Triangle community members try unique, local beverages on Caffeine Crawl

On Saturday, community members toured various coffee shops, roasteries and bodegas in a Caffeine Crawl around Chapel-Hill, Durham and Raleigh, getting an inside look into how local beverage businesses create new and unique twists on caffeinated drinks. 

The Caffeine Crawl is a national tour event that started in 2011, dedicated to bringing community members together for their shared love of all things coffee, tea and chocolate. This is the second year a Caffeine Crawl has taken place in North Carolina. 

Jason Burton, the founder of Caffeine Crawl, created the tours to facilitate a connection between consumers and local shop owners by showcasing the care and effort done to create high-quality beverages and desserts, he said. 

The tours give community members an opportunity to ask questions, try samples of drinks or desserts they might not have tried before, and really dive in to the coffee-making process, Bailey Scribner, a crawl attendee, said. 

The tours were divided into four routes, some walkable, and others that required driving. Along one of the routes, attendees visited Carrboro Coffee Roasters, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews, Perennial cafe, Boro Beverage Co. and People’s Coffee. 

At the first stop, Carrboro Coffee’s head roaster David Perez and marketing developer Lane Mitchell explained their roasting process. They then gathered the crawlers around a table to show techniques for using a pour-over coffee maker, which included the rate and timing at which water is poured to bring out different notes in the coffee’s flavor. 

After pots were brewed, visitors were encouraged to compare coffee brewed from different beans and learned to taste for strength, sweetness, acidity and the body of the coffee — how the coffee feels in one’s mouth. 

“Even if we're carrying the same beans from the same roaster, we all have our unique way of preparing it,” Jaime Sanchez, the owner of Epilogue, said.

While both Epilogue and Perennial source their beans from Carrboro Coffee Roasters, Epilogue focuses on bringing Mexican culture into their coffee, baked goods and chocolate drinks. Perennial, on the other hand, experiments with mocktail-like beverages, including one drink, The Tyger Tyger, which includes Thai tea, coconut milk, activated charcoal and coconut basil whipped cream. 

Shops showcased other unique concoctions including frozen cocoa, churros, fermented kombucha, a vanilla affogato and smashed waffles.

Sanchez said that local shops are a place where people can and should feel as though they belong, and are also places where they can experience new cultures. 

“[Jaime Sanchez] was very intentional about bringing his culture in and wanting to represent other people,” A.M. Styles, an attendee, said. “Especially being so close to a college campus where everyone is coming from everywhere.”

Scott Conary, the president of Carrboro Coffee Roasters, said that coffee shops are a third space that allows people to socialize, unwind and get away from work or home.

“It's our own little way of helping our downtown stay vibrant and stay local,” Sanchez said.

The importance of supporting local shops is that they invest more into the quality of their products while also having more community-driven missions, Conary said. Local shops are more likely to have an ethical and more intentional sourcing process, compared to chain coffee shops, he said. 

Carly Erickson, the owner of Boro Beverages, has a background in sustainable agriculture, which has led her to create kombucha that is environmentally conscious, she said. Erickson said that she achieves this by sourcing ingredients locally, working in small batches that go through a proper fermentation process and operating with reusable bottles. 

Styles said that they noticed how much passion local shop owners have for their products, and love the collaborative feel among the shops, often selling one another's products. For instance, Gray Squirrel Coffee Co. sells Boro Beverages’ kombucha. 

“If you're just looking for places to really try to explore and learn new things, learn the area — especially if you're coming from out of state — definitely give this, things like [the Caffeine Crawl], a try,” Styles said.  

@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com