Portland Love: Coffee Culture

I  often find myself unable to contain my intense love for the city of Portland. My appreciation simply bursts out of me like the flowering trees lining the streets right now. I’m not alone. This infatuation is echoed by another one of my infatuations, The New York Times. Together, the Times and I, we swoon whenever a new restaurant opens up and about the quirky, comfortable way everyone dresses. This morning, having gotten dressed in an outfit that I had scrounged on my morning runs from the free piles that speckle the streets, I began to make coffee.

Again, I started to explode with an irritable sort of love for the city and the coffee that is able to  find me because I am here.

Though it is a relatively small city (and the comfort of the community can make it feel even smaller some days), the social consciousness here can make me feel deeply connected to the world. Recently, my dear friend Arnoud VanSisseren (besides being a dedicated cappuccino drinker also a brilliant urban designer, architect, and artist) lured me to Ristretto Coffee in Northwest Portland for a cupping. Together, we leaned over the cups of ground beans first dry then wet, we used words like ‘aroma’ and ‘bouqet’, we talked about Rwanda and the women that run coffee farms there now. We slurped teaspoons of steeped coffee and swore we could taste  caramelized asparagus in one of them. I walked away feeling honored to have learned more about those mysterious little beans and awed by the passion folks at Ristretto shared with me.

I’m a sucker for passionate people.

So this morning, I did a pour-over of Portland Roasting Coffee, the New Seasons Blend. Pour-over’s have been a recent favorite of mine. It is simple to prepare, simple to clean up, and is always perfect. While sipping on my coffee from my favorite mug, I find myself falling head over heals for this city, once again.

NPR did a pretty great series about coffee this week. One of them brings you to a farm in Guatamala and the other explores some trends that may surprise you (we drink half the coffee as a nation than we did in 50’s?!).

​And it looks like another beautiful morning in Portland, Oregon!