I love coffee. I'm addicted and I don't even care. I love the way it smells, I love the way it tastes, I love the way it looks. But most of all, I love coffee euphoria. I try not to judge cigarette smokers because I know how they feel: if doctors discover that coffee causes cancer, I'm screwed. I'd rather live a shorter life with coffee than a longer one without.
I'm not sure how I went 20 years without it, but I didn't have my first cup of coffee until my junior year at college. I had an espresso after a really fantastic Italian meal at Mezzaluna in Austin, and I ran out the next morning and bought a cappucino machine. It was a cheapo, but I had four espressos in a row. Needless to say I learned that caffeine is a drug. I didn't sleep for days and I thought my heart was going to pound right out of my chest.
But this was the beginning of a beautiful love affair. After college, before Starbucks made coffee cool, I worked 100 yards from a 7Eleven and I would start each day with a jumbo coffee in the styro cup with amaretto creamer (I've since become a purist and have sworn off flavored coffee nonsense). I would refill once before lunch before switching to Pepsi Double Gulps.
This excessive caffeine indulgence went on for two years until I quit my job and went backpacking around Europe for the summer. My $50 per day budget did not permit much coffee drinking, so I switched to water and it almost killed me. Literally.
The first signs of trouble began in Switzerland at a youth hostel called Balmers. After a day of hiking the Alps, I lay awake trying NOT to listen to the drunk backpackers going at it in the next bunk over. As if the thumping going on in the room was not disturbing enough, suddenly, I could feel the pronounced arrhythmic beat of my heart ... thump, thump, thump, pause, pause, thump-thump, thump. A skip, then race to catch up. And it didn't go away.
Soon after returning from Europe, I passed out twice inexplicably. Once on the escalator at school. I just slumped over on the ride up and was neatly deposited at the top for all my classmates to see. The second time time I was mountain biking and my buddies just though I was a wimp.
After a month of tests, the doctors were stumped. For lack of an better diagnosis, they decided that it was just a benign irregular heartbeat. They "thought" it was not life threatening, but just in case I was ordered to avoid caffeine. The fear of dropping dead kept me away from Starbucks for about a month. I began exercising and eating well. It was terrible. I wanted my fix.
Then, one sweet afternoon at a school conference at the Waldorf, heart attack be damned, I wandered over to the 'bucks and gulped down a tall cappucino. It was heaven ... in an instant I came back to life. In fact, instead of dropping dead, within a few hours hours my heart was beating normally for the first time in almost five months. Apparently, I had been going through acute caffeine withdrawal without the tell-tale headaches. From then on, I limited myself to one coffee a day and I've been fine ever since. My $400 an hour cardiologist says it was coincidence, but I know better ... it was the joe.
So following that long-winded introduction, what follows is a list of where to get the best tasting coffee, not necessarily the best places to hang out and drink it.
5. Tryst. Tryst still serves cappucinos in -- go figure -- actual mugs, and they are the size of cereal bowls ("en bol" for you Frenchie types). They know that the secret to keeping espresso hot without a lid is a thick layer of steamed foam, and theirs is the best foam in the city.
4. So's Your Mom. This odd little deli in Adams Morgan with the even odder name has authentic bagels and delicious brewed coffee. They also sell wonderful beans for home brewing straight out of the roasting barrels.
3. Dunkin Donuts. It's no secret that the Dunkin' D has amazing drip coffee. They concoct their magic formula of cream and sugar behind the counter so you can't see how they do it, but it's perfect every time.
2. Clyde's. I don't know whether it's that coffee is always best after a great meal, or if they just have a great roast, but I can't get enough of the brewed coffee at Clyde's. Everything is perfect from the temperature to the mugs. When I was in Brazil for a summer, I daydreamed of Clyde's cheescake and coffee, which I had the very hour I returned.
1. Dean & Deluca, Georgetown. The staff working the counter at the cafe outside can barely figure out how to work the register, but they routinely turn out the very best coffee in the city. Cappucino, espresso, or drip ... I've been known to walk the 30 minute hike from my house in the morning just for a cup of joe.
Leave a comment telling me where you get your favorite fix.
Every time I turn on the Winter Olympics - usually because I forgot and hoped to find one of my shows on NBC - I see something like this on the tube.
