Thursday, December 07, 2006

Coffee Shops in San Diego County: Escondido

A friend from church recently told me she worked at a coffee shop called, “The Blue Mug” up in Escondido. I had heard of it once before but did not think much of it. The Blue Mug is just north of Downtown San Diego (about 30 minutes). I was in the general area today and decided to stop by and check it out. I was impressed! The colors and the overall design of the coffee shop was perfect. They really did a nice job of accenting most of the store with blue...but not too much blue!

One of the coolest features I saw was how they make their coffee. They are not like most coffee shops that have coffee sitting in a pot and getting colder by the minute. They brew ever cup of coffee with the old drip system. The drip system isn’t my favor, but you can control how strong you want it this way. I will have to dig up a photo of how they do it. It is fun to watch. They have BrewBar that can hold around 5-7 separate coffee filters at a time with the coffee mugs/cups underneath the filters. You first pick the whole bean coffee of your choice. Second, the staff grinds your beans and produces your drip coffee. You control the overall strength of the coffee (more or less water) by pulling the coffee mug out when it looks good enough. It was totally unique, and I enjoyed the experience.

The Blue Mug coffee shop has a great location in the downtown area of old Escondido. The downside is that it is not the busiest part of town. I went there around 1pm, and there was not a lot of action. I am sure their busiest time of day is first thing in the morning. It still amazes me how busy Starbucks can be ALL day long. I wish these smaller shops (like the Blue Mug) could really market their company better, because they are awesome! They have such good coffee ideas, but the general public just does not know about them.

The Blue Mug does not have a website that I could find, but here is the address:
122 S Kalmia St
Escondido, CA 92025
(760) 796-7540