Name Change...

After a near obsessive amount of deliberation, I've opted to change the name to "Black Coffee." It was the first phrase that came to mind when I began thinking up names, but I shook it off because it seemed too straight forward. But, as just about everyone who has ever met me knows, straight forward is how I tend to go.

"Black Coffee" is a great Black Flag song. It is also how I drink my coffee. A customer at Starbucks once said, "if you don't like the taste, don't drink it." His quote stuck with me as I weaned myself off of cream and sugar.

When coffee is taken black you can pickup on the natural flavors in the beans themselves. Coffee beans have different tastes depending on where they're grown. The natural differences in soil contribute to this. For example, Ethiopian coffees (my favorite) tend to have a blueberry, almost juicy, flavor while in your mouth and a solid roasty flavor as an aftertaste. If you fix it up with cream and sugar, you're likely to miss out on the unique taste of the beans. The natural flavors are fun to explore and test our taste buds against. Get to know the beans. As Cornel West says, "you can't love somebody if you don't know what color they are (about 12:50)." You can't love your coffee if you don't know where it's from.

So. There you go. New name. Black Coffee.

Cranberry's Grocery & Eatery

One of the reasons it's taken me so long to write a real first post is that I've been debating which local place to tackle first. I finally (and humbly) accepted that the place I mention first has no bearing on the state of the world, so I'm going with Cranberry's because it's freshest in my mind.

Coffee is not the primary function of Cranberry's. It's a health and natural food grocery store with an eatery in the back. They offer delicious vegetarian and vegan options as well as "normal" foods, too (like Polyface sausage and eggs!). In addition, the grocery portion has plenty of herbs and spices along with natural vitamins and medicines and such.

On to the coffee... The coffee at Cranberry's is a brand called Lester's Best. Named after its owner, it's roasted in Staunton by Lester himself, who mans the eatery counter throughout the week, adding a nice personal touch to the experience.* They offer their house blend, called Lucky No. 7 everyday, as well as a "Flavor of the Month" and a Columbian Decaf option. I'll speak to Luck No. 7 today and touch on the monthly flavor on a month-to-month basis.

I will be direct and say that Lucky No. 7 is my favorite cup of coffee in Staunton. It's a full-bodied, medium-dark roast with a spicy kick at the end. There's a nice touch of cinnamon as well. I once asked Lester what the blend of beans was (before reading it on the website of course), suspecting it to be a mix of Sumatra (spice) and a Latin American bean. I hit it pretty close when he told me that it was Brazil and Sumatra (there's a touch of Costa Rica, too).

As an eatery, Cranberry's is not set up as a "coffee shop," so it's not ideal to sit and sip on a cup or two for an afternoon. A to-go cup is your safest bet if you're not there for a meal. But if you decide to stick around, the for-here mugs carry a free refill with them. As I mentioned, the menu is solid. Lindsey and I can both eat there for about $20 or less, which is "dreamy"** when considering that the ingredients are all organic/fair trade, etc. Coffee to-go will run you $2 flat during the morning rush to work, but the price goes up after 9:30 to $2.21. Don't let the $.21 increase be a deterrent for you, because you're getting the best cup in town. If you haven't been here, check it out. And if you have been here, go again soon.

Details:

7 S. New Street

Staunton, VA

Coffee: A+

Selection: C (House blend, Special, Decaf is standard)

Atmosphere: B+

Prices: B

*How many of us know someone who roasts coffee for Starbucks, let alone Howard Schultz himself?

** Apologies for the pun.

Welcome!

When I moved to Staunton, Virginia, the first job I landed was working at the local Starbucks. Over the course of the next year and a half or so of working there, I acquired a taste for coffee. I've since moved on from Starbucks, but in the past few weeks I've been mulling the idea of starting a blog dedicated to sharing whatever tastes and insights I can come across in my coffee drinking. My goal is to share my impressions and feelings about the coffee shops in and around Staunton. I'll also venture to review places when I travel to hopefully keep things fresh. I'll weigh in on the menu, atmosphere, price, employee awareness/friendliness/service, and of course, the coffee.

I should qualify this by saying I usually just drink black coffee. When I venture into the espresso world, I tend to stick to mochas and lattes. Along these lines I should state that my own dietary practices will limit the comprehensiveness of my reviews. Example: I'm a vegetarian, so while I hear that Coffee on the Corner has a killer Reuben, I won't be able to speak to it myself. In the same vein, I get my espresso drinks made with soy milk. So there's your warning.

In searching for a title I wanted to stick with a reference to a song or band. I landed on "Black Medicine," an ode to Fugazi's 1995 album "Red Medicine". Several summers ago, "Red Medicine" was my favorite album (the last four songs are borderline overwhelming, see "Long Distance Runner"). Unfortunately, I feel that in our time people's lives move too fast to slow down and enjoy the things around them. In the process, coffee becomes something more along the lines of Soma than something to savor. It's becomes more of a pill, a medicine, than anything else. The real shame is that this impairment extends far beyond coffee, and people's lives become a series of searching for their next dose of numbness. But, that's an issue for another day.

Along the way, let me know if you have thoughts or suggestions on how to make this blog flow a little better. Enjoy!