Etymologically, coffee means “gift of the gods.” Did you believe me? Okay, no it doesn’t. It should, but it doesn’t. It has a less dramatic but appropriate origin from the Arabic qahiya (قَهِيَ), which means “to have no appetite.”
Coffee may decrease your appetite for food, unless you’re drinking a light roast with utmost levels of acid and caffeine that ensure voracious hunger, but it increases your appetite for life.
This is why I’m dedicating another post to some of the lattes and craft coffee shops that have made life worth living. For, even on a bad day, coffee never lets you down… unless you drink too fast or too much and endure a caffeine crash (something I may or may not know something about).
Let’s look at some of the finer experiences life has to offer through the simple roasting of coffee cherries. As American writer Raymond Carver might say, it’s “a small, good thing.” Let’s start with some homemade lattes by yours truly.
Thesis: coffee is life. Or at least, coffee makes life possible.
Homemade with Maru beans (my sole product now)
Maru again with Tiffany’s fine bone china… because sometimes I play an aristocrat
Maru once more with a taste for crystal (provided that contents aren’t too hot)
But one can’t always make one’s own coffee. Why make coffee when others can do it for you? Invest in a nice machine, and over time it pays for itself. Even Starbucks these days charges nearly as much as a craft coffee shop for a catastrophically inferior product that embodies the brokenness of society. So, when you do treat yourself, and you should from time to time (because coffee is self-care), do it right.
When searching out craft coffee online, look for several things:
At least a 4.5 star rating (even Starbucks can get 4.2 stars. O, the humanity…)
They don’t serve food (or hardly any). Except on rare occasions, good coffee shops only serve coffee, perhaps with a few pastries. If they’re serving breakfast sandwiches, burritos, and salads, Do Not Enter Here.
On that note, steer clear of “cafes.” These are coffee cemeteries. Rarely, a coffee shop can do something else well. One exception is Republik Coffee (4.5 stars), Pasadena, but you’re better off not taking a chance.
Look at their photos. Do you see cups and saucers? If the photos are littered with paper cups, you can’t be sure of the quality. If they serve “for here,” you can almost guarantee you’ll get quality. Particularly after Covid, it’s a mark of distinction, as most coffee shops abandoned dishes for the ease of paper (because suddenly Covid made us doubt that soap works). A cup and saucer usually means you’re in good hands. Good reviews, little to no food, but no cups and saucers means “maybe”— at best “probably.”
You’ll see some paper cups in my photos below, alas, but it’s an occasional transgression I avoid unless inevitable, like when I can’t find a seat to linger. Paper and plastic are punishment.
Oh, you like iced coffee and can’t order in a cup and saucer? Stop drinking iced coffee and get serious. Problem solved.
Look at the color of the coffee and espresso. You should see a nice crema layer, like a good crème brûlée: a rich, caramel color indicative of quality. If reviews and photos seem based on tasty foam and cream tops, it may or may not be good. Coffee is not about foam tops. This isn’t a mattress shop. Focus on espresso.
Other markers from afar without going into the shop include: the espresso machine they use, if one is pictured (La Marzocco is standard, or Slayer); whether the employees look like hipsters (let’s face it: the awkward, aloof, and oddly styled make the best coffee); whether their latte art is good (another mark of distinction and attention to detail); whether it looks like a cafe even if “cafe” isn’t in the name; whether their menu has numerous options, fancy flavors, and loads of syrups (not good); and whether “Starbucks” is in the name (this translates to Avoid at All Costs).
Okay, just avoid Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee, Coffee Bean, and the like completely—any chain really with more than 2-3 locations—and you’re already better off.
If you’re too lazy for all of this, just look for “Coffee Roasters” in the name. This isn’t necessarily standard for quality coffee, but you usually can’t go wrong with a place that roasts their own coffee, so long as it isn’t a chain.
Let’s take a look at several of these shops in action. Just check out Starbucks on Yelp sometime and compare what you see there to these lattes and locations. I can assure you that on these points I am never wrong. Rather, I’m annoyingly right… This is because good coffee is hard work, and Starbucks would be much easier. However, nothing good comes easy. Coffee especially.
Cartel Coffee, Palm Springs, CA
Ernest Coffee (Stumptown beans from Portland, which I’ve visited), Palm Springs, CA
Iron & Kin, Claremont, CA (pardon the paper cup… the place was full that day)
Roosevelt Coffee, Irvine, CA
Verve Coffee Roasters, Arts District, Los Angeles, CA
All are such marks of superior coffee. However, sometimes the coffee doesn’t have to be the best if the location is superior. In Big Bear, great coffee isn’t big… A tragedy, to be sure. I suppose hipsters need to conquer Big Bear to shape a coffee culture. Hipsters are our best hope. However, this would be a tragic thing in other ways. Still, the location makes up for a mediocre product.
It may not be the Arts District, but Big Bear’s scenic environment makes up for the steep drop in espresso quality. Plus, there is parking. And parking will be clearly demarcated as opposed to an awkward space that may or may not be parking, where your car may or may not be towed in the meantime, where you may or may not arrive safely to and back from your destination...
Big Bear Lake, CA (where Heidegger is a welcome partner for Being-there)
Last but not least, the king. I have visited numerous craft coffee shops across coffee capitols in the US: Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, etc. There is only one I’ve encountered that truly stands out: Maru, Arts District, Los Angeles. Here, you’ll have to park in a space that may or may not be a space, in an area where you may or may not find your way there and back, but you won’t regret it.
Plus, there isn’t a Starbucks in sight, only a confusing, unmarked door into an otherwise unassuming space that functions as a portal to another coffee dimension. To have coffee here is to wake up from the coffee matrix, to undo the Starbucks delusion that warps the world and pollutes the perception of the masses.
Maru, Arts District, Los Angeles, CA
See the color? See the crema layer? See the transcendence of space and time and reality? Okay, that least part may have been excessive… Let’s look at the color back to back, comparing two craft coffee shops that use the same espresso machine, Iron & Kin and Maru, two excellent spots, but with one clear winner.
Without saying it, you can see it in the espresso color, the crema layer that opens your eyes to the possibility of a good life, a life worth living…
I will say that I’m not a fan of the modernist aesthetic and uncomfortable seating at Maru, but you can’t have everything. Typically, unless the accommodations are particularly unpleasant, I will prioritize coffee quality over seating, ambience, etc. Priorities are priorities, and prioritizing quality coffee is an objective value structure that inheres in the mathematics of the universe down to the Planck length.
Or so I maintain.
In conclusion, coffee is critical. Drink it. Perhaps then you’ll experience Heidegger’s “divine fourfold” that gathers in the relations of the beans, water, milk, and ceramic, presenced in the extreme pressure of a high quality espresso machine.
Slayer Espresso V3, $24,394 (Iron & Kin and Maru’s machine)
As always, there are more lattes to come… And remember, a coffee addiction isn’t a problem if you don’t stop. And I certainly don’t plan to stop. Neither should you.