Trip Number: 3
Where: The Holy Donut, Portland, ME
Date: Sunday, October 23, 2016
Katie: Regular Coffee
Addie: Hot Chocolate
Mileage: 3.33 miles
Bike Friendliness:  Great.  There is one bike “post” right out front and several street signs you can lock up to.  They also advertise this program where you can pay $5 for a sticker and get discounts at hundreds of businesses if you bike there.  Addie and I haven’t joined yet, but we would have gotten a free donut if we had.

This place is quite famous.  Maybe you’ve heard of it?  It shows up on my Facebook feed quite frequently among the top 10 or 24 donuts in the country and has made the news in Bon Appetit, New York Times, Boston Globe, etc., so we had to include it in our Coffeeneuring escapades.

Check out the drool-worthy display.  I’m lucky enough that my place of work brings in Holy Donuts every Wednesday.  I’m really quite spoiled.  Addie and I visited the Park Avenue location because it’s closest to our house and not to mention the original location.  If you’re not already aware, Scarborough residents are about to get their own.

The line was pretty long, but it moved fast, and I’ve seen it way worse.  I run by the Exchange Street location quite frequently, and even in early hours (in the summer), the line is out the door and up the street.  My coffee was fine – nothing to write home about – but they’re really more about the donuts than the coffee.  So am I for that matter.  Addie thought her hot chocolate had a distinct coffee flavor.  I tasted it and thought it just might have been made with a less sweet chocolate.

Far be it from me to say anything against a Portland institution, but the texture of the vanilla-based donuts is just a bit too – rubbery is a bit too strong of a word – chewy maybe? for me, but the chocolate sea salt are perfect. We went with three of a sure thing and also tried the coffee cake which was really good, good old fashioned vanilla-glazed, and triple berry.

The funniest donut they have is Allen’s Coffee Brandy.  For some reason, this is the Maine state drink.  Chances are good if you’re in the supermarket on Friday after work, the person in line in front of you will be buying Allen’s Coffee Brandy and milk.  It’s kind of the poor man’s Sombrero or Black Russian.

We decided to try for a less hilly ride home and continued down Park Street past the Expo and Sea Dogs stadium.  That did turn out to be a better route, but the wind was blowing like crazy from our left to right and almost pushed us into each other.  Once we turned onto a not-so-scenic St. John St., the wind was at our backs, and the rest of the ride was quite pleasant.  Addie was having trouble changing her gears on our last big hill, so she held my bike while I pedaled her tiny bike and put it in her easiest gear.  After that, she just crushed the hill.  I think I will try to buy her a nicer bike in the spring.  Any recommendations?

I love putting cool things in my bike basket.  I’m sure many people who passed us on the way home were quite jealous of my cargo.  The donuts are so rich that Addie and I hardly made a dent in them which the rest of the kids appreciated when we got home.

This was the first time I used my bike basket.  We were on a cauliflower roasting kick, and it was my work from home day, so I grabbed a sandwich from Rosemont.  I have this basket which is great now, but all the reviews are right that the hardware that comes with it is absolute crap.  Almost all the screws fell out on mine after just a few rides.  My friendly local Aubuchon store helped me replace them, and it’s been great ever since.

This was the coolest cargo my basket has carried.  We were doing a beer tasting party at my house of local Pale Ales.  We threw a Miller Lite in there to throw people off, but no one was fooled.

Anyway, we are loving our Coffeeneuring experience.  Thanks to Chasing Mailboxes for linking to us.  Hope you’re all enjoying yourselves as well!

Trip Number: 2
Where: Tiqa Cafe & Bakery, Portland, ME
Date: Saturday, October 15, 2016
Katie: Latte
Addie: Hot Chocolate
Mileage: 3.74 miles
Bike Friendliness:  Good.  There is one bike “post” right out front.  You can also keep an eye on your bike from the outdoor patio.  One guy we saw while we were eating didn’t seem to feel the need to lock his bike at all – guess it doesn’t get much bike friendlier than that.  There’s also a larger bike rack on the other side of the park.

This was our best Coffeeneuring experience so far.  It was hard to get going because the temperature was in the 30’s, but we bundled up in all of our wool base layers, down jackets, hats, and mittens.  It didn’t end up being too bad cold-wise, but I knew Tiqa didn’t have much indoor seating, so I wasn’t quite sure how it would work out to actually consume our coffee.

Addie did great on the bigger downhills than what we’ve done so far in our neighborhood, and we both appreciated the bike lane along Deering Ave.  We enjoyed our ride through Deering Oaks park, but because it was also Farmer’s Market Saturday, we had to keep a close eye on cars pulling in and out of parking spaces.

I was surprised to see that Tiqa had moved much of their operation outside, possibly in anticipation of the Farmer’s Market crowd.  I was a little confused about whether to order outside or in, but I think it would have worked out either way.  I decided to try to use my Coffeeneuring experience to try something other than plain old coffee, so I went inside.

