Hello Seattle: Coffee Culture

I spent four yeas living in Seattle for college where I met many nice people and explored variety of cultures. It’s hard to describe a city from a tourist’s perspective that you have considered as second hometown. But I’ll do my best to make you fall in love with this city.

From the first Starbucks to the quaint Pioneer Square, to iconic Space Needle, you will always find something significant at Seattle. Let’s start from the coffee culture of this city.

 

The first Starbucks. Photo (cc) @TripAdvisors, published under Creative Commons, some rights reserved.

“Seattle is a world center for coffee roasting and coffee supply chain management.” (Wikipedia: coffee in Seattle). People in Seattle consume more coffee than in any other cities in U.S. That’s true. Many people around me in college are coffee enthusiasts. Leaving the reason of staying up late for studying aside, drinking coffee on a daily base had become part of Seattle’s culture.

As most of you may know, the very first Starbucks were established in 1971 in Pike Place Market in Seattle

My coffee bottle with the original logo. Photo (cc) Yujing Zhao, some rights reserved.

as a roaster, and later became an espresso bar. There’s no seat inside of the shop, the space is actually crowded with crazy long queue. Majority of the customers went there for the unique souvenir—coffee cups/bottles with the original Starbucks logo.

 

There is a street called the Ave situated right next to the campus way, filled with restaurants, shops and Starbucks. Yes, there are literally 3 Starbucks within a street. That means if you stroll on the Ave, you will find one Starbucks shop in every 5 minutes.

Isn’t it romantic holding a cup of cappuccino while walking in a drizzle afternoon?

Recommendation: Now the end of semester is approaching, it’s not only “cold and dark out there”, but also “busy and sleepy” in here. So my favorite drink for this “final week season” is Chestnut Praline Latte, which is the first new handcrafted beverage that Starbucks released in five years. Bring something sweet to your bitter final project.

Chestnut Praline Latte. Photo (cc) Morgan Gibson, published under Creative Commons License, some rights reserved.

Her name is Molly—Series Story (3)

The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the circumstances of your life, to be a stranger, to make a friend, to experience an exotic landscape, to risk the unknown..”

― Paul Theroux, The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road

Above is my motto for today.

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Many people quit when they are planning the trip, while Molly only needs a one-way flight ticket to start off. “There are directions to everywhere.” Molly faithfully said.

India is the place that Molly will never forget. She’s mostly impressed by how Indian people perceive the world in a primitive state such like grabbing food with hand and walking barefoot. Molly was feeling completely comfortable about that, yet feeling the food with tactual sensation; breathe each wisp of breathing sent out from the land with feet, those are something beyond expression.

 

Molly in India. Photo (cc) Molly, published on Weibo under Creative Commons License, some rights reserved.

“It’s not that hard to ‘do in Rome as Rome does’, you only need to open your heart, and stop adhering strictly to your little perspectives on world.” Molly said on her Weibo.

Molly wants everyone especially whom in China to shed his or her blinkers and start to understand India in depth. Mark Twain wrote that ‘Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together’.

 

“This is a country wrapped comfortably in history and charming culture.” Said Molly.