Based in Portland OR, the home of quintessential American coffee companies, Stumptown Coffee is the freetrade brainchild of coffee conisseur, Duane Sorensen. Recently they opened a first cafe in the lovely Ace Hotel, which is also home to The Breslin.
I’m not as up on my coffee knowledge of some people I’ve met – but everyone swears by the drinks served here. Also, everything is made and served by adorable boys in old-timey hats and waistcoats, which is never a bad idea.
1636 Silver Lake Boulevard, Los AngelesTasty lattes live inside LaMill, the most beautiful of Silver Lake cafes. Featuring calming French toile murals and golden chandeliers, its a perfect and popular spot to relax with some caffeine and friends. The menu is almost pretentiously long and complex, which is great if you’re a coffee snob who prefers to choose your extraction method and from a massive list of beans, but you can also order simply.
Don’t pass up the donut holes that come warm and sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Click here for the rest of LaMill Coffee
My friend Shaun described the seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks as, “tasting like ham”. And, if you consider the crunchy sugar coating of some maple hams, in a way he's kind of right. And yet I still enjoyed this uber sweet, once a year kind of drink. It made me weirdly wired and felt like I was doing something mothers wouldn't approve of by imbibing so much sugar in the morning.
While you will not get your drink especially quickly, Think just might make the area's best tasting lattes and, more importantly, the company is both socially and environmentally conscious.
From New York Magazine:
Think brews only Fair Trade, organic, and shade-grown java; the hormone-free milk comes from small farms in the Hudson Valley; and twenty-five percent of profits are donated to local charities.