Third Wave Coffee and Donut Tours

A little over a year ago I did a coffee tour with Lora from Third Wave Coffee Tours. It was so informational and a really fun way to see Portland and Drink Your Way Thru. When Lora let me know that she was now offering a Coffee & Donut tour to her list of tours I knew I needed to check it out. Even though I am still not a huge coffee drinker(but my husband is), Lora is slowly winning me over to some great coffee options.

We started at Coco Donuts, which I had not been to yet. We learned that they originally sourced local coffee, but just over a year ago they started roasting their own coffee and pairing it with their very own donuts. Seriously, it’s like the perfect match. For the tour they had cut up 4 different donuts into bite size pieces (who am I kidding, we ate half of a donut for each flavor) and they helped us match our coffee to our choice. Their coffee is great and their donuts were spectacular. The raised donut was my favorite. It was light and moist and it was topped with a light Lavender, so not only was it really pretty, but it was also a nice subtle flavor added to the donut.

Then we made our way to Sterling Roasters. This is a cool little coffee shop by day and a wine bar by night. It’s a really small little space, but I love the cleaver use of the space by both businesses. Sterling Roasters was voted as one of the best places for Hot Chocolate, so we were able to try that along with a shot of espresso.

From there we wandered down to Local Roasting Co. I had no idea this coffee shop even existed, so it was such a fun find. They made us a latte with Hazelnut Milk. This was one of my favorite drinks of the day.

By now you are probably wondering where the other donuts come into play. We made our way down NW 23rd to Blue Star Donuts. I love their tagline, “Donuts for Grownups.” You understand this when you start to look at their different offerings like, the Hard Apple Cider Fritter, Blueberry Basil, Chocolate and Custard and Passion Fruit Cocoa Nib.

Barista is a coffee shop that we have been to a few times. I love that they carry lots of local roasters from around town and some from Canada. Not only that but someone on our tour also grabbed a beer while we were at this stop. We all enjoyed an iced coffee. Lora, knowing that I’m not a huge coffee fan, said I would like this one because of the brewing process and she was right. I did enjoy this one as it wasn’t as acidic and very easy to drink.

Then we were on to our final stop. Here at Seattle Coffee Gear, we learned about different brewing methods and all kinds of information. If you are a coffee snob and want to know more about coffee, you seriously need to stop at this place. You can buy all kinds of equipment and coffee here. The knowledge that these guys had was outstanding. They do not take their coffee and donut pairings lightly. They had put lots of thought into it and had it perfectly pair with the donuts they knew we would be bringing from Blue Star Donuts.

Again, this was another really fun tour. I highly recommend jumping in on one of these tours yourself. I also love that these would make such great gift ideas. This tour took about 3 hours and we walked about 2 miles, so please take all these things into consideration. I love walking through our city, so this is just so enjoyable to me. This was a NW Portland tour, but you can check her site, Third Wave Coffee Tours, for other options as well.