Seattle is where Starbucks coffee got it’s start, and it hardly seemed right to visit here without having a cup from the wellspring.  Although it’s not actually the original building where it all began, the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room is only a few blocks away, and it’s where all the reserve roasting takes place.  (No, I have no idea what the guy in the picture is doing, and didn’t see him when I took it!)

As soon as I entered, I was greeted by a lovely man who, when he heard about my trip to see the sights of America, actually apologized for not having the expected rain in Seattle!  I assured him that it was only a slight disappointment, but I thought that I could cope with the sunshine!  There are big copper roasters taking up half the floor space, and they make a wonderful backdrop to the café there.  There’s something like a stock market ticker on the wall letting you know what’s currently being roasted.

The café itself seems to have a lot more options than your standard Starbucks, including syphon coffees and other coffee gadgets that I didn’t recognize, being rather a coffee heathen.  Again, all the copper and wood made the place really interesting to look at — a sort of modern industrial.

I opted for the Smoked Butterscotch Latte, mainly because I had never heard of it before and it said that there was black pepper involved in some way that wasn’t entirely clear to me.  In any case, it was really quite surprisingly nice, and thankfully not sweet, and left me wondering about some of the other concoctions that I had never heard of.  They also had flights of coffee for sampling, but since it was getting later in the day I thought I’d better stick to the one cup or I’d never sleep that night.  But I could definitely see myself spending some time here if I lived in the area.

Strangely, downtown Seattle really reminded me of Melbourne in a lot of ways, with funky alleyways, and trams running down the main streets.  I couldn’t help thinking that anyone who liked one city would like the other — in the summer anyway!  I considered visiting the Space Needle, but at $30 just to go to the top for the view, I though I could do without.  But when I tried to get back to where I was staying, I hit the main reason why I’ll never be a city dweller myself — the traffic.  It did creep along slowly, but honestly, I could not do this every day!

Still, overall Seattle seems like a lovely city, with lots more to explore.  It would be worth putting on my ‘revisit’ list I think, and I’d especially like to explore the islands off the coast a bit.  Or course, it may be as miserable as they say on rainy days, but who could help feeling positive on a day like this?