On Friday mornings in a ground-level space at the edge of SOHO, the coffee is free – but some of it must be slurped.
From 10 to 11 a.m., Counter Culture Coffee, a North-Carolina-based roastery, holds complimentary coffee tastings, where you’ll have a lesson on the origins of selected coffee beans and their flavor profiles. Not to mention, five cups of coffee before noon.
Guests arrive and choose seats on the wooden bleachers that face a minimalist coffee kitchen, and the morning session begins with a standard cup of black, drip coffee. As the hour passes, baristas prepare pitchers of iced coffee to be served at the end.
The tasting is in the middle when, with the guidance of Counter Culture employees, you learn the correct form of sampling a coffee – slurping it from a metal spoon to spray the liquid evenly in your mouth. Yes, I know, this is altogether strange.
Once you’ve slurped, they’ll ask the group to describe the coffee taste, and if you’re a coffee novice like me, you’ll stay quiet and let the coffee connoisseurs (snobs) describe the brew with words such as “silky” or “floral.”
The session ends at 11, but there is no rush to leave. You can linger over your iced coffee and mingle with the other coffee lovers. The environment is relaxed, there’s no sales pitch at the end and the coffee is superb.
No need to RSVP, just show up any Friday for complimentary caffination.
By Joseph Held, Blog + Content Curator