Your favorite cup of coffee ever

[amkirkland]

What is the best cup of coffee you've ever had. (that you didn't brew yourself)

[Luwak]

Notice how many of the responses here involve a coffee-drinking experience while visiting some far-flung locale. This is in keeping with a dictum set forth years ago by Jim Reynolds, roastmaster emeritus at Peets Coffee in Berkeley: “Coffee always tastes better on vacation.”

[lisaf]

Probably at a cafe in Vienna with a slice of apple streudel. Pure bliss.

[fini]

Brazil Cachoeira da Grama Yellow Bourbon that I homeroasted and prepared with my trusty bodum vacuum pot. It wasn't shabby as espresso either.

Stumptown in Portland, Or also rocks!

[Panini Guy]

Really? I don't have a ton of experience with single origin espressos but I'm surprised the Cachoeira worked as espresso. Don't ask me why, just surprised. Will have to try that next time we get some.

[Pate]

The French Laundry in Yountville. Without going into too much detail the experience was disappointing except for the cup of coffee at the end. We call it "our $600 cup of coffee" because it was the most memorable part of the meal.

[Panini Guy]

That's interesting considering TFL uses Illy, which would make the coffee probably the least fresh ingredient used in the kitchen!

If we're only talking about the coffee, for me it was last year's Hacienda Esmeralda which broke all records at the 2006 Panama auctions. Absolutely a brilliant cup. Buoyant, extremely citrusy and packed with florals.

But if we're talking coffee experience... that would be either the flat white on our patio of our room at the Versace in the Gold Coast or a 5oz capp at the little corner bar near the Zanhotel Europa in Bologna.

[jdub1371]

Couple of years ago a student brought back a small burlap sack of coffee beans from El Savador. One of my co-workers took it home to grind it and brought it back the next day. We brewed some up early in the afternoon. I don't drink too much coffee, but I was needing a lift that day-- with some cheap creamer and about a teaspoon of sugar, it was easily the best cup of coffee I've ever had. Utterly delicious, medium-bodied, mellow, nutty coffee.

Also, about twenty years ago, there was a place near NYU called The Violet Cafe. The cafe au lait was hands-down the best I've ever tasted. Wow.

[swissgirl]

Martha and Bros. coffee in San Francisco. Our newborn daughter was in the hospital nearby for a few weeks and on the walk there from the Ronald McDonald House, I'd stop in for coffee everyday, usually just black coffee or sometimes iced coffee. Very good coffee coupled with a brisk walk in my favorite city was wonderful. Whenever I travel back home to the Bay Area and make it into the city, I stop in for a cup.

[mlgb]

About 25-30 years ago, in the "natural foods" cafe in Kona. Can't remember the cafe name, but I still remember the coffee.

[flipkeat]

Unreal, but years ago on holiday in Grenada a little out of the way restaurant...served the best cup of coffee. Waiter brought said cup to me said nothing..I drink my coffee black so no additions were made when I got to the bottom of the cup there were the rements of a small chocolate....Mmmmmmmm yummy!!

[Den]

It was in Linate airport in Milan. We were just about to leave Italy and were running late and had to stop for an espresso. While sitting in the cafe, there was a flight attendent running around trying to hail us for the flight, we just had to stop for the coffee.

[fauchon]

We had unbelievably excellent coffee everywhere in Milan...coffee there was incredible.

Also, in NYC the espresso at Via Quadronno is superb.

[MMRuth]

I think the espresso/cappucino at Via Quadronno is the best I've ever had. Never been to Italy.

[ajbinla]

I second the Jamaican Blue Mountain. I've traveled to Jamaica on business four times in the last three yeras, and that is the best coffee in the world. I always bring home 6 or 7 pounds of beans to freeze. You can buy them at local supermarkets in Kingston for about $9.00 a pound american!!!!

[realslowfood]

Brazilian Peaberry at Monkey Joe Roasting Company, Kingston NY. Black no sugar.

[amyzan]

A latte with a little honey and cinnamon (called a Viennese) at Cafe Calabria in San Diego. Perfectly creamy and delicious!

[AnnaEA]

A four shot mug of espresso with hazel nut syrup from the Espresso Royale in Ann Arbor. It was a chilly April day and I was out walking bookstores with a man I love and I wasn't a coffee drinker. After a particularly nasty shiver while we talked writing, he looked at me appraisingly and said "I need to buy you a coffee". We headed down the coffee shop, and he bought me an insulated mug (so we could continue our bookstore hop) and ordered the coffee for me. It was a revelation in heat and taste and feeling cherished.

[ben61820]

wow, ive had so many i cant pick a best. every morning the freshly ground french press i make would be pretty close to the top. but i do remember a couple of killer cups at real small, nice cafes in Japan. not a country really known for GOOD coffee but there are some really amazing places. but then again, right on court street in brooklyn, getting a cup at DAMICOs is so close to perfection as to leave nothing much wanted. amazing. havent been to italy tho...

[chigirl71]

On vacation in Jamaica about 12 years ago. I drink coffee everyday and I still think about that coffee all the time. At home I like Peet's

[Lazy Susan]

cuban coffee with a cream at a little cuban place in Key West. Can't remember the name, but it was off the beaten path, near a campground, I think.

[Sam Fujisaka]

In a meeting at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters headquarters in Vermont. It helped that it was cold out...somehing I miss here in Colombia.

[ciaogal]

Trader Joe's Decaf Bay Blend and the Coffee I had on Vacation in Punta Cana D.R. in January......

[OneJayneDoe]

Jamaica Blue Mountain while on my honeymoon in Jamaica. The waiter poured the cream for me!

[bigmackdaddy]

Brennan's in New Orleans. Is that coffee or chicory? Doesn't matter it's still my fave.

[Atomica]

The first time I went to Philz in San Francisco about a year ago.