Coffee Tour | Los Angeles, Part 2

I go down to LA (SoCal) few times a year to see family and friends. My 4 years of college life was spent in Southern California and now the place has become my second home. 6 hours drive and 2 hours flight doesn't sound too far but it's only few times a year that I get to visit so I try to squeeze as many coffee spots whenever/wherever I can. With new coffee places popping up in and around LA area, I can barely keep up. Here are few places I've visited last couple of times and what I loved about them. 

Go Get Em Tiger
http://ggetla.com/
@ggetla
230 N Larchmont Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90004

I like the long stretch bar counter. There is no single order line or pick up line. You just go up to open barista like at a bar and make your order. Their toast and strawberry preserves were ah-mazing. It was also fun to walk around Larchmont Village for small boutique shops and farmer's market on the weekends. It's a good place to check in first and fuel up.

House Roots Coffee
http://houserootscoffee.com
@houserootscoffee
28452 Constellation Road
Valencia, CA 91355

A tiny little hidden gem, a pop-up tucked away inside the business park in Valencia (near Magic Mountain). I love this place because they are conveniently located off of Interstate Hwy 5 on the way to NoCal. I usually need to grab coffee before hitting the road and it's like a small oasis on the 5 (such a great find!). The convenience is great but I think their latte is what keeps me coming back every time. I could almost taste the care and love that went into making their coffee. Read more about their 'cup for a cause' project and what they are working on now. It's awesome.

Stumptown Coffee LA
http://stumptowncoffee.com/
@stumptowncoffee
806 S Santa Fe Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90021

I finally had a chance to check out new Stumptown Coffee in arts district in dwtn Los Angeles. Their coffee roasting lab surrounded by clear walls got me awed right a way. I ended up starring at it the whole time I was sipping on my coffee. :D Now you can find same Portland coffee traditions right in the heart of LA.

Intelligensia Venice
http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/
@intelligentsiacoffee
1331 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291

This place, The vibe in this coffee shop. It looks more like an intense lab doesn't it? There are no round tables and chairs for you to sit but you don't need it cuz you can sit on the concrete bleachers sipping your coffee and just enjoy this view. Don't forget to try that shaken iced latte called 'Angeleno'. I promise, you won't regret it, especially if you've been walking around shopping on Abbot Kinney Blvd. on a sunny summer afternoon. 

Do you have your favorite LA coffee spots? What do you love about them?

Coffee Tour | Melbourne, AU

Today, we are taking a little coffee tour to Melbourne, Australia through Agia Sidi's eyes. I've been following Agia on Instagram for a while now and he was gracious enough to share some of his photos with us. Melbourne is on top of my wanderlust list and I hope to visit one day. It seems like you can't really run out of great coffee spots in Melbourne but what really strikes me is the interior café/store designs in this fast growing city. I've read that best store (culinary & café) designers are in Australia and they weren't kidding. Here are just a 'few' spots from Agia's feed that I'm putting on this mini virtual tour. Be sure to follow Agia @agiasidi if you planning a trip to Melbourne cuz he's got it all covered with hot spots to hit when you are in town. I can not wait to pay my visit! (Scroll over the pictures to see the names of places).

I asked Agia what does he do differently to come up with these great captures and he said "I do it the old fashion way: always find the light, and don't be ashamed to take your food pic standing up!". Sounds simple and easy? If you take pictures at spots regularly, I think you would know that they are the two hardest things to achieve but will always results in fantastic pictures. Thanks for sharing it with us, Agia!

+ All Photography by Agia Sidi @agiasidi Instagram Feed.

Coffee Tour | Blue Bottle Coffee - Oakland, CA

A few weeks ago as I was getting my usual afternoon coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee (Webster St.), I saw a sign that read "Free Coffee Education Class every Sat @2pm" so I had to make time to go check it out. I use my ceramic hand drip (Hario set) at home and I love it! but I've been interested in getting my own Chemex set for some time now and I knew Blue Bottle Coffee was the right place to learn how to use this method. Chemex pour over design has been around since the 40s and there must be a darn good reason why it has not changed. The coffee education class was 1-hour long and it was open to public. First half of the class is showing the Chemex hand-drip process and second half was cupping (tasting) with Q&A. This class was just me and this other girl on her backpacking trip from Japan. It was like getting a private lesson (nice!) We tasted Guatemala Bella Vista Antigua blend (their newest blend) and it was very suitable for Chemex dripping (Oh yes, I learned that certain blends taste better with certain type of brewing method.)

