Chuck Cook Photography

​As a coffee snob myself, I am here to advocate for my people. Please, don't break our hearts. You know how much we love coffee, but since you're not a coffee snob yourself, you might think we'd appreciate one of those machines that make coffee by squirting hot water into little plastic cups. We won't.

After mumbling out a bewildered "Um, thank you?" and seeing you out as graciously as we can, we will reenact that scene from Office Space where they beat a perpetually malfunctioning printer/fax machine to death... only it will be that atrocity you spent your hard-earned money on. (Warning: Music from above link NSFW.)

We don't mean to be unappreciative; it's just that once we have had truly great coffee, we can't unlearn what we know. The following five gifts are a much better use of your money and good intentions. Don't worry that we might already have one; eventually things break and we'll need a replacement...immediately.

5. A gift certificate to one of the better coffeehouses in town.

Take the pressure off yourself. You know that place where your coffee-obsessed friend hangs out all the time? Heck, they've probably dragged you in on occasion, blathering on about the blackberry and pepper notes in their pour-over. (You, in the meantime, were thinking, "It's just coffee, dude," but were way too smart to say that aloud.)

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Chuck Cook Photography

A full house of buzzing patrons celebrate Double Trouble Caffeine & Cocktails' grand opening

​I first met Robin Berwick while she was working as a bartender at Anvil Bar & Refuge. She said that she wanted to have her own place someday. Many bartenders say that, but Robin wasn't just voicing a nebulous dream. A few months later, she left Anvil to have more time to focus on building a business. On December 1st, Double Trouble Caffeine & Cocktails (3622 Main St., 713-874-0096) became a reality.

Robin is only one of the partners in Double Trouble; the other is Robin Whalan. "The Robins" worked together at Poison Girl, earning them the nickname that now graces their bar.

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Photo by Kevin O'Mara

A reminder of what our No. 3 pick used to look like.

​For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants.

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You look like...a grande mocha, no sugar, no whip, extra dry, half skim, half whole milk with caramel. Sugar-free caramel. Jerk.

​This weekend, I stopped into Inversion for a caffeine infusion in my preferred format: a cortado, which is a shot of espresso cut with an equal amount of steamed milk. No foam on top, nothing fancy, no flavorings -- just the facts, ma'am.

When it was my turn, I stepped up to the counter and placed my order. The barista behind the counter regarded me with some confusion. He, in a red hoodie with the hood raised over his head, was the proud owner of a fantastic beard, many tattoos and a prominent captive bead ring through his septum. I, in my Talbots jeans and Anthropologie necklace, likely looked hopelessly bourgeois and suburban -- always have, always will.

"I've gotta say, that's not what I expected," he finally said.

"I'm sorry?" I responded, equally confused.

"That's not at all what I expected you to order," he replied with a laugh.

I turned to the guy behind me in line, who'd chuckled along with the barista. "What kind of drink did y'all expect me to order?"

The other customer -- who, like the barista, looked every bit the "typical" Montrose resident (whatever that means anymore) -- responded with: "You look like a pumpkin pie latte kind of girl."

The barista nodded his agreement. "I honestly expected you to get a pumpkin pie latte or something like that."

I didn't know what to say. Was it my ginger-esque hair? My waistline? Did I resemble a pumpkin? Or did I just look like the kind of clueless suburbanite who stumbles into a "serious" coffee shop and orders the most dessert-like item on the menu?

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nataliedee.com

I need about a kiddie pool of coffee straight to my dome every morning.

​National Coffee Day is September 29.

Most of us can't function without our morning cup, whether it's black, loaded with sugar and cream, or one of those $10 fancy-pants 20-ouncejobs. It's part of our morning routine, it's a ritual, it warms our souls and gets us moving. It's a social custom and a hangover remedy. Not only do we love coffee, but coffee also loves us.

funwithcoffee.com

​There are health benefits associated with drinking java. A growing body of research shows that coffee drinkers, compared to nondrinkers, are less likely to have Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease and dementia, and have fewer cases of certain cancers, heart rhythm problems and strokes. But coffee isn't proven to prevent those conditions.

"There is certainly much more good news than bad news, in terms of coffee and health," says Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD, nutrition and epidemiology professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. A recent study even found that drinking coffee may lower women's risk of depression, so guys, don't complain too much when your lady skips off to Starbucks -- you know, "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

To honor our most beloved beverage on its special day, we've compiled a list of our top 5 favorite songs about coffee.

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Ben Deaton not only kept the old Royal Blue sign outside Ben's Beans, he had it fixed up and fitted with new lights.

​After years without a decent coffee shop, downtown is suddenly spoiled for options: Cafe Luz on the north end of downtown opened a few weeks ago. And now Ben's Beans, next door to Dirt Bar and House of Blues, has finally opened after more than a year of construction.

