Hi all, I wanted to post the second round of surveys. Readers Claire and Commissioned Coffee responded with some pithy, espresso-like comments. On Saturday, I am leaving for St. Louis, and returning on Wednesday. So there will be no updates until the end of next week. If you haven't, please peruse the past posts, and be sure to comment. I love seeing what people write, allowing everyone the chance to jump into the conversation.

1. When you buy coffee on the go, who do you patronize? (Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, an espresso cart, Au Bon Pain...etc.)

Claire: I usually buy Starbucks since there are two on my campus and at least five within a ten minute drive, but its also hard to pass up Dunkin' Donuts when I see one.

CCC: Dunkin' is okay.

2. What is your preferred coffee-based drink (drip, espresso, moka pot, French press, latte...etc), and why?

Claire:If I'm at Starbucks, I usually order a frappuchino on hot days or a mocha or drip coffee on cooler days or to get a caffeine boost during the day. I don't really like heavy milk products so I tend to stay away from most beverages such as lattes or cappuccinos. At Dunkin' Donuts, its always their regular drip coffee.

CCC: French press

3. In general, what is your favorite aspect about coffee? Explain (i.e culture, taste, social lubricant)

Claire: I like the taste. I am a strict black coffee drinker when I drink drip coffee!

CCC: Learning about the farmers who grew the crop. So much interesting history there.

4. What is your favorite coffee story? (i.e bad experience at Starbucks or amazing espresso)

Claire: No comment here! Sorry.

CCC: Ordered a "grande drip" at Starbucks once and the barista could not understand what I wanted. Finally just said "grande coffee." Strange indeed.

5. Folgers or Maxwell House? :-)

Claire: I don't really drink either...

CCC: Death. Is that an option?

Coffee House Review: Chinatown Coffee Co.

Often I find myself in Chinatown for a number of reasons;

bar hopping, visiting friends, the Verizon Center, or the Goethe Institut (to learn German). In the heart of Chinatown, lives a Starbucks bustling with people on laptops staring out on the Friendship Gate. I feel like a traitor to my fellow coffee lovers when I buy something there because of the convenience factor. Today, I demanded of myself to search for a new coffee shop, and found Chinatown Coffee Company located on the outskirts of Chinatown at 475 H St NW. For all the non-metro area readers, DC's Chinatown is approximately 2x2 blocks. Not that big. Before I hopped on the bus into DC, I quickly looked over their website, and was pretty excited. Before my impressions, one can read the history of how Chinatown Coffee Co. came to be. Sorry for all the links, but I want to give everyone an education about Chinatown and their coffee!

Atmosphere: When first walking in, one realizes how long or deep the cafe is. What it lacks in width, there is plenty of room along the walls for seating. I peered in and the comfy industrial feel welcomed me in (Is that possible?) with wooden benches and tables spaced throughout the store. Old-school funk played in the background with noise rarely rising above a loud quiet. I visited off hours so it could differ from the morning and lunch rush. Most people were chatting, and a few laptops were out, but the majority seemed engaged in conversation. Seating was ample for a DC cafe, but during the rush it might be hard to find. The temperature was surprisingly pleasant. It wasn't frigid, but comfortable as to not cool off the warm coffee drinks (or at least I think so). A sweater is not needed to spend an hour or two there.

Service: They take their coffee very seriously! If one wants a humorous story, please go back and read the article I linked to about the dreaded triple espresso over ice. Ordering my coffee drinks, I asked a few questions about what coffee they used in their espresso, (Intelligentsia's Black Cat), and what their favorite drinks were. One barista followed up after I finished my coffee to ask how it was. Overall, the baristas offered quality service and personableness for my first visit.

Coffee: Looking through their menu, they have one for to-go and one for staying. You can get your typical espresso-based drinks, but they offer French press, pour over, and free leaf tea in a tea pot. So if you don't want espresso or drip coffee, there are other coffee and non-coffee-options. I ordered a single espresso and macchiato. In a few minutes, I picked them up on the counter in stylish black and white cups matching the industrial design to the cafe. My macchiato was very good. I could discern the strong espresso through the milk with neither the milk or espresso overpowering each other. The single espresso was a classic 1oz affair, so it may be better to order a double knowing that you wont get a 4oz espresso monstrosity. It tasted quite bright with many flavors coming through, namely a syrupy taste, yet lacked a substantive body to it. That could be due to it being a single rather than a double, but my palette isn't necessarily the sharpest. The Intelligentsia Black Cat has a bold flavor packing a really strong taste. Next time, I drink espresso there, I will get a different blend or bean, if possible.

Price: Here is the link for the menu. 2.00 for a single espresso without tax seems expensive, but Chinatown Coffee's baristas know what they are doing, so one is paying for the the extra experience and knowledge (perhaps). They also sell organic bananas for a dollar. Sorry, I thought that was interesting for some reason.

