Finding gems on the gulf coast: constant coffee + tea

I'm always hunting for good coffee spots whenever I enter a new city. My hope is always that even in a smaller city like Pensacola, FL -- there must still be a small demand for unconventional, non-machine brewed, and genuine (Okay yeah I know. Let's just get over the fact that I'm incredibly pretentious and snobby when it comes to coffee. What can I say? Life is too short for bad coffee.) fair trade coffee. It took me a bit of sniffing around the internet to finally come across Constant Coffee & Tea and a few other places in Pensacola. So right when S picked me up from the airport, I demanded that we hit up this place first so I can get my caffeine on. And we're so glad we did.

The cafe was pretty quiet when we turned up around 11AM-ish. There was one girl who seemed to be engrossed in her studies and an old couple who happened to be leaving right when we got there. The barista was welcoming and helpful -- plus I loved the abundance of natural light in the place. It felt more like walking into someone's house rather than another typical cafe.

I ordered a pourover of Counter Culture's REKO (my current fav as it is in season) beans, and while it was a leeeettle bit more saturated than I would've liked it to be, it was still really good. I need to stop chugging hot coffee like it's water. The cold brew was subtle and excellent as well - both cups strong enough to get us going for the rest of the day.

And the last photo taken with the iPhone. Also: I know. I need to redo my nails.

If you ever find yourself in Pensacola, you should definitely go check it out. It's spacious enough for even large groups, a pretty great study/work spot if you wish, and a pretty neat pit stop for travelers going through Pcola.

Peches.

Few weeks ago, a friend and I were driving around in DC listening to the radio (I don’t even know which station we were listening to) when this song came on. As first-time listeners, we went from apathetic to confused to a state of complete confusion mixed with a weird admiration as this serenade for peaches wore on. If the nation of peaches had a national anthem, this would be it. If you told me to name the best song dedicated to a food of choice since the milk and cereal song, this would definitely be it. I imagine the writer going on a summer road trip, finding a local peach stand on the side of the road, buying a few boxes of perfectly ripe peaches and spontaneously writing these thoughtful lyrics to express his undying love for the fruit. Whatever inspired whoever to write it, this song is awesome and does a perfect job expressing my personal opinion on one of the greatest fruit in the world: PECHES.

So yes. It’s my favorite summer fruit. We can argue all day about peaches vs watermelons vs cantaloupes vs black cherries vs whatever your favorite summer fruit is, but I probably will never change my mind. Anyway, I just felt like talking about that song for a post featuring peaches. Here’s a peach(+tomato) stand I had a chance to visit in Florida this past weekend.