Owner Ben Deaton is originally from Louisiana, and he saw the potential for a French Quarter type of charm in the long, shotgun space that used to house the Royal Blue Printing Company. The building itself is over 100 years old, built in 1900 and housing three generations of Topeks -- the family which still owns the building and runs the law firm next door. Deaton and his wife used to drive by the space at 1302 Dallas and picture a coffee shop there one day. But Deaton had a few things to finish up first.

"My wife and I came here in 1995 to go to college," Deaton told me as we sat on soft leather couches inside Ben's Beans earlier this week, Horace Silver's "Cool Eyes" playing over the stereo in the background. "We went to undergrad at U of H and then went to school at Lubbock and did my residency at Baylor." That's right; Deaton is also a doctor. He's an anesthesiologist with a practice not far from his coffee shop, one that he was finally able to open after coming back to Houston for good.

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Cafe Luz's giant lightbulb was painted by Borrego herself.

​Downtown has a new coffee shop as of this morning at 6:30 a.m. That's when Frank Freeman opened the doors of Cafe Luz at 907 Franklin, his new venture with Lucrece Borrego and Jesus Acosta, who also own Kitchen Incubator.

Cafe Luz is located in the retail storefront area of Kitchen Incubator, a space that Borrego and Acosta had wanted to develop since opening their commercial kitchen space last year. They imagined it as a place where the chefs who work in the space -- which Borrego refers to as a "center for culinary entrepreneurship" -- could sell their prepared foods and baked goods to the general public. What they did not expect to create was a full-service coffee shop.

But when Borrego attended the Specialty Coffee Association of America conference earlier this year, she started brainstorming with David Buehrer -- who is set to open Blacksmith this fall -- and Cafe Luz was born. Buehrer introduced her to Freeman, a barista who'd worked at places like Catalina Coffee, Taft Street and Revival Market, and a partnership was quickly formed.

"Anybody would have really jumped on it," said Freeman. "It was perfect timing."

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Photo by Robb Walsh

​Coffeesmiths David Buehrer and Ecky Prabanto are moving on up -- literally and figuratively -- from their current digs at Greenway Coffee & Tea, located in the subterranean Greenway Plaza food court, into a new space in Montrose. Blacksmith, the pair's new coffee shop, is set to open this spring at 1018 Westheimer. The location once housed Montrose landmark Mary's.

Buehrer, whom Robb Walsh deemed a "rising star barista" in 2009, and Prabanto are two of the central figures shaping Houston's coffee scene right now. Along with other shops like Catalina and local roasters like Amaya, the tightly-knit coffee community has been attempting to push things forward for the last few years, supplying restaurants with their products, creating coffee cocktails at bars like Anvil, hosting coffee-pairing dinners and collaborating with chefs to teach them how to pull an espresso shot or choose beans. Buehrer and Prabanto have been involved every step of the way.

And although their coffee shop at Greenway Plaza hasn't waned in popularity, the duo have been swayed to the surface streets not only to provide more accessibility for their customers, but also to be a part of the ongoing collaborative project that's created Anvil and the upcoming Underbelly and Hay Merchant.

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They're baaaaaack.

​In 2008, Starbucks moved to close 600 stores nationwide, a decision by the coffee giant to eliminate stores that weren't contributing to the bottom line and cannibalizing the business of other, closer Starbucks locations that had long since paid for their own overhead and were being dutiful profit-generators.

In all, Houston lost 11 Starbucks locations -- not a huge loss, considering the number of excellent coffee shops that have cropped up in their wake.

Yet despite cleaning out 600 stores only three short years ago, Starbucks is back with a new strategy, according to Nation's Restaurant News: win and win big. And this means opening 200 Starbucks locations nationwide, any many more in international markets like China.

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Photo by John Suh

Lotus Blossom

​Or was I just really feeling fat(z)? For those who don't skulk around the Heights looking for new places to prowl like me, perhaps you haven't stumbled upon this little dessert/coffee/hot dog shop. When I first heard about Happy Fatz, I thought it was an interesting concept. Who would've thought to put together frankfurters, cappuccinos, and cupcakes? But, the idea just sounded so right. Now I can satisfy my craving for an unhealthy all-American meal; follow it with unhealthy sweets; and then to fight the food coma, chase it with loads of caffeine so I can stay till closing time and pretend to do work on their wifi even as my head and my stomach fight over which will explode first.

Open for less than two months, Happy Fatz is one of the many newcomers to this booming part of town. And like its many Heights counterparts, it's housed inside a bungalow, which offers its patrons that "come hither and dine in my house like we're old friends" feel that is so coveted nowadays thanks to our growing cyber-dependency. There's a the quintessential wraparound porch, the hollow sound of footsteps on floorboards and the wooden furniture set cozily close to one another to promote (heaven forbid) conversations with strangers. At first glance, Happy Fatz fulfills every notion of a charming "mom-n-pop" shop typical of the Heights, and charmed I was.

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