Free Wifi: Yes!

Conclusions: Talking with a friend who works in the area, he loved Chinatown Coffee Co., especially the tea. Looking over the Yelp reviews and knowing how fickle their reviewers are, I can't help but feel a special cafe lives in Chinatown. With that said, you will have to deal with their coffee policies, and an elevated price. I will certainly be headed back to try out the various coffee blends, beans, and concoctions passing by the Starbucks in the heart of Chinatown. And you should too!

Did I miss any aspect in my coffee house review? Please tweet me at Metroespresso, or leave a comment below. I want to thank all my readers for following and commenting on Metro Espresso making this blog fun and enjoyable. I do this because it gives me something to do, and an excuse to chat about coffee.

Metro Espresso Survey: Benjamin

I had a great initial turnout for the Metro Espresso survey and wanted to first spotlight Benjamin from Mocha Joe's Coffee Roasters. I still encourage readers to fill out the survey and send them to me. For details look at the post below or click here. I am excited to see how the responses compare with each other. Without further ado, here are Benjamin's responses:

1. When you buy coffee on the go, who do you patronize? (Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, an espresso cart, Au Bon Pain...etc.)

I try to avoid chains at all cost. I regularly use Yelp or Urban Spoon on my iPhone to find the closest locally owned cafe. You never know what you are going to get but I like trying new places. With chains you tend to get consistency, but if you don't like their coffee it means you already know what to expect. If I'm in a pinch though, I will hit up a Dunkin' Donuts, cream and sugar.

2. What is your preferred coffee-based drink (drip, espresso, moka pot, French press, latte...etc), and why?

For regular coffee at home I prefer a light roast brewed with a French Press. I like the extra body that you get from using a French Press and I think the light roast gives you a wider range of tastes. The French Roasts tend to roast away some of my favorite flavors, even though it does bring out new flavors that some people find desirable. If I'm going to our cafe I almost always get a double short maple latte. I get a double short shot and double short cup because I like the milk to espresso ratio. In large lattes, the milk tends to mask the taste of the espresso.

3. In general, what is your favorite aspect about coffee? Explain (i.e culture, taste, social lubricant)

Well, tasting it... but the history, culture, artistry of roasting and science of brewing are pretty interesting as well.

4. What is your favorite coffee story? (i.e bad experience at Starbucks or amazing espresso)

I was a regular at a particular small cafe for a couple of months and the same Barista always seemed to be working the shift when I came in. She was friendly but totally spaced out and would mess up 90% of my orders. If I ordered a maple la[t]te I might get surprised with a mocha la[t]te, if I got a small light roast I might walk away with a large french roast. The cool thing about it though was that it broke me out of my "regular" drinks and I began to appreciate espresso drinks that I had never tried before.

5. Folgers or Maxwell House? :-)

Ha! I'd rather go without. If it comes down to that I'll just drink water =)

Metro Espresso Survey

(The foam looks so happy!)

In the spirit of creating a stronger community at Metro Espresso, I am asking Metro Espresso readers (meaning you!) to write responses to five simple questions about your coffee preferences. These responses will be featured in future blog posts. If you are new to coffee and feel you don't know enough to contribute; your opinion is doubly wanted. You probably know more than you think! The questions are as follows:

1. When you buy coffee on the go, who do you patronize? (Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, an espresso cart, Au Bon Pain...etc.)

2. What is your preferred coffee-based drink (drip, espresso, moka pot, French press, latte...etc), and why?

3. In general, what is your favorite aspect about coffee? Explain (i.e culture, taste, social lubricant)

4. What is your favorite coffee story? (i.e bad experience at Starbucks or amazing espresso)

5. Folgers or Maxwell House? :-)

Email your responses to duderino102 @ gmail dot com, and be featured on Metro Espresso. Be sure to explain your answers well, but no essays please! If you like Metro Espresso please follow me on Twitter, and ask me any coffee-related questions you have. Thank you!

GPS Coffee: Finding new cafes

Returning from a weekend excursion, I found the GPS a useful tool in locating coffee shops. Any Garmin, Tom Tom, GPS device, or smartphone with GPS capability that can search for POI's (points of interest) will work.

Using the "Search for nearby POI" in the Tom Tom, I typed in "coffee," yielding five or more cafes to visit: all of them being local and non-chain stores. Remember: By typing in coffee, the search will only come back with "coffee" in the business's title, skipping places without coffee in the title. By searching and visiting local coffee shops, it added a nice break from a 3-4 hour road trip, allowing us to visit an off-beat, local cafe. The actual place we visited was a bit disappointing. The espresso was lukewarm! They should have read my espresso cups post, specifically heating up the cups before espresso is brewed. Doing a GPS visit, one may have duds, but for all the duds one quality cafe will be worth the detour.

If one doesn't have a GPS, using Google Maps and searching for coffees places before embarking on a road trip can act as a stand-in.