Writing is not about piling on individual words
– Overheard in Batdorf & Bronson (University professor to student at 0645)
I travel about a bit and I am always on the lookout for interesting things and especially coffee places. There is a bumper sticker that says ‘friends don’t let friends drink Starbucks’. (But I’ve also seen one that says… ‘I like coffee and guns’ so I wouldn’t put too much stock in bumper sticker philosophy) Starbuck’s is probably not evil. No more evil than any other large American company anyway. Many folks don’t like their coffee however. People that aren’t coffee heads typically find their coffee way too ‘strong’. Others who are aficionados note that they over-roast their beans. I would mostly tend to agree with that statement. I really am not a fan of their typical drip offered in their stores. That being said I do think that Starbucks does do some coffee reasonably well. I will brew their French Roast at home and in camp sometimes, and I think that their espresso is passable as well. Starbucks is a bit like McDonalds, at least you pretty much always know what you are gonna get. And it’s certainly head and shoulders above their mainstream rivals. Best of a bad bunch I suppose.
Given a choice though, I will always pick an independent or smaller chain over the mermaid. Every once in a while you stumble onto something special. And I had one of those occasions just the other day when I walked into Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters in downtown Olympia, Washington. Right from the get-go I could tell that this place was going to be good and it was… very good. The ambience was great. Open and bright, but comfortable with a nice big fireplace, and some comfy chairs. Because I like espresso, my acid test is usually an Americano and that’s what I went for here. Delicious. Now to be honest… I have had better, but this was pretty decent. In my mind anyway, a great Americano will have a decent crema. This comes mostly from the technique of the barista; and that part was lacking here. But it did taste good.
The place started around 1988 as the Dancing Goat coffee bar. Today there are seven locations. Five are in the Olympia area, while two oddly enough are in the Atlanta region.
The following probably apocryphal story is straight from their website
DANCING GOATS THE LEGEND
In the remote highlands of 9th century Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, a lone goatherd named Kaldi noticed his goats were full of energy, dancing and prancing, after eating a small red fruit from a nearby shrub. Not wishing to be left out of the fun, he ate the cherries and soon he was dancing too. According to legend, Kaldi and his goats had discovered coffee.
Not more than 50 metres down the street, on the corner is a Starbucks. Why there were any people in the Starbucks, when B & B was so close is a mystery to me. B & B is less expensive as well…
To each their own I guess.