Charleston, SC

Over Labor Day weekend I had a chance to travel down to Charleston, SC to see some of my good friends from Wake Forest. It was a trip I had not planned on going on until just a couple of days ago when I got a call from my buddy Charlie telling me he was going to propose to his girlfriend, Katie...yeah girl. Congrats guys! I had a lot of fun. While down there I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and be a tourist for the day before traveling back to rainy NC. I knew there were several good coffee shops down there so I was going to try and visit a few. Everyone left early but Charlie and Katie joined me for some coffee and bagels at City Lights Coffee on Market Street. I wasn't a big fan of the setup but the coffee was really good. They actually serve Counter Culture Coffee, the same roaster used for Jubala, and business was steady during the time that we were there. Kate and Charlie left so I got out my camera and backpack and just started walking around the city. It was great! I managed to find a couple of interesting coffee shops while walking around. BAKED, which is located on East Bay St. near the Battery and Waterfront Park was the first place I visited. They served Stumptown Coffee, which I was surprised about because they are a west coast roaster...but after talking to some of the employees they reminded me that Stumptown had just opened up a new place in NYC. BAKED was first opened in 2001 in New York City by a couple of guys, a few ovens, some mixers, an espresso machine, and a lot of passion. Although the coffee was good, it was definitely more of a bakery place than coffeeshop but seemed to be busy the 30 minutes that I was there.
I found another place that I had actually heard a lot of good things about from several people. The place is called KUDU coffee and it is closer to the College of Charleston campus just off King St. I walked in and ended up walking out without ordering anything. The place was packed with students, which was the main reason why I left, but it was also 100% African themed which I thought was kind of strange.
I took a lot of other fun pictures too while walking around Charleston but they have nothing to do with coffee so I will not post them here. I will update progress on Jubala soon...it is still moving along...just very very slowly!