I just finished my vacation and fell upon 2 good coffee shops: great plains coffee roasters (sioux falls, SD) and riverside coffee (pelican rapids, mn) and 1 bad shop: Gathering Grounds, Perham MN
at all those shops i just had an americano, but at great plains, i had a shortbread and it was quite good they're in the empire mall and have their own probat right there.
Now that it's daytime, ill give a somewhat more detailed reviews.
On the way up, since i cleaned out my espresso machine and what not, i needed coffee (horrible caffeine headache) so we went to the mall in Sioux Falls. Lo and behold, I see a place called Great Plains Coffee Roasting Co. with lots of burlap bags and a probat roaster just sitting there. So I walk in and get myself a tri-shot americano. Looking around, I saw a 10-cup Bodum eSantos that i really wanted, but my mom said no. It was a really good americano! The barista said "you know there will be 3 shots?" i replied "yes" Good coffee, and i finally got a grouphead brush!
So the first day i had a moka americano (3 'cups' of moka espresso and water) which was okay. I used illy and it has severely gone downhill from there. oh well, its the coffee that came with my pen tests cups.
2nd day, pelican rapids. I went to a coffee shop called riverside coffee (member of the SCAA) I ordered a tri-shot americano from there (are you catching a pattern) and yet again, it was really good! It wouldn't be a good straight shot, too much bitterness, but it was a good americano. Nice atmosphere, and it would probably have been better than the place down the street, called the muddy moose, whose coffee of the day was some crazy flavored type (who has a flavored coffee as the coffee of the day?!)
3rd day, perham. Coffee shop/gift/home store called gathering grounds. Ordered my tri-shot americano. BLECH! It was bitter, weak, everything bad that could be coffee was in this cup.
4th day, pelican rapids again. good, again
5th day, Sioux Falls again, this time i had some celebes (first ever cup) but I didint like it. However, I am more sure its because im not a big indonesian person than it was bad coffee.
now im back home with my gaggia and roasterie coffee....
I just received an e-mail from a fan of Muddy Moose. It was rather rude and attacked the way I pre-judge coffee houses (when you have to live on one cup a day, you have to do this). I noted on my previous post the coffee of the day was flavored, and she blasted me for it.
Here's a quote from the email:
"Maybe next time you are in the area, you can stop in the Muddy Moose and sample some great quality coffee or americanas. Hopefully you don't base all of you desicion in life on your narrow-minded assumptions. "
Now, I wrote an email explaining myself, stating:
"(a) I said it on CoffeeGeek, and we're no fans of flavored coffees (b) Riverside is (as I recall) a member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (c) The atmosphere seemed like it would be better at Riverside (d) The coffee at Riverside was amazingly good
Now, I'm not saying that your shop was bad, I'm saying that Riverside was /more appealing/ to fellow CoffeeGeeks. Didn't mean to offend, just advise. "
Now, I just edited this post after reading the email for the 4th time. This person seemed to be more of an avid fan than an employee.
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