Owners Tom Pethtel and Heather Merrill offer 10 types of drip coffee for $2 a cup. The Coffee Garage on Hendersonville Road is a favorite with the Fletcher crowd. Black Bear has an ABC permit and they do catering. The coffee house offers indoor and outdoor seating. A small cup of joe costs $2.25 and you can order a bagel or muffin too. Her coffee bar has tables and soft chairs, tasteful art, background jazz music, treats and an assortment of magazines.īlack Bear Coffee Company, recently renovated, is under new ownership but has been a fixture on Main Street for more than 25 years. Owner and barista Sondra Smith-Vaniz says her market is an adult clientele. The Art & Coffee Bar on Fifth Ave., recently featured in the Lightning, sells coffee for $2.35 a cup. They have a large menu that includes breakfast cereal, wraps, cheese plates and even avocado toast not to mention seven beers on tap.
Appalachian gets its beans from a Michigan roaster but they have plans to roast their own.
#WHERE TO BUY A CUPPA PLUS#
They have indoor and outdoor seating, plus a meeting room in the back. Each coffee house on my list caters to the casual drinker whether it’s a meeting of friends or business associates or just a patron with a laptop.Īppalachian Coffee Company on 5th Ave East occupies a handsomely renovated building next to the proposed Ecusta rail trail. They all sell some eats of some kind, usually cakes or muffins. Each basically offers three or more types of quality coffee plus espressos, cappuccinos and lattes. You won’t find any Bohemian coffee houses where you can write poetry and plan revolutions in Henderson County but I found six that met my definition. They say coffee hates oxygen like Superman hates kryptonite. That’s a lot of coffee so if you are not a big consumer, you might want to think about freshness.
But a savvy shopper can skip out with a big red can (3lb., 3 oz.) of Folgers Classic Roast for $6.98. They have a deli counter but surprisingly they sell no coffee by the cup. Publix has a wide range of bagged coffee. Ingles sells its self-serve “Gourmet” house brand for $6.98 per bag and Harris-Teeter offers eight choices of their “H.T. cup of Starbucks dark roast costs $2.45 and a cappuccino goes for $5.25. Six of the Ingles stores in the county plus Harris-Teeter have an in-store Starbucks coffee bar. The Fresh Market has a table where you can fill a paper cup with hot coffee for just a $1.49 but you must pay at the check-out counter. Lavazza, an Italian dark roast favorite, costs $7.99 on sale. Shoppers can pick from 40 self-serve whole bean dispensers or among 20 packaged 12 oz. The Fresh Market is a coffee lovers paradise. Don’t look over your shoulder, Starbucks. A “new generation” Dunkin’ Donuts store in Charlotte is now offering espresso coffee and lattes. Sorry, but you can’t buy a bag of Krispy Kreme at their restaurant but Ingles sells it across town.
#WHERE TO BUY A CUPPA FULL#
Dunkin’ has a house brand that costs $6.67 for a full one pound bag. Krispy Kreme sells its brand for $1.79 a cup and Dunkin’ Donuts sells theirs for a dime less. The blended beans are grown in Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala and Costa Rica. They use Gaviña coffee from Arabica trees. McDonalds “McCafe” is the cheapest at $1.39 a cup and may have the best quality. All offer three sizes (12, 16, and 24 ounces) but I’m only comparing the 12 oz. I looked at three local chains that sell coffee. So to help readers navigate the coffee scene I broke it down to three areas: grab and go, coffee shops and coffee roasters. Most coffee is blended and not all coffee is brewed the same but that’s another variable. The name on a bag of coffee (Colombian, Kona, Sumatran, Costa Rican, etc.) doesn’t always mean it all comes from the same place. Discovered in Ethiopia in the 11th century, it’s now grown around the world. Many say the Arabica coffee tree has the best taste. Coffee trees that bear those beans are affected by soils, climate and the farmer’s care. On the question of taste I did some quick research and found it’s all about the beans. It’s a good question but I think good coffee is much like good pizza – follow the crowds.