the one."
The great thing about Asheville is the abundance of good, independent coffee shops. I have been to the Double Decker Bus (ie Double Ds Coffee & Desserts), Izzy's in West Asheville, Firestorm, The Dripolator in Asheville and Black Mountain, Mosaic Cafe, West End Bakery and Cafe, and Zuma Coffee in Marshall. However, the bar I have made my coffee shop - and the one I feel is the best in the area - is Waking Life Espresso.
As a coffee traditionalist, what immediately caught my eye was the menu. Not included are drink names with numerous adjectives. Not only is this a sign you won't be waiting behind someone getting their low fat, soy vanilla chai whipped latte with whipped cream, hershey's chocolate and caramel syrup, but you get quality coffee.
In fact, you won't find airpots of two to five different varieties, with one being a decaf and another being some nasty flavored coffee, that have been sitting there for anywhere from thirty minutes to eight hours. With the exception of 7am to roughly 10-11am for the "on the way to work crowd" - where one airpot is present - every drink is made to order, ensuring freshness and quality with only minimal wait time. To that end you have your espresso drinks of course, but the coffee is made in a pour-over bar or if you want to be extra coffee-centric, you can do a Chemex. The pour-over and chemex methods have been perfected by Jared Rutledge, and dutifully duplicated by Peter Bull and David Manselle, taking into account TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), weight, grind, filter type, water temperature and volume. Espresso pulls are consistently on - and if they are not, they are redrawn. And to the small extent chocolate, caramel and vanilla is used - it is all made by hand using high quality cocoa, cane sugar, and vanilla beans respectively. Every drink is made with perfection in mind and the correct way to make it.
A small amount of pastries appear as well - with some cookies coming from Sugar Momma's Cookies (try the vegan Banana Maple Walnut, a personal favorite) and the muffins, bread, and "monster cookie" coming from a gal named Rachel.
This is one of the few 100% appropriate coffee shop stops during a ride in my opinion. It is perfection. It is focused on coffee, not menu filler, so you get fast service. There is great outdoor seating to park the bici and put your feet up sipping the espresso or coffee - no dealing with shopping centers and large parking lots. The fantastic cookies are well earned. I baristi are cool with cyclists (many stop in) and Jared follows the metric system so I don't need to do conversions for him.
Waking Life Espresso is doing phenomenally and garnering lots of attention for its mission of trying to educate and make people think about coffee in a different way. Check out this latest article in the Mountain Xpress: http://www.mountainx.com/dining/2010/062310dispelling_some_espresso_myths
You can follow Waking Life Espresso on Facebook and Twitter.
As a coffee traditionalist, what immediately caught my eye was the menu. Not included are drink names with numerous adjectives. Not only is this a sign you won't be waiting behind someone getting their low fat, soy vanilla chai whipped latte with whipped cream, hershey's chocolate and caramel syrup, but you get quality coffee.
In fact, you won't find airpots of two to five different varieties, with one being a decaf and another being some nasty flavored coffee, that have been sitting there for anywhere from thirty minutes to eight hours. With the exception of 7am to roughly 10-11am for the "on the way to work crowd" - where one airpot is present - every drink is made to order, ensuring freshness and quality with only minimal wait time. To that end you have your espresso drinks of course, but the coffee is made in a pour-over bar or if you want to be extra coffee-centric, you can do a Chemex. The pour-over and chemex methods have been perfected by Jared Rutledge, and dutifully duplicated by Peter Bull and David Manselle, taking into account TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), weight, grind, filter type, water temperature and volume. Espresso pulls are consistently on - and if they are not, they are redrawn. And to the small extent chocolate, caramel and vanilla is used - it is all made by hand using high quality cocoa, cane sugar, and vanilla beans respectively. Every drink is made with perfection in mind and the correct way to make it.
A small amount of pastries appear as well - with some cookies coming from Sugar Momma's Cookies (try the vegan Banana Maple Walnut, a personal favorite) and the muffins, bread, and "monster cookie" coming from a gal named Rachel.
This is one of the few 100% appropriate coffee shop stops during a ride in my opinion. It is perfection. It is focused on coffee, not menu filler, so you get fast service. There is great outdoor seating to park the bici and put your feet up sipping the espresso or coffee - no dealing with shopping centers and large parking lots. The fantastic cookies are well earned. I baristi are cool with cyclists (many stop in) and Jared follows the metric system so I don't need to do conversions for him.
Waking Life Espresso is doing phenomenally and garnering lots of attention for its mission of trying to educate and make people think about coffee in a different way. Check out this latest article in the Mountain Xpress: http://www.mountainx.com/dining/2010/062310dispelling_some_espresso_myths
You can follow Waking Life Espresso on Facebook and Twitter.
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