Coffee Lovers, Assemble!
Recently I was scrolling on Instagram (big shocker, I know) and came across an ad for a cafe passport. In the past couple years I have seen many a brewery trail, winery booklets that you get stamped at each one you visit, even donut trails! But this was the first time I’d seen a coffee shop passport. And the best part was it wasn’t for some wildly far away location, it was for Cincinnati. My area of Ohio was finally getting some love.
The cover of the Cincinnati Cafe Passport. It is brown with white lettering and has a simple art of a coffee cup with a white lid on it.
(Image courtesy of thecafepassport.com)
After checking out their website, it turns out they have over 40 locations in the US and 16 options for Canada. These booklets feature between 25 and 100 different cafes in the area of your choosing, with Buffalo, Cincinnati, and Detroit being the low end of the scale and NYC, New Jersey, and LA being on the high end.
Each booklet has descriptions of each cafe, including the address, phone number, and website of each, as well as QR codes for their menus. There’s even a photo or two included of the cafe or their beverages, and a recommendation of what to order from that specific cafe. On the other side of the page is a space to rate the cafe you visited and write about your experience there.
A look at the inside of the book. On the left is two photos, one of a coffee beverage and one of the outside of the cafe. Below that is all the information for that cafe, as well as a description for it, and on the other page is a large space for you to write your rating and experience.
(Image courtesy of thecafepassport.com)
With products like this, I always worry that when they come, it won’t look like how it does in the photo, or it’ll be poor quality, but I am happy to report I bought three of the Cincinnati ones (it’s 25% off if you buy three and I have two friends in Cinci I just know would love this), and all three were perfect! My expectations were honestly exceeded, this is a great little book and I’m so happy I stumbled upon them.
As someone who is constantly Googling “best coffee shop near me” and skimming tons of Yelp reviews, I actually think this book is a really great way to disconnect a little bit and stop staring at my screen for a minute. Every time I go somewhere to review the food and whatnot, I use the notes app on my phone to write my thoughts down, but I think I will actually enjoy writing my thoughts down in their cute little rating section with like, a pen.
I’m tempted to get one for Chicago or LA just so I have it for the next time I go. And I think they’ll make a perfect gift for someone you love that lives in a city.
I realize that I say all this as someone who posts reviews online and works strictly on a digital platform, but books are good! Tactile, real books are a treasure! And I recommend this one.
Currently, Cincinnati and a few other locations are sold out, but I would definitely keep an eye on when they restock, because I think these are super fun and worth buying. Make sure to check them out on Instagram. They are also branching into pizza and burgers, but only have a limited selection of locations for those, so we’ll see if they add more locations later on.
Have you seen these before? What’s your favorite drink to get from a cafe? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
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