Coffee Nut

In my travels, I love to try new coffee and tea places, (and shop grocery stores to check out their coffee, teas and spices...I can get lost for hours roaming the aisles.  I'm talking to you, Wegmans, and now Coles and Woolworths in Australia).

Woolworths is a grocery store in Australia!

Last visit to Rochester, Lori and I spent HOURS in here!
They also sell wine by the glass in their food court, FYI
; )

Let's not even get started with bookstores, Harry Hartog.  (More on that store later.  Suffice to say they had the nicest clerks who actually knew something about books and had wonderful suggestions which I accepted.  Lesson-up time, Barnes & Noble!)

A spinner, to boot!

I had to buy an extra suitcase to bring home all my tea and books.  Good thing I travel light to get to my destinations only to travel heavy on the way home.  And add to my luggage collection.  (Thank you, Travelite!  A very lightweight and purple-bonus! suitcase from Australian Luggage to hold all my finds and treats.  And an easy way to shop/bring my packages back to the hotel. )  As one friend so nicely put it, "How lovely!  A suitcase filled with tea and books!"

Anyways, I love the Yelp app and will use it to find even more coffee and tea places, even some undiscovered right here in Houston.  (Stay tuned for Tea2Go, which turned out to be less than 4 miles from one of my walking trails.  Talk about incentive!  Extra lap? Yes!  I will walk two extra laps for their Chocolate Cake tea!  Seriously good.)

While in Miami, we found Puroast, by taking a serendipitous wrong turn in the Brickell area downtown.  They had just opened less than two weeks earlier amidst all the construction in that part of the city.   Sadly we discovered it the day before our return to Houston.  What a cute little place and great coffee.  I so would have bought their little red rooster winter coffee cups had they been for sale, too.  Yes, I offered.

I could totally hang out here

After enjoying a yummy Bourbon Pecan latte, I picked up a bag to take home, along with a box of Vanilla Nut K-Cups.  Their deal is their coffees have more antioxidants and less acid than other brands.  To me, as more a tea than a coffee drinker, they tasted great.  Bonus for the other benefits.

Alas, I hadn't been able to find the Puroast Vanilla Nut locally.   I did find their dark roast K-cup at HEB, but I'm all about the odd and offbeat flavors.  And starting to panic as my Vanilla Nut supply dwindled.

Yesterday I stopped by CoffeeIcon in Katy to see if they may have it or could order it.  They didn't but would suggest it.  However in the meantime, they offered Don Francisco's Vanilla Nut as a free take-home sample.

the one to beat. . .

Local Winner!
Don Francisco's Vanilla Nut

While I was impressed with Puroast's claim to have less acid and more antioxidants, Don Francisco's Vanilla Nut punched it out and had a more vanilla flavor and a very pleasant nutty aftertaste.  Puroast seemed a little bland in comparison, but still very smooth and not bitter.  I would buy it again if I ever find it in the stores Puroast does not seem to stock this flavor on their website.  And I will be going back and grabbing some of the Don Francisco's Vanilla Nut for my refill box.