Caffeine Crawl Kansas City Fall 2016

An amazing weekend exploring the KC beverage scene kicked off Kansas City Coffee & Tea Week 2016! 

Photo courtesy of Kate Blackman

Parisi Artisan Coffee set the bar high as always with fall flavors and a great experience all around - coffee infused butternut squash tarts paired spectacularly with a single origin Rwanda brew. 
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We got the inside scoop on coffee anatomy at ​Brew Gallery with Midwest Coffee Trading's Ben Helt, and tasty offerings from ​Meta Coffee Roasting Co. on the brew bar to sip while we learned. 

A full fledged flavor exploration took place at Kaldi's Coffee - a Black Honey Process Costa Rican Chemex brew explored through bakers chocolate, cantaloupe, dried cherries and mum blossoms to denote floral aromas. A rare darjeeling tea was highlighted with himalayan pink sea salt and a white wine featuring the grape varietal in the tea's tasting notes. 
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Uppers and downers spanned the beverage gamut at Colony Espresso & Beer - Post Coffee Co.'s Cold Brew and a coffee beer went alongside Hugo Tea's Berry Rooibos and a Crane Brewing sour beer incorporating the tea. Awesome! 

Route 1 Crawlers explored their route stops on The Barley Bus with Caffeine Crawl creator, Jason Burton. We all shouldered swag bags from Wholesome! filled with shop and sponsor take home treats - shown here at City Market Coffee Roasters, where we talked roasting styles and sipped several cold brew creations.

Kalita brews of an Ethiopia Aricha Natural prefaced a tour of the roastery at Oddly Correct, and we explored the effects of different brew methods on flavor and viscosity at About The Coffee. The new Goat Hill Coffee & Soda blew the coffee mocktail game out of the water with a fantastic, non-alcoholic coffee old fashioned.

A tasty tour of global flavors took us around the world through fresh, air roasted coffee and ceremonial matcha tea at Headrush Coffee Roasters. We savored Ethiopian coffee, macchiatos and samosas at RevoCup, and Foo's Fabulous Frozen Custard served up signature affogatos with creamy housemade custard and local espresso. Live music accompanied a variety of great beverages at Homer's Coffee House.

Macchiatos and cortados accompanied a Panama Geisha at PT's Coffee Roasting Co., and Crawlers created their own craft coffee cold brew mocktail with a variety of ingredients including citrus, berries and ginger beer at Quay Coffee. Maps Coffee served up freshly roasted coffee AND chocolate from cacao beans roasted in house while we watched a roasting cycle - an awesome visual experience! 
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Broadway Cafe & Roasting Company took us a through a full roasters cupping, and we savored roasted hazelnut macchiatos with house made marshmallows at Heirloom Bakery & Hearth. ​Dutchman Coffee Roasters served up citrus infused cold brew at their roasting location inside Cinder Block Brewery, and we wound down with a beer after their great presentation. Great drinks and Q & A at Eleos Coffee and Parkville Coffee and a healthy kick from two house made juices at Ruby Jean’s Juicery wrapped up several fantastic routes. 

Caffeine Crawl KC Fall 2016 kicked off Kansas City Coffee and Tea Week, with specials at cafes around the city encouraging Crawlers to continue supporting local and exploring KC's beverage scene! Partnership with The Passport Program! meant free Winter Warmer passports for Crawlers to pick up after the event, and two lucky Crawlers won a free 6 month subscription to Boxo Coffee. 

A huge thank you to Yelp KC, Print Time, Barista Magazine and all our other participating shops and sponsors! Until next spring, KC - cheers!