Who Brews Westchester's Best Coffee?
- The Black Cow Coffee Co., Croton, Pleasantville
- Coffee Lab Roasters, Tarrytown
- First Village Coffee, Ossining
- The Kitchen Table, Pound Ridge
- The Peekskill Coffee House, Peekskill
The aroma alone can send you into a caffeine jolt. We asked for your favorites; five are now in the running in our DVlicious contest for Westchester's best. Each is being profiled this week. Let your fingers do the clicking while you sip, savor – and vote.
Voting ends at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27. You are allowed to vote multiple times, albeit once per day.
Coffee Lab Roasters, Tarrytown
What Makes It "Strong": Just in case its logo – a panting dog – isn’t enough of a hint, here’s the deal: Coffee Lab is named for owners Mike and Alicia Love’s pet chocolate Labradors and not the Hario V60 pour-over device and other high-tech gear it uses to roast, grind and brew up beans directly sourced from faraway places such as Burundi and Honduras.
The Loves don’t just talk the talk about giving back to the planet. Mike, a retired chef, is in charge of the roastery and judges international tasting competitions. He is, his wife says, an 18-time winner of barista competitions. Alicia, a counselor by trade, has worked for such organizations as Global Volunteers and once helped build a community center in Costa Rica. Together, they founded Westchester Taste of Relief, a nonprofit that raised thousands for 9/11 victims.
In the bean biz for more than 13 years, the Loves are not ones to let things get old, but cold? -- that’s another story. According to a profile in The New York Times, they have been working with other small Hudson Valley craftsmen, such as The Peekskill Brewery, to create coffee-based beers, of all things. One of the frosty brews birthed by this union is Wake Up Call, a pale ale made with beans from Villa Gladys, a farm in Colombia.
Get A Cuppa: 7 Main St., (914) 332-1479, www.coffeelabs.com.
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