Eight of us were tasked with scouting the city to retrieve croissants for our taste-off this morning.  We paired up, fanned out around Seattle, and came together at Kye and Eric’s house with croissants, jam, and coffee beans (for our separate coffee taste-off) in hand.

Kye secretly labeled each of the croissants with letters so we only had appearance and taste to go off.  Each couple split one croissant from each of seven different bakeries, and we had to stack-rank the following bakeries:

• Bakery Nouveau
• Cafe Besalu
• Columbia City Bakery
• Costco Bakery
• Honoré Artisan Bakery
• Le Fournil
• Sweet & Savory

We summed the rankings to arrive at an overall ranking across our group of eight people (e.g. the best possible score for a croissant was 8, if everyone ranked it first on their list, and the worst possible score was 56 if everyone ranked the croissant seventh on their list).  Note, although I’ve mentioned prices in the results, prices were not known until the rankings were revealed at the end, so did not influence the results.

	7th place: Although there were some interesting surprises in the results, no one was surprised that the grocery store croissant from Costco ranked lowest, with a score of 56 (meaning we universally considered it the worst).  It was an unappetizing pale color, and larger than the others, with absolutely no crunch to the soft exterior. Not even worth the $0.35 price tag.
	6th place: Many were surprised that Le Fournil, generally regarded as a good bakery, ranked so low (although the competition here was admittedly fierce).  With a score of 40, it garnered comments that it had a slightly sour taste, was fairly flat in flavor, and didn’t even look like a traditional croissant since it was so big.  It was inexpensive vs. the higher-ranked croissants, at only $1.45.
	5th place: It was a bad day for Honoré Bakery.  Their very-dark croissants were clearly overbaked today, with many saying that it had a slightly burnt flavor.  Although it garnered one ranking as high as second, its overall score was 33.  The price was right in line with the going rate for good croissants in Seattle: $2.25.
	4th place: The appearance of the croissant from Sweet & Savory seemed to rank it lower than some of the others, with a score of 31.  While the flavor was quite good and buttery, the exterior didn’t have the nice crunch some were looking for, and it had a flat tan color instead of the golden color of the best croissants on our list.  Some commented that it didn’t quite look like a croissant.  And with a price tag of $3 it was definitely not a bargain.
	3rd place:  Columbia City Bakery had a decent croissant for $2.25, with a toasty buttery flavor, not as sweet as some.  It was the most symmetrical, evenly colored croissant of the bunch, although apparently that bakery had heard that their croissants would be part of a taste test, so that may have biased the appearance.  The exterior was nice and crunchy, but there were fewer layers inside than others.  Overall, it received a score of 30.
	2nd place: First and second place were very close.  The results were interesting because our second place croissant from Cafe Besalu garnered the most (five) first place votes, but since it was almost too buttery for some, with a lot of air inside, a few lower rankings pulled it down to a total score of 19.  Those who liked it commented that they absolutely loved the butter flavor.  This, too, had a price of $2.25.
	And our winner… Bakery Nouveau!  With a score of 15, it was the most universally liked.  Seven out of eight of us had it in our top two.  This croissant ranked with many as the best looking, with more layers than any other croissant, and a nice buttery, slightly sweet flavor that no one felt swayed too far in any direction.  And with a price of $2.25, it was right in line with the other well-liked croissants in town.

The tasty conclusion

Stumptown, based out of Portland, is the current darling of the coffee roasting world.  In addition to five coffee shops scattered around Portland, they opened up two coffee bars in Seattle in the past year-and-a-half, and now have their sights on the NYC market.  The New York Post even gave their beans (served at Momofuku Milk Bar) a “Post pick” earlier this month over several serious contenders.

Zoka is a much smaller roasting operation based in Seattle, with two popular coffeehouse hangouts in the city and a third in Kirkland.  In addition to their wide range of coffee beans, Zoka has a nice selection of high-quality teas and decent baked goods in their cafés.

We compared three freshly-roasted beans from each roaster:

Sumatra: Stumptown’s Blue Batak vs. Zoka’s Lake Tawar
Ethiopia: Stumptown’s Wondo vs. Zoka’s Sidamo
Costa Rica: Stumptown’s Don Mayo vs. Zoka’s Helsar de Zarcero

This was a single blind tasting – our non-coffee-drinking administrator assigned a letter to each region and a number 1 or 2 to the roaster, which was randomly chosen for each region (that is, “roaster 1” in the first round did not necessarily match “roaster 1” in the second round).  The participants sampled five-minute French press brews, one region at a time.

The result was surprising to all of us: Zoka crushed Stumptown across the board, with zero votes for Stumptown!  Zoka’s Sumatra was nutty and its aroma immediately reminded me of a favorite coffee I’ve had in Europe, whereas the Stumptown Sumatra was too acidic with little aroma.  The Ethiopia brews were distinctly different, with the classic blueberry flavors coming through clearly in Zoka’s roast, while Stumptown’s offering seemed muted and again too acidic.  The Costa Rica beans were the only ones where everyone agreed the difference was subtle, and yet all votes swayed toward Zoka.

