Coffee and doughnuts. The Northeast does Dunkin. The South does Krispy Kreme. Canada does Tim Horton’s. And Portland? Well, Portland doesn’t do chains. Unless of course they are locally owned, organically grown, artisanally focused and, of course, quirky to the fullest.
Maybe it’s because Seattle smells like rain brewing in a big coffee pot. Or maybe because it’s the birthplace of Starbucks and Seattle’s Best. Whatever it is, you gotta “do coffee” if you’re Seattle, much like you have to “do Mexican” in LA or “do pizza” in New York. But if you’re going to be spending $5 on coffee, you’d want the good stuff, right?
When a foodie is told the tale of kopi luwak — the coffee brewed from beans that were eaten by a Asian civet, shat out, then collected, cleaned, roasted and sold for $100+ per pound — the foodie invariably asks “how much of an arm, a leg and my first-born child can I spend to sample this rare and exotic treat?”
