Mattie's Mountain Mud at East County Cafe

View from East County Cafe in Vinton Library

      Before I get into the caffeine, I want to tell everyone that I had an excellent weekend at the Roanoke Regional Writer's Conference. The conference opened on Friday night with the energetic speaker, John Koehler, who is also a boomerang world champion. After his speech, we participated in a forum about blogging. In other words...

I'm Back!

   Thanks for hanging in there! Anyways, I have a new coffee roaster to talk about, Mattie's Mountain Mud. They are available at East County Cafe in the Vinton Library and Our Daily Bread at both locations. 

       The flavor I am drinking is called Appalachian Smoke. It is a dark roast and I am not normally found of dark roast. However, this blend is what I call bitter-smooth. It's not so harsh that I can't wait to chuck it out the window. I think I have had it at Our Daily Bread before and the variation between trials is not significant. 

      The reason why I mention this is that I have had the same brew at two different locations, same company, have completely different results. The baristas matter! The barista at East County Cafe allowed me to try the different blends. To me, this act signifies the care and enjoyment of the coffee they serve comes first. CUPS does this too but they use different roasters.

       Roanoke is a coffee mecca. If you don't believe me, hop on down here and I'll take you on my own coffee tour!