Ritual Coffee Invades NYC -- Via Murray's Cheese

I'm sitting here drinking a cup of coffee made from Ritual Coffee Roasters beans. Specifically, made from Ethiopian Koke coffee plants. It really is kind of like coke: full-bodied, slightly tart, with delirious quantities of ccccafffffeinnnne.

Over the last couple of years, we've added many West Coast brands to our coffee dance card: Stumptown, Blue Bottle, and now Ritual. The last two are notorious San Francisco roasters, mounting competing coffee bars in the Mission, where getting a cup of coffee is a more solemn occasion than a sermon in church. Indeed, lines of coffee lovers line up to get the most concentrated espresso from baristas who enjoy a social status somewhere between councilman and king.

In a visit to SF earlier this year, I found the Ritual flagship on Valencia Street the most pretentious coffee bar of all -- and ended up making repeat visits. I simply loved the coffee.

Now, via bags of beans rather than a full-blown coffee bar, we can enjoy that same coffee, now available at Murray's Cheese. The date stamped on the bag is generally only a few days previous, and the types available currently include, in addition to Ethiopian Koke, Costa Rican Producer's Pride blend, and Volare house blend.

Kind of weird how every little town in the Bay Area has its own coffee roaster and even normal local coffee shops often roast their own, but here in NYC we have to import already-roasted beans from the West Coast (or from Chicago).

Murray's Cheese
254 Bleecker Street
212-243-3289

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