15th Ave Coffee & Tea

Ahoy citizens! As the officially appointed house coffee evangelist,  I would love to formally introduce a phenomenon has been rapidly spreading and taking 15^th Ave  (and all of Capitol Hill, actually) by storm.  Women have swooned, men have competed in feats of strength, and children have swung from tree limbs in excitement, all for one thing.

Cold brew.

“What is this cold brew you speak of?” you may ask.  I am your barista, Alex, here to tell you. Be warned that by the end of my humble blog, you will probably be in a state of shock, a mere feeble specter of that which you once were.  Ready?  Inhale!  Ok, here we go.

Cold brew is a very simple, yet ridiculously delicious brewing method.  Traditional, mundane iced coffee usually consists of regular, hot drip coffee from an automatic brewer, brewed double-strength and then carelessly poured over lots of ice.  This is also known officially as your grandma’s iced coffee (nothing against your grandma…),  or to be more specific, Great Depression iced coffee.  Even worse, some people who will remain unnamed (you know who you are…) will take a cup of coffee, or perhaps a latte that has cooled down and pour ice over it.  And then call it iced coffee.

Here at 15^th, we take our coffee very seriously, and you can rest assured that none of the above abominations to humankind occur within the walls of our coffee sanctuary.   Our iced coffee starts with pristine African coffee beans,  roasted to deliciousness.  They are coarsely ground, slightly finer than for a coffee press.  Next, the grounds are immersed in cold water, left overnight to steep, and voila!  In the morning, remove the cottony filter containing the grounds  and you have coffee so tasty it’s practically supernatural.  Since the coffee never comes into contact with heat, it is refused the chance to develop acidity, a characteristic described frequently as “bitter”.  This lack of  acidity means that the coffee is in turn sweet and nuanced.  The coffee drinker that adds sugar will be pleasantly surprised to find that this toddy-style coffee is so naturally sweet, that sugar is not needed at all.  The coffee-with-cream drinker will notice that the cold brew marries gracefully with milk; the coffee’s flavors do not disperse with its addition.

So, how badly is your mouth salivating?  Don’t fear.  We will be serving cold brew all through the summer, day in and day out.

Cheers!

Alex