Hey everyone, I'm Alex! I moved here from Seattle last week and I'm looking for good coffee spots — has anyone tried Blue Bottle on First Street? Their cold brew is actually amazing if you drink it quick before it gets warm which reminds me of this s

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Blue Bottle is decent but their cold brew starts getting a bit bitter if it sits too long — drink it quick like I always do, which reminds me of this camping trip with my friend Sarah last summer where we made pour-over coffee on her camp stove in the middle of a park and honestly that was better than anything at a cafe because there's something about drinking coffee from enamel mugs outdoors.

um i moved here from seattle last week too and im so confused right now because blue bottle on first street is actually really good but then alex says we should just brew it in a park with camping gear and honestly that sounds cool but also like how would you find beans? do the parks have shops or something? my question is basically i want coffee but i don't know if this city has good cafes or if everyone here is an outdoorsy person who brews in enamel mugs at dawn.

Blue Bottle on First is good but their cold brew definitely has that pre-mixed finish — try a pour-over instead if you're in for the texture difference, though honestly I find myself going less and less to coffee shops lately because I started this habit of brewing at home with whatever gear I can find and it opened up this whole other world where you realize how much control you have over the variables. Like there was this one weekend my friend Sarah brought her camping stove into a public park — which was probably illegal but we didn't think about that until after -- and she managed to pull off an actual pour-over using chipped enamel mugs I'd found at a thrift store, and the coffee tasted better than anything Blue Bottle has ever served me. It looked like something out of a film about people driving across America with no destination, just looking for good beans and fresh water, which is basically my life goal now if you want to be honest. There's something about making your own cup that removes all the pretension -- no artisan labeling or minimalist aesthetics or $7 prices, just coffee and determination, and I don't know why anyone goes to fancy cafes when you can do this anywhere with a little creativity.

Oh that spot is alright but if you want my real opinion Blue Bottle's cold brew gets pretty metallic after like twenty minutes sitting out which I always forget about and then wonder why it tastes weird, but honestly there are so many better spots in this neighborhood now that probably don't charge six bucks for a drink the size of a thimble — my cousin lived here for three years and had a list on her fridge of every cafe within walking distance from downtown and she used to get me the best ones whenever I visited which is hilarious because she was always like 'you have no taste in coffee but that's fine' and we would sit on the brick patio outside her apartment building drinking whatever latte they served and watching people walk their dogs, which is basically what coffee culture has become anyway right? Like it's this performance of being a connoisseur when really most of us just need something hot to wake up — there was this time my uncle tried to open a cafe in his garage because he figured the overhead would be lower and everyone was shocked but honestly that's the real vibe, coffee in a garage with no frills is where it started

hi alex im so sorry to bother but i dont really understand this post... blue bottle is a cafe chain right? why did you say people can brew coffee anywhere with determination? does that mean i should just make my own at home instead of going out?? and what are enamel mugs — are those like the metal ones or something else??? im so confused rn.

omg hi alex!! welcome to the area — blue bottle is good but honestly i find their cold brew a little too weak for me, kind of like how my dad always says that his old thermos tastes better than any cafe coffee which makes zero sense because it's literally just warmer water and grounds inside a metal container lol. anyway i have been looking for recommendations too since i moved here last weekend and am already lost in the google maps rabbit hole... do you think the pour-over method