The Winter Fir Cappuccino

Sally Loo’s holiday special is The Winter Fir; a soy cappuccino with house made pine syrup and bourbon-infused sugar. The fir on the side of the saucer (aka a small piece of a pine tree’s branch) is the perfect holiday touch. The bourbon-infused sugar gives the capp a drinkable and enjoyable sweetness, even for someone who usually prefers bitter or savory to sweet flavors. This was the first holiday drink I’ve tried at Sally Loo’s, and it held up to the high expectations I’ve had about it ever since I saw the @sallyloos Instagram post announcing it a week ago. IMG_0445.JPG

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White Coconut

Because it was such a beautiful sunny summer day in San Luis Obispo my Mom and I decided to walk to breakfast and coffee. However, by the time we got to Scout on Garden Street we were craving something more refreshing than a latte, which is how we ventured into their amazing iced tea list. White tea is the lowest caffeine content of teas, but the amazing flavors that come along with white teas make it worth it (unless you need your caffeine fix) to order over one of the stronger alternatives. Due to my love of coconut, I ordered the iced White Coconut Tea. All of Scouts iced teas go through a 24 hour cold brew process, where they take tea leaves and put them in 64 ounce mason jars, adding in cold filtered water and letting it seep with all the water touching all the tea for 24 hours. They then strain out all the leaves, which creates the concentrate that they then dilute with more cold filtered water. Their white tea impressed me with having actual coconut pieces mixed in, rather than simply flavoring the drink with a coconut syrup. The White Coconut Creme tea by the Art of Tea is made up of tender white peony tea leaves blended with safflower, coconut bits and creamy essence of coconut. The way they lay the tea pieces out is part of what makes this blend so special: the tea was rolled with the coconut to infuse the flavor naturally. The tea leaves smell strongly of coconut, while the actual drink has just the right amount coconut flavor, perfect for slow sipping while enjoying great conversation. You put the tea with the coconut and drink it all up!

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Blackhorse Changeover

This is the perfect setting for me to start writing a blog; it has been pouring rain for days here in San Luis Obispo and the most cozy place to study and be productive seems to be at coffee shops.  I’m certainly glad it’s raining, seeing as California has been in a drought and all of the hills were looking too brown..  However, all of the rain has decided to come down at once and makes things somewhat inconvenient, especially in regards to the flooding.

Today Hugo and I wanted to study and do our work at a coffee shop, and I opted for the Blackhorse downtown at 1065 Higuera St, San Luis Obispo, CA.  I chose it because it was close to where we went to lunch (Gus’s Grocery for pastrami sandwiches) and because they have enough outlets to guarantee a charged laptop.  Additionally, it always feels to me like I’m entering the lottery as I’m driving over, always hoping to be lucky enough to win one of the two free parking spots directly outside that are reserved for Blackhorse customers.  Although they say they are limited to 30 minutes, I feel that is not strictly enforced, or at least it hasn’t been any of the times I’ve studied there.  It’s more of an honor system.  We put our bags down at the little table for two next to the fireplace and went up to order.  I ordered a soy latte and Hugo got a black coffee.  Everything was going well enough up until the point when I realized my internet refused to connect, likely because of the amount of my peers using the internet on their own MacBooks.  I went up to the barista and told her the internet wasn’t working and asked if there was a code; she said there was none.  I then proceeded to ask her if I went to the Blackhorse off Foothill, where they require you to purchase something in order to get your own unique code, if we could get a code for internet access since we just purchased something from Blackhorse.  She was very helpful and called the Foothill location right away, and so when I got to this Blackhorse at 796 Foothill Blvd, I was greeted with “Are you the Meagan that needs an internet access code?” by one of my favorite Blackhorse baristas.  I said yes, and he gave us two, and now we are here!  I input my six-digit code and my internet is working perfectly with full bars.

In case the suspense about how parking gamble went, we were able to snag free Blackhorse reserved parking at both locations.

I feel that the most appropriate topics for me to write about are derived from coffee beans and food.  I consider myself a complete foodie, as well as a true caffeine addict.  I usually average 2-6 shots of espresso daily, which is an expensive (but completely worth it) habit.  Let me make this clear up front: I have no intention of kicking my addiction, I just plan on keeping it at a level where I don’t get headaches if I only have two shots.  Caffeine keeps me going throughout the day, with the mandatory morning wake-me-up that gets me to a functioning level, and then again later on in the day to keep me going and productive.

I am not going to make this a daily diary/journal type of thing, nor will I make it into a recipe book.  This is going to be more of a random type of blog, where I post about my experiences with coffee, food, drinks, and maybe even the men that seem to come along with the three of those delicious things.  Someone may say that coffee should be in the drink category and that it’s really only two topics I’m writing about, but I chose to disagree.  Caffeine (strictly via coffee beans) is my only drug and a large part of my busy lifestyle.  For the drinks category, I am regarding wines, beers, and spirits. It should be interesting and comical at some moments, and informative at others.  That’s what I’m going for, at least.  So let’s see how it goes; ready?