While en route to Asbury Park* for our second beach excursion this summer*, Hubby decided he wanted to search for a comic book. Comic book stores tend to be few and far between, so our first detour led us to Red Bank and Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash***.
*Note to self, Asbury Park on a Sunday afternoon is not a good idea.
**Ridiculous, I know.
**Yes, like the Jay and Silent Bob you grew up with.
Though we were already in a beach town, we had reasons for wanting to go to Asbury Park* and our minds couldn’t be changed.
*Yes, our reasons were food. Our reasons are always food.
I use all detours to my advantage, and this day was no different.
While Hubby looked through comic books, I quickly searched the area for local coffeehouses. We’d been to Coffee Corral once in the spring*, and decided to give them another try.
*Because, as we learned during this trip, we apparently spend more time in beach towns outside of summer.
There is something about their building which intrigues me. Is it the brick? The stand alone majesty of it? Or maybe it’s that burning ‘Open’ sign, guiding me towards a cup filled with the promise of flavor, energy, and life.*
*Perhaps you think I exaggerate, but coffee is all those things to me.
In the above picture is one thing I love and one I hate.
I love coffeehouses with a map* noting where their coffee is sourced from. It helps give a little clarity to what would otherwise be just a blackboard of hard to pronounce names**.
*Regardless of whether or not it is to scale.
**Because, let’s be real, while most coffee places sell coffee from places we all know such as Colombia and Guatemala, many offer coffee from more unheard of places such as Burundi.
The hate, well, let’s not really call it a hate, let’s call it a hesitator. And yes, I just made up that word and had to ignore spell check on it. It is something which gives me a bit of pause upon trying a new coffee place.
Torini syrups. I’m not sure what my prejudice is to Torini, I can only reason it is due to the fact that I can easily get Torini syrups for my own in home coffee bar, so when I see them I get the same feels I have for meatballs in a restaurant.* Can my real, serious coffee lover friends get back to me on this one? Do you love, hate, or not care about Torini syrup?
*Um…I can make these myself.
Our first time at the Corral, I went for the lesser known Burundi roast and was pleased. Unlike most coffeehouses, you give your order to the barista and then get rung up. Only a few minutes in Coffee Corral and I understood why.
It’s clearly a local favorite as seen by their constantly swinging door and offering of pre-paid loyalty accounts*.
*Basically the coffee world version of “put it on my tab”, but where the tab has already been paid.
My coffee was made with handcrafted perfection, which included the coffee beans being ground fresh and a pour over brew process.
On our recent visit, I decided to see what their New Orleans Style Cold Brew was all about.
And as soon as the barista told me, I facepalmed, because I should have known.
Just in case you aren’t familiar with New Orleans Style coffee, it is coffee and chicory, and it’s glorious. The chicory gives another layer of flavor to coffee. I find I need to add a good amount of cream in order to cut its boldness.
Hubby tried their Cold Brew Lemonade* out of sheer intrigue.
*Are you ready? It’s cold brew + lemonade. Genius.
He wasn’t a big fan, but I loved it. I find lemonade by itself to be far too sweet for me, which is why I often gravitate towards Arnold Palmers. This was like the coffee world’s Arnold Palmer.
Coffee Corral works to provide the freshest, perfectly roasted cup of coffee to its customer. With a philosophy like that, they fit the bill for a coffeehouse I’d return to any day.
The Coffee Corral
177 Dr. James Parker Blvd.
Red Bank, NJ 07701
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