Finally, we ranked our favorites across the regions:

3. Costa Rica Helsar de Zarcero
2. Sumatra Lake Tawar
1. Ethiopia Sidamo

I think this warrants several follow-up competitions.  Victrola vs. Caffe Vita?  Zeitgeist vs. Lighthouse?  Zoka vs. Blue Bottle?  The possibilities are tantalizing.  Post your favorite roasters, and we’ll see about organizing more face-offs.

University Zoka
2901 NE Blakeley St, Seattle
(206) 527-0990

Stumptown Coffee
1115 12th Ave, Seattle
(206) 323-1544

They offer three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and a flavor of the day – today’s was cookies ‘n cream, and Sunday’s was egg nog.  The vanilla is pure vanilla goodness, and their proprietary chocolate custard is rich and perfectly chocolaty.  Served up in a waffle cone, waffle dish, or compostable dish with compostable spoon, you can eat it plain or with any of their long list of toppings (that’s marshmallow on chocolate above).  Um-yum.

If that’s not enough to convince you to eat frozen custard on a cold winter day, I don’t know what is.  Well, I was actually wondering, how is a new custard place going to hold their own in a floundering economy in the middle of winter in gray Seattle?  They’ve got this figured out, too.  They’re really a coffee house in disguise, using coffee to lure you in to the custard temptations.  This neighborhood has a dearth of good independent coffee places.  There’s Bus Stop, which is well, meh, the usually burnt coffee at Whole Foods across the street, or the Starbucks above that.  Starbucks is about the only place with comfy chairs where you can kick back, though, so that leaves no options for independent coffee.  Peaks is kicking up the competition, with Lighthouse coffee, a roaster out of Fremont that we love.  Not only that, but they’ve got comfy chairs and a fireplace to boot.  I expected a sterile fluorescent place, probably because it’s in a new condo building, and was pleasantly surprised when I walked in.  They’ve even got a kids nook, complete with wooden rocking horse and storybooks.

To top it all off, Theresa bakes an assortment of pastries daily.  She gets in at 5am to make cupcakes, quiche, cookies, bundt cake, brownies, and more.  We detoured past there this morning on our walk to the park and ride, and were impressed with her sherry nutmeg bundt cake which was served right out of the oven.  Above, that’s our fellow vanpooler, Ben, who we ran into inside, enjoying his own slice before we all headed off to work.

Peaks Frozen Custard
1026 NE 65th Street, Seattle
(206) 854-2351

Our impression of Vios in Capitol Hill has been that they have great food, but it’s pricey.  Either they’ve adjusted things with the new economy, or updated the prices for the new location, but everything seemed quite reasonably priced to us tonight: sandwiches for about $7, flat bread pizza for $9, salads for $5, and dinner specials for $10-14.  It was especially a good deal given how tasty the food was.

My favorite tonight was the warm pita with Kopanisti spread, which is a sheep’s milk feta with roasted red pepper and a kick.  I sopped up the extra spread with the crust of my flat bread pizza.  The flat bread came out piping hot with salty pancetta, roasted fennel, and mushrooms.  Eric enjoyed his lamb Giouvetsi with orzo pasta, and we both split a Brussels sprouts salad with walnuts.  We saved some for lunch leftovers tomorrow so that we could try the desserts.  During the entire meal, Eric was eyeing the carrot cake sitting on the counter, and the waitress told him he was the first to order it.  Not surprising, since it wasn’t listed on the menu, but people are missing out!  It was moist, not too sweet, and yuummmmy.  I stole bites of that while eating my cinnamon gelato.  That was my only (slight) disappointment of the meal: the cinnamon seemed grainy and chalky, although the gelato was intense and cinnamony.

The Pub at Third Place downstairs is serving a special Vios pub menu that’s different from upstairs, plus you can get the full restaurant menu, too.  That seems like a good option for getting together with friends over a beer, or the place to head when the restaurant is full.

Open daily, Vios Ravenna starts serving breakfast at 8am.  They have a small morning menu with baked goods, frittata, an egg sandwich, french toast, and oatmeal, along with the Illy espresso that they serve all day long.  I can visualize a weekend morning there in my future.

Vios Café at Third Place
6504 20th Ave NE, Seattle

Her interest in coffee was piqued when she discovered office coffee clubs popping up in companies around the country.  After writing about the trend for the Washington Post, she was inspired to dive deeper to learn more about the young guys driving this coffee culture, and write about it in her book.  She followed coffee-obsessed buyers around the world, to coffee farms in Nicaragua, Ethiopia, and Panama, and along the way, she became coffee-obsessed herself.

In our conversation, she talked about the strange disconnect between foodies and coffee.  She herself was one of those foodies who didn’t understand coffee, until her epiphany one day with a perfect cup of cappuccino.  She finds it fascinating that high end restaurants everywhere focus on sourcing the highest quality food yet neglect that cup of coffee that ends the meal.  She recounted stories that Eric and I could easily relate to, where the coffee can be downright awful at some restaurants.  Why is that, when there are so many great roasters out there?  It seems like the shift toward better restaurant coffee is coming, particularly here on the West Coast where more and more restaurants are pairing up with their local roasters.

