Ten Best Coffeehouses

I am addicted to coffee. Truthfully. I get headaches if I don't have coffee before 3pm. I once quit a three-week cleanse two days into it because the cleanse didn't allow coffee and I couldn't concentrate in class. My friends will never let me forget the time that I got to the team tent at Head of the Rock before the coffee did. There may have been tears...

Some people might call this addiction a problem, but given all of the recent studies about coffee's numerous health benefits, I see no problem in feeding my coffee addiction. & as if I needed further validation of my coffee drinking habits, 7 out of the 10 best coffeehouses in the U.S. are located in cities that I had already planned on visiting this year. Clearly, the universe is trying to tell me something here!

I was able to visit two of them on my recent trip to D.C. and Virginia. Our first stop was Peregrine Espresso in D.C. Peregrine has three locations, and we checked out the one on Capitol Hill near the Eastern Market. This place is my kind of coffee place, meaning that they stick to the basics and they do the basics really well. No wasting time on mint mochas or caramel marvels and forgetting how to make a latte. 

Latte Art at Peregrine

 They had a decent amount of indoor and outdoor seating, and we didn't have trouble finding a table at all. This felt like a great place to grab coffee and catch up on the NY Times on the weekend. And the best part: a water bowl on the patio to welcome a coffee lover's best friend.

The next stop on my list was the Mudhouse in Charlottesville, Virginia. My parents and I snuck in a quick trip here between dinner on the Downtown Mall and dodging a rain storm, so unfortunately we didn't get to spend as much time here. I could picture myself spending a great deal of time with my Macbook and a massive stack of books in college, and I'm sure it's frequented by the UVA students who are willing to go a bit further for a great cup of coffee. 

Similar to Peregrine Espresso, there is ample outdoor seating at Mudhouse, and arguably better opportunities for people watching. Mudhouse is located on Charlotteville's bustling Downtown Mall, a pedestrian only section of the city lined with restaurants and boutiques. While they don't do latte art, they do roast their own beans. I'm no coffee expert, just an avid fan, but I would suspect that the quality of beans they choose and their roasting process contributes to the "richness" of the coffee.

Both places are definitely worth a trip if you're in the area!