Blue Bottle Coffee takes big part in coffee culture in Oakland ever since they opened up the headquarters on Webster St. (in Jack London Sq. area) in 2009 and another location in W.C. Morse bulding on Broadway/42nd St. last year. I love both locations and how open to public they are in terms of their coffee education. They also have a whole section at the W.C Morse location just for their tech teams to advise you on technical things about your coffee machine, including repairs.

Being introduced to coffee at pretty early age (my teens) and working at Coffee Beanery as a barista during my college years, I thought I knew enough about coffee and coffee-making but boy, was I far too short in my education and the work behind growing beans, roasting and the brewing process. I love that there is so much to learn about coffee. Make sure to take advantage of these free classes and tasting sessions at Blue Bottle Coffee Oakland.

Free Public Tasting every Sundays and Tuesdays at 2pm (Webster St.)

Free Public Coffee Education Class every Saturdays at 2pm (Webster St.)

Step-by-Step Chemex Brewing Guides {link}

All Photos are taken by @skycreatives, Illustrations via Blue Bottle Coffee website.

Coffee LOVE & Coffee APP

It seems like coffee is a huge part of 'What's Trending' these days. Fashion and Interior Design isn't the only thing that gets on the trending wave. The more coffee I drink, the more I visit any hipster coffee spots, I realized there is SO much more to coffee than just the beans and its taste. It's art, it's design and it's science. 

Here are just few of my favorite picks on what's "trending" in the coffee culture. And some fun coffee app to play with!

Coffee in bed // [Image]

Coffee Parfait // [Image] & Gold Coffee Clamp/Scoop // [Image]

New Coffee Maker from Craighton Berman // [Image]

Oh my, I love my Hario hand-drip set and love Chemex drip but look at this new design!!!

Coffee Timer App & UP Coffee App

Coffee Timer! App - timer that will help you to make perfect cup of coffee according to amount of water, beans and type of filtering.

UP Coffee by Jawbone - record amount of caffeine intake (coffee, sodas, chocolates..etc.) throughout the day and plan what time you should go to bed to get good sleep. Otherwise, plans some late night work to be done! 

Think these coffee apps are silly idea? Not until you've made that perfect cup of coffee, all on your own and realized that you can drink plenty of coffee and still get good night sleep! ; )

 Coffee & Donut & Frappuccino & Cotton Candy // [Image] for cute entertaining idea

Coffee Tour | La Colombe Torrefaction

When I first started writing on my blog (back in Feb of this year), I told myself I'm going to be writing and sharing about few of my favorite things. Coffee is definitely one of the topics that I wanted to talk a lot about, I have instagram gallery to prove that it is my favorite topic of interest. I just realized that I haven't talked about my all time favorite coffee roasters. What? No way! So here is my quick recap on my favorite coffee roaster/café La Colombe Torrefaction. It makes me just happy thinking and talking about it. 

Photo via La Colombe Coffee Roasters Pinterest Board                    Photo via 70percentpure

I discovered La Colombe coffee roasters through visting my younger sister in Philadelphia many years ago. My sister was attending grad school in Philly and took me to this coffee shop on a cold chilly winter day. I mean it was 'chill-to-the-bone' kind of cold in east coast (coming from a girl in California). I'll never forget the time when I sip on that first cup of cappuccino in their café. It was the best cup of cappuccino I've ever had even to this date. Just look at that beautiful Italian inspired floral design cup. It's impossible not to fall in love with this. Makes you want to drink your cup there at the café just for that cup experience!

Corsica has become our family's favorite blend. Receiving a pound of corsica from my sister was something to look forward to every holiday season. There wasn't or isn't any place in west coast or in bay area where I can pick up a bag of la colombe coffee. Or is there? (yet to find out) But I found out that through their website, you can order beans online and also sign-up for coffee subscription! You can choose two blends per month to be sent to your home. La Colombe will grind the coffee according to your filtering method! So I signed up for this subscription as a trial run and discovered another favorite blend, Nizza for that rich, nutty flavor of the espresso beans. 

Photos by Selina's Instagram @skycreatives

One of the highlight from visiting NYC last March (2013) was visiting La Colombe in SoHo with my travel buddy and friend, Yun. We toured the city on foot so picking up something to keep us warm in our hand was always first thing we did every morning we were there. It was cold~~!!! but coffee tasted even better outdoors in cold weather.

Two founding partners of La Colombe, Todd Carmichael and Jean Philippe Iberti had a goal in mind. They had a vision to bring what's called 'culinary coffee': "balanced and round, consistent, deep but not overbearing, mindful of the kitchen and designed for the palate." No wonder, their coffee goes and taste perfectly with certain food especially when eating my favorite meal of the day, breakfast! It's like drinking a good wine, good coffee does pair well with good food. You can learn more about La Colombe Torrefaction on their website and visits to their location in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, DC and Seoul.