Joining us was Brent Martin, owner of Muse, who had insights on our local coffee community.  When Michaele pointed out that every coffee house owes their livelihood to Starbucks, since they carved out the market, Brent nodded.  He said he’d actually be happy if Starbucks moved in across the street, because it drives business to places like his, where people seek out quality.  This was our first time visiting Muse Coffee Company, and it won’t be our last.  Brent opened the shop in December after 11 years in the coffee business, and this place holds its own with the serious cafés in town.

Michaele is pondering her next book idea.  She wants to know, what’s the next thing that people would find to be an interesting book topic?  Drop her a line to let her know your thoughts.

And if you’re interested in meeting her yourself, she will be at Caffé Vita for a One Pot / Kim Rickett’s dinner this Tuesday.  Email hebbory@gmail.com to reserve your seat.

Muse Coffee Company
1907 10th Ave W, Seattle
(206) 282-2711

Some locations on 65th have been regular revolving doors with restaurants coming and going year after year.  There’s the place at 65th and Ravenna Avenue which had Shamiana (which we still miss), then Shamiana reborn as World Beat Cafe, then the short-lived Bistro Magnolia, and finally Hot Dish before sitting empty for a while.  That place has a bad luck omen, so we hope that The Himalayan Kitchen, which opened there two weeks ago, fares better.

We went last night to THK, and it was decent, although we were really hoping for better.  They serve Indian, Nepali, Bhutan, Tibetan, and Indo Chinese food.  We tried one Bhutan dish, aima datchi, and another more familiar Indian dish, alu matar paneer.  We both preferred the alu matar paneer.  Although we ordered the mid-range spicy level, the food was quite mild, so we’ll order the hottest level next time.  The naan was tasty, although it was a bit thinner and somewhat crisper than I like.

Just across the street, the windows are papered over but the sign is ready for Da Pino’s to open later this month.  Currently located on Rainier Avenue, Pino Rogano is moving into our neighborhood and bringing what looks like a great menu of sandwiches, pastas, artisan cured meats, gelato, and espresso.  It will be nice to welcome a little neighborhood place like that.

Two blocks up from there is Third Place Books, where we hear that the Honey Bear Bakery will be replaced by a second Vios later this year.  We’ve enjoyed Vios Cafe & Marketplace in Capitol Hill, a family-friendly Greek restaurant with great food.  It’s interesting that the Honey Bear Bakery, which is synonymous to us with Third Place Books, is moving out.  Personally, I never found the Ravenna bakery to be as great as the old Tangletown location from years back, though, so this sounds like a good change to me.

Finally, it looks like Felix and Sarah Penn’s second place, which we mentioned a few months back, is getting close to opening on 55th.  It should be good, if it’s anything like their first place, Pair.

The Himalayan Kitchen
2255 65th Street NE, Seattle
(206) 588-0651

If you’ve ever wondered what all these coffee roasters are doing when they “go to origin,” please come to the cafe and roastery on Pike and let us demystify! We’ll have our photo show up (well, it’s up now, but it’ll still be up on May 15th), some snacks and coffee from Guatemala, a slideshow presentation of our travels, and maybe a few other tricks up our sleeves.

We’ve attended a number of their coffee seminars in the past and found them to be interesting (and highly caffeinated!).

And so began my interest in learning all about coffee – trying new coffee shops every week, discovering what kinds of beans, roasts, and blends I liked, and watching amazingly skilled baristi pour rosetta patterns.  That first fateful espresso was made with beans from a small roaster in Seattle called True North, and we were lucky to find Cloud City Coffee just up the street using their beans.  We hung out at Lighthouse Roasters in Fremont, I dragged Dawn to four months of coffee cupping classes at Victrola, we sipped nutty cappuccini at Top Pot (made with Zeitgeist-roasted beans), and so on.  However, it didn’t take long for Espresso Vivace in Capitol Hill to become my favorite place for all things espresso.  While I like the atmosphere more in their Capitol Hill roasteria, we’re nearly regulars at their new-ish Yale Ave N location, which is a little more conveniently located for us.  I usually get a cappuccino or macchiato on the weekend, while Dawn is a fan of the caffe caramel.

Two years ago, I started making espresso drinks at home, and I like how the northern Italian-style Vita and Dolce blends from Espresso Vivace produce excellent crema with every shot.  I got so much into learning about making the perfect cup of coffee that I even bought David Schomer’s book and video (Schomer founded Vivace), and they’ve been excellent resources.  And we made a new discovery recently: raw skim milk.  We typically use skim milk at home, which definitely tastes different than the fattier drinks we get when we go out.  So when I tried using raw skim milk from Sea Breeze Farm for some drinks, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had a consistency much like whole milk.  Dawn says she’s hooked on this new combination, and I like how it’s made latte hearts even easier to pour!

Espresso Vivace
901 East Denny Way and other locations, Seattle
(206) 860-5869