The summer of 2022 brought guests from all over to stay at our cozy ranch home. We finally got the guest bed set up and our tiling finished on the first floor. Our first guest came in June – the first of many.
My friend Victoria and her husband came to visit first, kicking off the summer of family, friends, and fun. Victoria and her husband were very into coffee.
If you know me at all, I can count the number of times I’ve had coffee in my life. While it is delicious, caffeine affects me a lot. I will have bad sleep for at least two nights after a single cup of coffee. So when they visited, I had to get my act together and do research on where the best cups of coffee in Burlington were.
Burlington’s coffee scene did not disappoint. My favorite coffee shop was one attached to a seltzer place (more up my alley), Brio. Their location is great since it’s attached to art galleries, local gift shops, a pickle shop, and more. I especially love the artwork at Brio.
I also loved the one in Essex, called Uncommon Coffee. It’s a roaster, in a nice large shopping plaza so you can park in front (I am an Arizonian and Texan at heart – I need to be able to drive up to my destinations). Since then, I’ve been back a lot with my laptop to schmooze their wifi. On the day Victoria, her husband, and I went to Uncommon, we got to catch a weekend arts and crafts market! It doesn’t get more quintessentially summer in Vermont than that.
Kestrel was very eh to me, but my friend’s husband loved it so much, we went around the whole town looking for fresh beans from Kestrel to buy!
I think the most unique drinks were from Onyx Tonics. They had interesting mixes like maple lattes and more.
In the same day, we also visited Vivid Coffee and Kru. Kru was the only coffee shop I had ever visited in Vermont, prior to their arrival since it’s on the heavily trafficked Church Street and I had visited with my coffee-loving sisters the summer prior.
I had mostly scones and small snacks at each place, and saved my single coffee of the day for the place I felt most worthy. I think I made a great choice because I loved Uncommon Coffee and Onyx Tonics the most. They had things on their menu that jumped out at me. It’s hard to market coffee at me, since I don’t like cold brew, or espresso, and I don’t drink milk products, which only leaves almond and oat milk lattes. I also don’t care for syrups or flavors since sugar affects many people in my family poorly.
Uncommon Coffee had a ube latte and hocjicha latter, which I still think are some of the most unique drinks around.