LA Cafe Crawl - Day 1 - Swiss Water Pop-up

Oct. 18, 2017
Today was "day 1" of a three-day exploration of specialty coffee culture of greater metro-Los Angeles.  I'm looking forward to this opportunity to taste and see if they still are the "hottest coffee city" on the Left Coast.

I spent most of the day on Abbot Kinney road in Venice, drawn there by the pop-up by Swiss Water that is there for this week! The storefront is nestled between the street's top restaurants (Gjelina), Intelligentsia and across the street is a Warby Parker store and a boutique sock shop, (boutique socks?!)  As I walked up a friendly barista was serving up cold-brew Colombian (without caffeine) with creamy nitro foam from a pull handle that looks like a beer tap. OK - I've lived in Rwanda the last year so I'm not embarrassed to admit this was my first "cold brew on tap." Delicious! I definitely see how this type of drink will take-off in places where non-alcoholic beverages are preferred, but the cool factor must not be lost. A hot coffee would simply not be the right vibe in social, evening settings, but this would!

Enjoying LA: Mike Strumpf (R), buyer for Swiss Water and Brian Speckman from InterAmerican.

SO EXCITED to have a double shot decaf KENYAN! My favorite...

Next, I was delighted to order a KENYAN Mubuni Estate (near Ryiru) doulbe shot espresso. Then on to the Chemex version of the same coffee. There was also an excellent traceable Colombian on offer. All FREE. All expertly prepared and there were free roasted whole bean samples to take home.

There was a good buzz throughout the morning and late afternoon when I was there. I even conducted a consumer intercept survey with one customer. He's a 'born in the 60s' LA resident who has a routine of coming down Abbot Kinney with his wife to get a gourmet take-away snack and then a coffee at Intelligentsia. He's "self-employed" in the health care field and regularly drinks decaffeinated coffee, typically as a pour-over. He never brews his coffee at home, which isn't surprising since he falls on the 'low consumption' side, drinking an average of 1 cup a day. He doesn't look for certifications or any special roast degree, nor any particular story about origin. He just likes a great cup of coffee, and he pays $4-5 per cup.

Read more on the Oct. 19 Daily Coffee News blog - click here.

See the next 2 posts on this blog for more adventures in "the hottest coffee city"...

More photos of the pop-up:

David Kastle chats with "Tiny Glacier" founder