A couple of weeks before we made our way to Seattle, a friend of ours went for a visit of her own. She let us know that one of the highlights of her trip was going on a coffee tour around the city. We're not usually ones to go on guided tours, but her excitement swayed us to go on the Seattle By Foot Coffee Crawl.
We genuinely had the best couple of hours. The tour started at Pike's Place, then continued through the city, stopping at five coffee shops along the way. We learned about some of Seattle's (coffee and non-coffee) history, and even got familiar with the city's public transportation system as we made our way to the other side of town.
Our Monday morning tour group, led by the amazing Terrilyn, was only 5 people large, which made for good conversation while we strolled the streets. And the whole group was so patient with our extreme photo taking -- thank you, guys!
I only have one tip: don't dare ask for decaf. :)
-Amanda
Here is the breakdown of our caffeine-fueled tour...
A refreshing iced coffee at Seattle's Best to start the day:
We walked by THE Starbucks, and were surprised to find out that this #1 store is technically not the original. The first Starbucks burned down some time ago and the current store does not stand in the original location. Starbucks is not part of the tour - which is great because you can get their coffee anywhere - but they do include some history and information on the company, since it's such a popular part of the city's coffee history:
We stopped in at Caffe D'arte for a latte and they showed us how they make latte art:
We stopped at Dilettante Mocha Cafe and enjoyed an indulgent mocha (and drooled over the dessert case):
We made our way over to Trabant to experience coffee from one of the very few Clover machines that exists outside of Starbucks ownership (they got their hands on it before Starbucks bought the company). The Clover brew tasted very earthy, and maybe the whole appeal was lost a little bit on us (maybe our coffee palates aren't quite advanced enough...). The decor and vibe of the shop was awesome, and so were the sandwiches:
We finished up at Caffe Umbria, with macchiatos (if memory serves us correctly):
At the last stop we all chatted a bit longer and Terrilyn gave us some great food suggestions, and then we were off to explore more of Seattle.
See more Seattle here and more Washington here.
Interesting, I didn't know the original Starbucks burned down!
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