Top Ten Tuesday ~ Caffeine Crawl OKC Highlight Reel

~ Michael and Jason spent the weekend in Oklahoma for their 3rd annual Caffeine Crawl & it was enough to own all of our Top 10 for the week. ~

If you thought coffee parties could not be fun, then you are wrong. Instead of standing around watching baristas pour latte art, baristas teamed up with non-baristas to make 16 teams in the After Crawl Throwdown at Coffee Slingers. Baristas helped coach their teammate and took turns pouring round-by-round. Slingers had music going, huge prizes for the winners, coffee cocktails in a back bar along with Black Mesa Brewing Co. pouring their Ardi Stout.

Speaking of coffee cocktails, Mariposa Coffee Roastery created a drink using cold brew, Champagne, jalapeno and celery. Michael became an instant fan! Props to them for juggling the Crawl with their team's help while Daniel and Amyie could have their baby any second.

Gray Owl in Norman was an early kickoff spot for 2 routes on the Crawl. The recap from Jenny on her trip to El Salvador and a cup of cold brew was a good start for our groups. 40 minutes to the north in Edmond, Compass Coffeehouse also hosted a route's kickoff. Ally of Compass paired 3 diffferent El Salvador coffees with a different pastry so we could select our favorite pairing. Both shops used Topeca Coffee. 

Probably the best cocktails I've had in the state was Saturday night in OKC. Michael and I went to The R&J Lounge and Supper Club for a few rounds of classic cocktails - mint julep, side car, negoni, gibson and a Cuba libre. Don't worry, we sampled and chowed down too. 

We held our team meeting with our OKC helpers, Stephen and Michelle (who has worked with us on a few projects), at Oak & Ore over many local beers from Anthem, Black Mesa, and Marshall. 

Cafe Evoke has not been able to participate except as an After Crawl host due to being the solo shop in Edmond, but we were able to get them in the lineup this time and so glad we did. The drink they created consisted of Ritual espresso, Ritual dark chocolate (not the same company), a housemade vanilla syrup, Q Tonic Kola and maraschino cherries. 

Elemental Coffee Roasters has been very active in the OKC Crawls since the very beginning, and we really appreciate it. They took on the task of the kickoff site for 3 different routes plus another 2 stops on other routes. Rachel was a workforce handling everyone and making close to 150 sparkling cold brews. We also got coffees with breakfast burritos (dynamite!) as our last stop before heading back to KC on Sunday. 

Michael and Jason can be a little sweet tooth obsessed. Kitchen 324 and syrup hit the spot for them. 324 with their own Joe-nuts served as minis on the Crawl with side-by-side Madcap Coffee brews for comparison, and syrup with mini cinnamon pancakes along with coffee from Stumptown and Hugo Tea.

Two stops that were new on this year's lineup, Junction Coffee and Second Wind Coffeehouse, both showcasing Mariposa Coffee, and both with incredible stories of coffee passion. Junction is a double decker bus in the works, but open to us for Saturday's event. We enjoyed an espresso blend as a brew sample alongside artisan toast with cream cheese and a cucumber. Second Wind had a cold brew + a chai and told us their inspiring story about how all the baristas are volunteer and the community involvement. Both of these places are special and we're rooting for both of them.

Our whole team always looks forward to our Cuppies and Joe and t, an urban teahouse visits. Elizabeth and her crew at Cuppies tortured us with goodness with these perfectly gooey chocolate chip cookies and a Topeca Coffee brewed as a horchata. Kristy had us dive into loose leaf tea nose and hands first. We loved the energy and aroma. Jason went home with a nice batch of Silver Needle.  

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