Meet Me in St. Louis
St. Louis is the gateway to the West, home to the second most successful baseball team in history, and has produced such cultural luminaries as T.S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams, and Nelly. It’s also a pretty good place to meet a friend for a cup of coffee. Comet Coffee in St. Louis, MO hasn’t even been open a year, but they’ve already set themselves apart as some serious coffee geeks. Comet offers a diverse selection of coffee from both nationally known companies such as Blue Bottle and Ritual and up-and-coming regional roasters, like Nebraska-based Beansmith and St. Louis-locals Sump. Comet co-owner Mark Attwood explained to me, “We’re a little ADD about buying coffee.”
Precision Pour-Overs
Thankfully, Comet is very focused when preparing coffee. My pour-over of Ritual’s Rafael Silva Hoff El Salvador was brewed with precision and care. The 500ml brew was a little more than I could finish, but had a wonderful stonefruit sweetness and a pleasant grape-like acidity. Mark also gave me a sample of their cold brew, Sump’s Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, brewed with a Yama Dripper. Personally, I prefer Japanese iced coffee to cold brew, but this cup was delicious: clean and sweet with a silky body. The frosted gibraltar in lieu of ice was a nice touch as well.
Award Winning Single Origin Espresso
At this point I was more than caffeinated, but I couldn’t resist trying their single origin espresso, a coffee roasted by Beansmith from Arnulfo Leguizamo’s farm, Finca La Primavera, in Huila, Colombia. The SCAA selected this coffee for their Roaster’s Choice Award Top Ten, and after taking a sip I could tell why. The shot was sweet, citrusy, and acidic: not surprising considering this is the same farm that produced Pete Licata’s World Championship winning espresso.
Comet Coffee isn’t exactly in the trendiest part of town, but here at the Compass we’ld pick quality coffee over being cool any day. On the bright side, Comet is close to the St. Louis Zoo and Art Museum; penguins and post-impressionists are both best viewed after coffee.
