Seattle Mag

Seattle Coffee Guide: The Personalities
The people behind Seattle's coffee culture
The game changerHoward Schultz, CEO, Starbucks After he fell in love with the café culture in Italy in the early ’80s, Schultz introduced Seattle (and the U.S.) to lattes and popularized the concept of the “third place”—a caffeine-centered community gathering spot. With shops seemingly in every mall, on every airport concourse and at every urban…
Seattle Coffee Guide: Coffee Carts
What began nearly 30 years ago as a coffee cart gracing various city sidewalks (at one point it was
Monorail Espresso What began nearly 30 years ago as a coffee cart gracing various city sidewalks (at one point it was situated beneath the monorail) now operates as a walk-up counter near the Banana Republic store on Pike Street. Friendly baristas suggest offerings made from Mukilteo Coffee Co. beans and take orders at a window…
Seattle Coffee Guide: Starbucks and Tully’s
The Changing Face of Starbucks After being shunned by the cool kids for seeming too corporate, Starbucks wants to be popular again. Over the past year, the chain has been trying on new outfits faster than a teenage girl getting ready for the prom, especially in the coffee epicenter of Capitol Hill. Kambiz Hemati, Starbucks’…
Seattle Coffee Guide: The Independent Shops
Caffè Umbria Pioneer Square SHOP founded in 2005 (Company founded in 2002)Beans: Caffè UmbriaMost popular drink: AmericanoWi-Fi: None (gasp!)Caffè Umbria is a split shot: one part Pioneer Square (exposed brick) and one part Perugia (Italian tile and ceramic). OK, make that two parts Perugia: Not only is the espresso machine imported from Italy, so is…
Seattle Coffee Guide: The Iconic Shops
From Bauhaus to Zeitgeist, our picks for Seattle's iconic shops
Bauhaus Books & Coffee Capitol Hill, founded in 1993Beans: Lighthouse (exclusive house blend)Most popular drink: Americano Wi-Fi: FreeUsing the name Bauhaus demonstrates, to use a German term, cojones. Are you comparing yourself to history’s most famous design school, history’s most famous Goth band, or both? Bauhaus, the coffeehouse, is flirting with legendary status itself: As…
Seattle Coffee Guide: Locally Roasted Beans
The bean has arrived. Once a mere commodity, coffee beans in the past decade or so have been treated
The bean has arrived. Once a mere commodity, coffee beans in the past decade or so have been treated like wine grapes—coddled, encouraged and coaxed into their full potential. Now, more than ever, the coffee bean’s pedigree is everything. As with many culinary offshoots, the coffee world has adopted the term “terroir”—the special characteristics of…
Seattle Coffee Guide: Seattle Coffee Shops
Given the throngs of people filling Seattle’s countless coffee shops morning, noon and night, it’s a
Given the throngs of people filling Seattle’s countless coffee shops morning, noon and night, it’s a wonder any of the city’s office buildings are occupied at all. The phenomenon speaks to our sincere love of java, but also our fervent belief in the essential “third place” between work and home. The Independents Shops: Given the…
Seattle Coffee Guide: What the Locals Order
We asked some of our city's celebs to reveal their morning-coffee rituals. Here's what they told us.
P Smoov, Hip hop artist with Mad Rad and Fresh Espresso Quad shot Americano with soy milk, preferably at Caffé Vita, but he’ll go anywhere that has cute, flirtatious baristas. Linda Derschang, Queen of clubsCappuccino, straight up Jesse Jones, KING 5 News consumer reporterHomemade (by his wife) double-shot caramel latte using Fidalgo Bay coffee Rick…
Seattle Coffee Guide: The Evolution of Coffee
As coffee roasters and drinkers ride a new wave of obsession with single-origin beans, small-farm so
One of the unequivocal pleasures of living in Seattle for most of the past 17 years has been my coffee drinking. I am jingoistic about Seattle coffee, and push it mercilessly on visiting friends and family. I’m sure I’m not alone in this regard; we are obviously hooked, as a city—the coffee-drinkingest town in all…
Seattle Magazine’s Ultimate Coffee Guide
A celebration of Seattle's caffeinated culture
For many of us, it’s the first word we croak in the morning: Coffee. Not a question, nor a command (though sometimes a plea), but most often a statement—a fact of daily life, especially in Seattle, where, as you may have heard, we drink a lot of coffee. Lately, our beloved local ritual of going…
Health: An Expert’s Advice on Mammograms
A year after a federal task force issued a controversial advisory on mammographies for women in thei
Dr. David C. Grossman, senior investigator at Seattle’s Group Health Research Institute, has served nearly three years of a four-year term as one of 16 members on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which last year was at the center of a controversy arising from its new recommendations on mammography screenings. News reports have indicated…
Tasting Notes: Seattle’s New Pour Houses
An urban influx gives wine lovers a city rich in pour houses
The wine buzz around the Puget Sound area has been all about the explosive growth of wineries and tasting rooms in eastern Washington and Woodinville. But urban wineries are blossoming, too, bringing closer to home the opportunity to taste—and buy—an impressive array of Washington wines. “We thought about looking in Woodinville, but it’s pretty saturated,”…
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