For those that don’t know me, I fell in love with coffee during the pandemic. It became one of my passions as I spent hours learning all I could about how to produce the best cup I can. Understanding how to brew a delicious cup and actually brewing it are two different challenges. I am still refining my skills, but all my friends and my wife say I make some of the best coffee in town.
My setup is limited and I do not have the equipment to make proper espresso. Since my wife enjoys iced vanilla lattes and often has a craving for them, we decided to try and visit all the coffee shops in Nashville to find who makes the best coffee. I wanted to expand it a little further, so we also evaluate their food and “vibe” while we are there. Below is are current evaluations and explanations of the different categories. Scores are on the scale of 1-10 and are determined by both my wife and I. If we disagree on the values, we debate until we come to an agreement, but that rarely happens.
| Location | Coffee Roaster | Coffee | Food | Vibe | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sump Coffee | Sump Coffee | 9 | N/A | 7 | Industrial interior with lots of outdoor seating. Highly recommend getting a pourover, but the espresso drinks are also fantastic. |
| Hearts | No Idea | 6 | 10 | 7 | Notes |
| Humphrey’s Street | Humphrey’s Street | 7 | N/A | 8 | Notes |
| Slow Hand | Counter Culture | 6 | 5 | 3 | Notes |
| Elegy Coffee | Anchorhead Coffee | 8 | 9 | 5 | Notes |
| Steadfast | Steadfast | 6 | 5 | 8 | Notes |
| Honest Coffee | Honest Coffee | 5 | 3 | 3 | Notes |
| Moonshot Coffee | Moonshot Coffee | 3 | 5 | 7 | Notes |
| Stay Golden | Good Citizen | 6 | 7 | 6 | Notes |
| 8th & Roast | 8th & Roast | 7 | 5 | 7 | Notes |
Coffee
This value is a rating of the coffees we order. My wife usually gets and iced vanilla latte and I’ll get a seasonal latte, standard drip coffee, or a pour over depending on what piques my interest in the store. We both try each coffee we order so we are not solely reliant on the other for determining the quality of any single cup.
Full disclosure: my evaluations may be slightly biased towards my favorite flavor notes in coffee which are: honeydew, white peach, and cherry. I also tend to prefer Central American coffees over African coffees. I will try to note the coffee regions when I can.
Food
For this category we rate the available food. Pastries do not count in this category. Instead we are focused on things like breakfast sandwiches (my personal favorite) and anything else that might be offered. If the cafe does not offer food, we do not fault the location for this.
Vibe
The last, and probably most controversial category, is the vibe. Vibe can mean many things to many people. This is extremely subjective and are based solely on our opinion of a good vibe. Our focus here is the question: “How much would I enjoy spending a few hours here to write, work on homework, or meet up with a friend?” I hope to capture why we give the vibe ratings we do in the corresponding blog posts.