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A Coffee Education in Columbus Ohioby Ryan Jacobs Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 Sweet Maria's Sweet Maria's opened in Columbus in 1997, right around the time I moved for a brief stint in Indiana. The irony is that I might never have discovered Sweet Maria's if I hadn't left Columbus. Sweet Maria's caters to the home coffee roaster, and since since Columbus was full of places that served good coffee, I had no reason to home roast. Living in Kokomo, Indiana with horrible coffee, however, put me in a tough spot. I was faced with several choices:
Fortunately for me, I chose the third option. After discovering how to do it, I needed to find a supply of green beans. My research told me time and again that the best place was a shop called Sweet Maria's in Columbus, Ohio. Note: since the writing of this article, SweetMarias has relocated to Emeryville, CA.
As I mentioned earlier, Sweet Maria's caters to the homeroaster. If I had thought that Stauf's had a wide variety of coffees, Sweet Maria's had more still. Tom, the owner, continually gets new beans in and even lists roast profiles of each bean on their website. Catering to the homeroaster allows such luxuries as not carrying a Kenyan coffee if the particular crop is low grade. It is much more difficult to do this in a cafe where customers always expect Kenyan to be available. Home coffee roasters tend to understand the crop quality variations much more. Summary Over the years, many stores have opened and many have closed. However, the good ones seem to have survived -- even flourished. If you are ever in Columbus, check out some of these places if you get a chance. They have given me a well rounded education, and I plan on being a perpetual student. |
