Wake Up and Smell the Cawfee

As we coffee lovers know, a good cup (or more) of coffee is essential for starting off every day. Although my future posts will focus on my adventures to various coffee shops around Rhode Island, a February blizzard altered my plans for today. The heavy snow and gusty winds did not, however, prevent my roommates and me from trekking to Dunkin' Donuts.

The intention of this blog is to promote several local coffee places aside from the ubiquitous Dunkin' Donuts, but what better way to initiate this than by sharing my Dunkin' experience?

That being said, my outing in the blizzard today highlights some fundamental characteristics of many Rhode Islanders' attitudes towards coffee:

First, today's adventure exemplifies the fact that Rhode Islanders, like myself, will travel great lengths to satisfy their coffee needs. And by "great lengths," I am not referring to distance (in fact, there are 125+ Dunkin' Donuts shops in Rhode Island's mere 1,214 square miles). I mean that a vast majority of Rhode Islanders will risk health, safety, and overall well-being in order to get that cup of coffee. School cancellations and treacherous conditions were not enough to deter us from getting our coffee fix. Three of my roommates and I dusted off the car and made fresh tire tracks up the un-plowed road to the nearest Dunkin'.

Secondly, I learned today that Rhode Islanders (most I've encountered, anyway) will go out of their way to get coffee from their preferred shop. Case in point? Our adventure in the snow today was not limited to one, but two coffee shops. On our way to Dunkin', we stopped at Coffee Connection (a local café I'll discuss in a later post) so that my roommate could get a flavor unavailable at Dunkin' Donuts. Apparently, beggars can be choosers.

Finally, today's outing demonstrates the quirky Rhode Island preference for iced rather than hot coffee, despite unfavorable weather conditions. After rolling up at our second coffee destination, my other roommate rolled down the half-frozen car window only to order an iced (!) coffee. Of course, I am guilty of ordering a mid-February iced coffee, but something about the snow usually gets me in the mood for a piping hot cup of coffee.

Although today's adventure was not the coffee excursion I had had in mind, it proved to be informative. Not only did I learn that Dunkin' Donuts is not closed during snow storms, but I have discovered some Rhode Island coffee tendencies to keep in mind for future java-adventures.