Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Coffee Break USA

The other day I was driving towards Caribou to get a morning coffee when I noticed a small place called Coffee Break USA. They advertised morning coffee and about ten million flavors of ice cream. The coffee is what caught my eye.

Coming from a small town I have a special place in my heart for small businesses. Coffee Break USA is the type of place where the drive up signs are made from colored paper. The kind your mom used to buy you in preparation for the first day of school. I couldn't resist stopping.

Both Starbucks and Caribou price their drinks about the same. A medium vanilla skim latte will cost you about $3.75 or so. Coffee Break USA charges $2.90 which feels like such a good deal, I've found myself buying a morning latte instead of my usual half-cafe light roast.

Coffee Break USA also makes their lattes by hand (similar to Dunn Bros) instead of pushing three buttons on a machine and stuffing a cup underneath a moldy spout. I respect a place that treats latte making as an art form instead of a production line.

Lastly, Coffee Break USA gives you a morning quote. It's on a piece of paper similar to the type you'd find in a fortune cookie. This morning's was on taking risk from someone who sounded important.

If you find yourself driving in West St. Paul in search for a Caribou or Starbucks, give Coffee Break USA a try. I did and have enjoyed the marathon morning daycare drop-off a bit more because of it.

2 comments:

Scooter said...

I always go out of my way for small, local businesses. Coffee shops, breakfast joints, etc. I'm very picky about what I decide to do through big corporations, and generally I make the decision based on whether they're really offering to change the way something is done (i.e. Netflix as opposed to the local video store).

Mac Noland said...

Glad to hear you're also a small business backer!