Coffee Stand

Frequent a coffee stand enough times and it will begin to feel like you entered the film stage for the old comedy, Cheers, where everybody knows your name.  The local coffee stand, or coffee shop, has supplanted the old general store of yesteryear as the meeting place of America, and we will talk about that phenomenon in more detail in this article.

We are Madres Espresso, serving the Greater Olympia area with our coffee stand on the West side, on Cooper Point Road, and on the East side, on Pacific Avenue.  Come visit us the next time you are looking for a great beverage to match your mood.

A coffee stand, of course, serves coffee beverages.

Get ready for this statistic: There are 35,616 coffee stands in the United States so no, it is not your imagination, there are a great many of them to be found as you travel across this country.

The top ten states in coffee consumption are:

1.      Vermont

2.      Arizona

3.      Colorado

4.      New Mexico

5.      Hawaii

6.      Idaho

7.      Rhode Island

8.      Oregon

9.      Kansas

10.  Iowa

A coffee stand, and a coffee shop, are retail establishments where coffee is the primary product sold.  It is generally assumed that a coffee stand is for drive-through while a coffee shop is for walk-in, but those are just general assumptions and nothing more when it comes to distinguishing one from another.  A coffee shop could certainly be called a coffee stand without the language police issuing a citation.

Fun facts about coffee:

1. Tips, such as are left in restaurants for good service, come from the days of the London coffeehouses where there were brass boxes monogrammed on the front with $ to ensure promptness. This encouraged customers to pay for expeditious service.

2. Brazil produced a postal stamp that smelled like coffee in December 2001. It was designed to promote their coffee and the smell is supposed to last for up to 5 years.

3. Coffee grounds sprinkled on the ground around plants and the garden will stop snails and slugs from eating the plants.

4. Oil is the most widely used commodity in the world, coffee is next in line.

5. Water is the only beverage more popular than coffee.

6. Coffee contains over 1200 chemicals and over half of those are responsible for creating its flavor.

7. The average coffee drinker consumes 3 cups of coffee per day.

8. Just three countries consume 65% of the world's coffee: USA, France, Germany.

9. The Japanese believe that bathing in coffee grounds fermented with pineapple pulp will reduce wrinkles and beautify the skin.

10. The first American to be granted a license as a coffee trader was Dorothy Jones of Boston and the year was 1670.

11. Coffee beans are not really beans at all but berries from the coffee tree bush.

But a coffee shop/stand is so much more.

As mentioned at the very beginning of this article, the coffee shop, or coffee stand, has become THE gathering place in the United States, the Cheers of comradeship minus the alcohol.  Meet a friend for coffee . . . buy an out-of-town visitor a coffee . . . grab a coffee while running errands . . . surprise co-workers with a coffee . . . conduct business over coffee . . . it is hard to imagine a U.S. neighborhood where the local coffee stand was not . . . is not . . . the central hub of business.

What to look for in a coffee stand.

It could be argued that the most important thing to look for in a coffee stand is a great cup of coffee, or a gret cup of espresso, and that certainly is an important factor.  It could be argued that the speed of service is important, and even some aficionados would argue that the quality of the coffee beans used would determine the quality of the coffee stand.  However, we firmly believe that the #1 quality people look for in a coffee stand is friendly service.  In a world which is rapidly becoming guarded and insular, the coffee stand bucks the trend and fosters togetherness.  People go to their favorite coffee stand because that is where their favorite barista works, or because the manager of that coffee stand insists upon outstanding, friendly, warm service, or because they know it is there that they will feel part of something and not so alone.

A final word about Madres Espresso.

And that right there is the reason why Madres Espresso is so popular in the Olympia Metro area . . . our friendly service is the heartbeat which fuels our business.  Our thirteen baristas, and owner, thrive on the interaction between barista and customer, and we invite you to stop by and find out for yourself just how good our customer service is.