Friday, August 5, 2011

But I Can't Fly Without Caffeine, Road Trip Part 6

Now that I've come down from that angel dust high of the South Texas beach, whose mad bright sexy come-on line made me think I might just launch myself airborne...well, sobered up, I can bitch about the other side of a road trip: the devastating lack of decent coffee. It is a sad state of affairs indeed when the Starbucks logo appears to me as a luminous emerald herald of all that is Good and Right...


Oh South, what is it with you and your weak-ass coffee? Why are you playing me like this? Even Cafe Du Monde--shame on you, former chicory haven--presented me with a pale drink as milky as an opal. Hot shops, truck stops, cafes, homes, hotels, motels, dives and fancy restaurants: uniformly pallid brew.

One lone beacon of hope was Tootie's, where finally I procured a deep dark cold murk of delight...as well as coconut custard pie...but we weren't speaking of pie, so I won't elegize, or rather fetishize, the smooth pale yellow creamy spoonsful, the toasty tender flakes, the thick crumbling crust...for while the South can't make a cup of coffee to save its Confederate life, it can certainly win the war with its pie!...

Anyway, bless you bitter expensive Starbucks, because three espresso shots and a few headlines later, I am for the nonce as right as rain.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

15 comments:

savannah said...

say it isn't so, sugar!!! cafe du monde disappointed? i am CRUSHED! by the by, i learned a LONG time ago, carry a single serving french press and my own coffee! xoxoxoxoxo

Karen ^..^ said...

I love french pressed coffee!!! So sorry to hear of your coffee woes. Florida has better shops, but then again, it's mostly northerners here.

Anonymous said...

As Savannah says, a French Press and a sack of favorite brew, all necessary outside Italy, parts of France and my kitchen.

nick said...

You can get decent coffee in Northern Ireland. We need a good slug of double espresso before we start on the next bomb, ha ha. We still have our complement of crappy Starbucks though.

Brian Miller said...

i am enjoying a bux as i read....mmm hmm...

Leah said...

Sav, while the beignets were, of course, sublime, the coffee was beastly weak! Sarge liked it though, as he is a coffee ingenue.

Yarny Days said...

Haha! Weak-ass coffee. You made me laugh.

Jimmy said...

Coffee is best consumed in the company of those with good conversation or at the very least a thick slice of carrot cake.

I like my coffee as black as my own heart, served piping hot and without sugar to taint its taste.

Megan said...

Oh, how I love your writing. Let me count the ways...

Pat said...

I'm comforted to know that I am just a 'coffee ingenue.' There aren't many of us left.

The Mistress said...

Disappointed to hear about Cafe Du Monde. Maybe they're under new management? They were a MUST stop for me in New Orleans.

Now I want a Tootie's pie.

Leah said...

MJ, it's still wonderful there, save the weak coffee. But their brand of chicory coffee is great--they just didn't brew it strong enough for my taste, so I took home a can of it to make up myself! Never fear, it is still a beloved must-stop!

The Mistress said...

Thanks for clarifying!

Phew!

Tracey said...

Oh, that's my Leah. I bet those women in Huntington Beach put down their knitting needles and go back to tanning and botox in a few days too. (If this does not make sense, read my comment on your previous post.)

Alec said...

As someone who moved way back when from Brooklyn to Tennessee and then Georgia, I agree that pie is something the South does right. Pecan in particular.

Yet another advantage of moving from there to Hawaii: The selection of local coffee. I've actually eaten at restaurants where the menu has a full page of tasting notes on the different farms whose beans they stock.