Wawa Coffee

Slate recently did an unscientific review of the mass-market cups of coffee and missed the mark by crowning Dunkin' Donuts their champion. I realize they were going for a broad, nationally appealing contest, but Dunkin's kind of a regional player compared to McDonalds and Starbucks, so why not consider Wawa too? They're not so small-time, selling 195 million cups of coffee each year. Perhaps Slate is too highbrow for gas station coffee?

Which is sad, because Wawa is doing something so right with gas station coffe at the in-store coffee hot-pot kiosk they refer to as Coffeetopia. Coming from the West Coast I had little previous experience with Wawa, but was first drawn in by the no-fee ATMs they sport, which are also really awesome considering my bank's ATMs don't line the freeways of the Mid-Atlantic region.

Like any naive, recent arrival on the East Coast, I was on a dangerous Dunkin' Donuts bender which bore the mark of nacent, longterm addiction as the daily injection of blistering-hot, coffee-scented syrup yielded quickly diminishing returns. A little used to do it, as they say, plus there was the growing donut side-effect. I needed an intervention of variety without the expense of Starbucks.

So I gave Wawa a shot and have been pleased by this discovery of the true nexus of cost, quality and variety in coffee. Just this morning, I enjoyed a cup of 100% Colombian Supremo with a splash of Irish Cream non-dairy creamer and was instantly transported to misty, old Dublin. Who knows where this adventure will lead next?

Globalized Croissants

A while ago I made the conscious decision to embrace my adopted NorCalishness and trained myself to like Peet's coffe. I've come around on the coffee and while I still insist that it's more of an acquired taste than other coffees, I am appreciative of the strength of their straight up brew. But it seems like their pastries are not even a push with Starbucks' and that's saying something bad.

Take this croissant I tried on Saturday morning. It's clearly been using Head and Shoulders, because there's not a flake in sight. And that may be good for hipsters in black t-shirts, but flakiness is the essence of croissant-ness just like moisture is the essence of wetness.

When I bit into this thing, it responded way more like a dry sponge than I wanted it to and I ended up throwing it out after a few bites. Which, I mean, how bad can a croissant be? I used to lump croissants in there with pizza and sex, even when it's bad it's good. Not this time.

Sad that this detracts from Peet's plucky status as the anti-Starbucks. But at the end of the day they're both making the regrettably globalized decision to outsource their pastry production to 3M and it seems such an avoidable tragedy that you can't get a good cup of coffee and a good croissant at the same place.