My plan B for if it was too cold to drink our coffee on the patio was to walk around the farmer’s market while we drank it, but we were excited to see space heaters and a roaring fire on the patio.  
It was so comfortable!  We’ve been freezing in our house the last few days or so since the weather’s turned cold, so we parked ourselves as close to the big fire pit as possible.  It was glorious.  The first time I’ve felt my body fully relax in days.

After a few minutes we actually had to move to a table farther away because we were too hot! I will definitely go back on a cold day with Mike for lunch and a glass of wine or two.  You almost feel like you could be in Europe when you’re there.

I ended up getting a Latte, and it was delicious!  Addie cannot be convinced to try anything other than hot chocolate, so she went with that.  Neither one of us could pass up the beautiful and sinful looking Cinnamon Babka, so Addie had that, and I had a Za’tar bagel with cream cheese which I had had before and enjoyed.

Their breakfast sandwiches are also delicious, but I skipped that for today.  I loved my bagel and latte, but Addie kind of struck out.  The frosting on the babka was great, reminded Addie of the base for a Gelato Fiasco gelato, but the rest of the babka was a bit dry.  Her hot chocolate was also a little watery, but I’m not sure that hot chocolate is a specialty at very many places.

Honestly, the atmosphere was so great, that nothing else really mattered.  I was tempted to take a baguette home but opted for some veggies at the Farmer’s Market instead.

We were late for the mandatory family apple picking that I had instigated, but we were enjoying ourselves so much, we decided to wander through the farmer’s market.

Such a great vibe there.  I really love the drummer that often plays there.  Addie dropped some money in his basket.

We bought some fun stuff, some Portsfield Dry Cider for Mike – such gorgeous packaging, some husk cherries which we’d never tried before (delicious but weirdly taste like Captain Crunch Crunchberries), some beautiful little tomatoes, and some funky decorative something-or-others.

We powered up all the hills that we’d ridden down on they way there and still managed to go apple picking.  What a perfect fall day!

Trip Number: 1
Where: Black Cat Coffee, Portland, ME
Date: Monday, October 10, 2016
Katie: Decaf with Cream and Sugar
Addie: Hot Chocolate
Mileage: 3.35 miles
Bike Friendliness:  Decent.  There are a couple of street signs out front you can lock to, but there’s almost always another bike there.  A very short distance down the street are a couple of actual bike racks.

So I got a new bike back in June and quickly became obsessed with biking.  Not racing, just riding my bike places.  But give it time.

Usually when I get obsessed about a new thing, I try to find as much to read about it as possible – not so much technical reading as reading about other’s experiences with my new obsession.  I love reading blogs for that reason.  One blog that I stumbled across, Chasing Mailboxes, has this great idea of going Coffeeneuring.  You’ll have to check out the blog post yourself.  I’ve tried to explain it to my entire family, and no one gets it.  I guess they get it, they just don’t understand why it has “neuring” at the end.  The gist of it is that you bike to a different coffee shop 7 times in a period of 7 weeks.

I’m hoping to actually get close to 14 visits; one set of 7 with my 9-year old daughter, Addie and another set a bit farther afield with my husband.  Addie is my constant companion and not as busy as Mike, so I’m a little more confident in accomplishing the first set.

Even though we had a four day weekend this weekend (3 for me), we struggled to fit it in.  We had a big party on Saturday, so we were getting ready for that then it rained ALL day on Sunday, and we’re just not that hard core (yet).  I decided to work from home on Monday, so that we could squeeze it in on a work break.

We decided on Black Cat Coffee since it’s the closest to us in The Deering Neighborhood’s cute little “downtown”.  The Coffeeneuring rules call for a minimum of a two mile bike ride, so we took a “longcut” through Evergreen Cemetery.  The cemetery is one of my favorite places in town.  It’s where I run all winter when the roads are too messy everywhere else.  It’s where Addie learned how to ride her bike.  And it’s beautiful this time of year.

There’s a little loop that goes from one of the entrances to the chapel and back.

Addie and I often race that loop together.  Her rules – I have to do 5 loops to her 4 AND count 5-Mississippi’s before I start.  I haven’t beaten her yet.  Yesterday we did four loops and just chatted it was nice.  She talks to me non-stop when we’re biking, and I can hardly ever hear her.  It’s frustrating.  In the cemetery, it’s great though because there are no cars and we can ride side-by-side, so I actually can hear her.

We ventured down to the duck ponds, so she could practice going down some bigger hills before we expand our biking into downtown Portland.  She did great.

We finally made our way to Black Cat and were pretty hungry by then.

We each ordered bagels.  One of my favorite things about Black Cat is that they bring in bagels from Union Bagel and toast and butter them perfectly.  My favorite is the sesame.  Addie went for a plain with cream cheese and a hot chocolate.  In spite of being very excited about Coffeeneuring, I’m really not much of a coffee connoisseur, so I just got a plain old coffee.

Black Cat has a lot of interesting looking options though.
I’ve also been excited about trying their homemade ice cream sweetened with honey, but coffee time never seems to be the right time for ice cream – for me anyway.  One of these days I’ll try it. Because I was working from home, I brought my laptop to do some work, and Addie brought her tablet.  We felt very hip working from the coffee shop.

Looking forward to our next adventure!  Thanks for reading!