Mission Accomplished
As you may recall, when I ended my blog post notifying folks that I was on my way to Zanzibar, I indicated what I was hoping to find there. I can say that I accomplished my mission and drank good coffee! That may not seem like such a big deal, but for some reasons Africa drinks instant coffee for the most part, and even the folks with espresso machines just don’t know how to do it right.
So after I checked into my hotel the first thing I did was wander the streets with the intention of finding a specific, highly recommended coffee house. After making only one wrong turn (which I quickly realized was a wrong turn) I found it.
The Zanzibar Coffee House is just that, a true coffee house as I’ve come to love them in Oregon. Full City, Allan Brothers, Zanzibar Coffee House - I love them all. It’s also the ground floor of a hotel . . . hmm, I wonder if they use instant coffee for their guests? But I digress.
The entrance is attractive and inviting.
And the lattes are as delicious as they look.
The mango tort wasn’t bad either. I couldn’t help myself, I had to try it even before my latte was ready.
After enjoying the environment (would one of these places work in Liberia?), I settled into reading a book and unwound from my already-long day. The streets of Zanzibar could wait while I enjoyed a real latte.
Afterwards I went shopping for a couple of hours, wandering around Stone Town and getting my bearings. After stopping back at my hotel to drop a bag off, I started wandering again in a different part of the town and seeing some of the specific sites the town has to offer. It took a while but I finally made my way back to the hotel, tired after hours of walking. After a short rest, I decided to take one more scouting/photographing trip before I was to meet a colleague at Forodhani Gardens a few hours later.
I decided that since I had a few hours of exploration ahead of me, I should start it off right, and how better to do that than with a delicious coffee not 5 minutes away by foot. So off I headed to the Zanzibar Coffee House for a second time.
And the second latte was no less beautiful or less delicious than the first. My kind of coffee house!
I decided to sit in a different location this time, which afforded me a glimpse of people passing by.
Unfortunately I left too early the next day to pay the Zanzibar Coffee House yet another visit, but after a spice tour, I had a bit of time to try coffee at a restaurant I’d eaten at on Saturday (believe me, when a restaurant has an expresso machine in it, I notice). We only had a short time before the ferry took off so I had to take what I could get. Fortunately, while it was not as superb as the Zanzibar Coffee House drinks, it was just as beautiful and up to standard!
