Colorado Coffee Merchants

Today I headed north. I was continuing my adventure to the various coffee houses around town. I settled on Colorado Coffee Merchants. Again I was surrounded by sweet aromas of coffee and interesting conversations. When I walked in I was greeted by the barista and a man doing demonstrations. He was demonstrating how to use a Hario. I had never heard of a Hario until today! The Hario that was being demonstrated was the Hario Dripper. Which is an alternative drip system for brewing coffee. The coffee was ground a little finer than it would be ground for an espresso. After he ground the coffee he poured boiling water into the filter. He had one Hario dripper set up with a one time use filter and one was set up with a reusable metal filter. He said he has been working with a local metal smith that was fabricating a special filter for the dripper. After the boiling water ran through the dripper to rinse the filter he added the ground coffee then he proceeded to pour a small amount of boiling water over the coffee until it was absorbed. The coffee continued to steep as he added more water and it was filtered into the cup he had below the dripper. This coffee shop also offers tours 11am-1pm during the week which after seeing the dripper demo I am extremely interested in attending.

After having my two dripper samples I ordered a chai latte. It was delicious! Just as good as the one from Agia Sophia. After I had my drink I went to find a table to sit with my latte and book. All the tables were filled except one. One 6 person table. About 5 minutes after sitting down a young man came up and asked if he could take a few chairs to go sit in the corner with. I told him he should join me because I had a whole 6 person table to myself. Then his friend came along and they chatted about family and religion for hours. 5 minutes after that an older gentleman was also looking for a place to sit. I got his attention and asked if he wanted to join us. So here we were, myself and three gentlemen. And we sat there peacefully in the full cafe enjoying our drinks.