_Selina

Coffee Tour | Los Angeles, Part 1 | BrewWell

Photo by Christine N. on Yelp

BREWWELL is a terrific coffee shop in the heart of Koreatown, located right next to Assi Supermarket in case you would like to get your coffee fix and a jar of gochujang in one convenient trip. The shop's space is bright and comfortable, with big chairs and tables well suited for meeting or working. Brew/Well rotates its coffee selection -- Handsome Coffee Roasters and Heart Coffee Roasters were both recently in the hopper -- and you'll find your usual menu of pour-overs, Gibraltars, cappuccinos and so on, all prepared by a team of solid baristas. Beyond that, the shop isn't afraid to take those drinks and add all sorts of fun flavors: The "Creative Menu" includes an espresso topped with "honeyed foam" and a latte sweetened with honey and cinnamon. QUENELLE supplies the pastries. 3525 W. Eighth St., #101, Koreatown 

 [from LA Weekly's 'L.A.'s 10 Best New Coffee Shops of 2013']

Coffee Tour | San Francisco, Part I

Photo by Selina @skycreatives Instagram

Last friday, I decided to venture out to the city on a mini coffee tour. I had a day off and boys had school so I decided to go visit few new coffee spots in the city. I recently found this photo blog called SPOTTEDSF and it's such a beautiful blog with great photos and short write-up on all unique shops and cafés in the area (Oakland and San Francisco in particular) also includes some other favorite cities to visit. Since I only had few hours to visit, I decided to park my car at the bart station in Oakland and took the bart into the city. It's been years since I took bart since I stopped communting to the city. I transferred to muni to go out to Castro to visit new coffee in town REVEILLE COFFEE CO. It was located just few blocks away from the muni station. First thing that I noticed walking into Réveille was black and white tiles against the side of the wall. It was bold but had a very clean and modern feeling to it. I also loved the clean wood ceiling and light fixtures. I ordered their avacado, fried egg toast and their Americano (my morning choice) and it was absolutely perfect. Americano had a very smooth finish to it. Café was not that big but there was plenty of seating space inside with tables, bars stools and chairs outside. What a lovely place in Castro to grab a good cup of coffee. There is another Réveille location in Chinatown and a coffee truck that goes around the city, I can't wait to check it out.

After walking around Castro area for little bit I was headed to SAINT FRANK in Russian Hill. There is a cable car at Powell/Market that will take you right up to the Russian Hill but it's usually packed with tourists so it was best to take the bus up there. When I got up to the Russian Hill, it was so sunny and warm with nice breeze. A typical San Francisco weather that I really love. It was a nice day to just walk around the neighborhood. Saint Frank coffee shop had a nice open feel to it when you first walk in. I really love their long stretch counter and seating on one side and work tables upstairs. I sat there for a while to enjoy my cup of cappuccino (my afternoon choice), read, write, sketch some of my recent ideas. It was perfect place to be for that. I like that their music wasn't too loud so you can work there with your laptop, meet up with your friends. Baristas were super nice and pleasant to chat with. They also have a little outdoor stand in SOMA area if you don't feel like hiking up to Russian hill. :P

Coffee Tour | 9AM & 3PM

Top: Haddon Hill Café (Cleveland Heights) / Bottom: Highwire Coffee (Rockridge)                             Photo by: Selina on Instagram

I think it's only appropriate that my first photo post is about coffee. I have a feeling that I will be talking about coffee a lot on my blog. Some people drink coffee for the caffeine, some people drink coffee for the taste and the experience. I'm definitely the latter group. I used to drink so much coffee I think I survived on coffee and bagels. No joke. But now, I drink about twice a day or even just once in the morning (due to stomach issue), so it's important that I make that one or two times as perfect as it can be.

I recently discovered these two cafés near my neighborhood and I am in love with them. Haddon Hill Café is actually so hidden away that I don't even think people know it even exists. I found them on my way back home after dropping the kids off at school. I run into other school moms and dads there on their way to work and it's always so nice to catch up with them even though it's so brief. As soon as you walk into their cute red door, you will immediately smell the fresh empanadas heating up in the oven. Goes perfectly with a cup of Americano (my morning choice).

My sister told me about Highwire Coffee so I had to check it out. It's conveniently located on college ave inside Rockridge Market Hall and they have the best cup of cappuccino (my afternoon choice). I like my cappuccino light but with heavy froth. They make it quite exquisitely. Something about drinking hot cappuccino next to open windows under the roof umbrellas on a chilly rainy day has a lot to do with it. I plan to go back couple more times to make sure I'm not overrating them but it was pretty darn good coffee!