I’ve been a hell-or-high-water morning coffee drinker every day for eight years. I drank it from deli-carts, from Starbucks, from the best coffee joints in the city, and from freeze-dried Flavia packs at work. I drank it black, no sugar, while working, from paper cups I wouldn’t chip my teeth on in buzzed distraction. Lately I noticed I’d been sipping less, but I still wanted that daily cup, like a bitter benediction for another ordinary day.

This week, when I walked past my usual morning coffee spot three days in a row without stopping, my abstention wasn’t planned. I’d long suspected that maybe I didn’t really love coffee, but this new realization–maybe I don’t have to drink this today–was surprising. I could have predicted the next thought though, because it’s the same one I had when I first stopped smoking: so now what do I do instead?

Luckily I had picked up some artisanal teas from Harney & Sons during a recent visit upstate, and this was my answer. Founder John Harney has been a master tea blender for 25 years, and his company is the high church for gourmet tea. Harney & Sons crafts over 100 varieties, many of them kosher and organic, available in looseleaf tins, teabags, or gorgeous nylon sachets. They even sell art-teas, tea-spiked flowers that bloom when steeped in hot water.

All of Harney & Sons Teas are available to be taste-tested in their serene tasting room and tea shop in Millerton, New York. Millerton, a village of cute shops and ramshackle outskirts just under cityslicker radar  is located about two hours north of NYC and sprinting distance from the Connecticut border. If you’re nowhere near the tasting room I might suggest ordering their premium teabag sampler cube (20 bags/$7.50) online.  I’ve been digging the Tropical Green blend. This pineapple-flavored green tea smells like a citrus flower when it brews, and it’s a welcome break from the morning cup of joe. As a bonus, the tea is beautifully packaged and lovely to display in a box or tin.

(Mat.Vox.com reports that their Earl Gray makes him want to mainline bergamot. That’s love.)

Harney and Sons
1 Railroad Plaza Millerton, NY
Also available online at www.harney.com

Ninth Street Espresso, my favorite coffee spot in the city for people-watching and drinking superlative cappuccinos, has just opened an outpost on Tenth Street, next door to Life Cafe. Instead of tables this location has a long bar with a few stools, and seems generally less crowded than the Ninth Street locale. But the baristas still make some excellent espresso, and the same Balthazaar bakery treats are available. Plus it’s right across the street from Tompkins Square Park, so you can fill up between trips to the dog run to watch the puppies.

Ninth Street Espresso 341 East 10th St. Near Avenue B

The warm, nutty aroma wafting down Orchard Street literally stopped me in my tracks. It was like standing downwind from a roasted peanut cart on a cool fall day. I drink so many varieties of bad coffee during the work week (charred Starbucks, bitter Flavia, watery deli) that I’d forgotten this is how fresh-brewed coffee is supposed to smell.

Inside, my inner nerd feels right at home. Roasting Plant is pleasingly sleek and techy, like the Apple store for coffee. Choose one of seven varieties of beans stored in upright cylanders, and an attendant punches your order onto a touchscreen. Instantly, a cup-sized portion of beans rattles upward along the ceiling through a pneumatic tube into the “javabot“–which roasts, grinds, and brews, spitting out a perfectly-portioned cup of coffee topped with a layer of mocha-colored foam ($2 small, $2.50 large). Then it’s off to the milk counter, where you can choose from four different varieties of sugar, stored in salad-dressing bottles that permit no danger of heaping too much into your drink.

The coffee–at least the Ethiopian Harrar and Yirgacheffe–is smooth and the perfect drinking temperature, but not the boldest, most badass blend I’ve had in town (think Joe the Art of Coffee, or Ninth Street Espresso). The attraction here is having my coffee made by a javabot, which runs the entire length of the store. If you like robots and free wi-fi you’ll probably dig this place; if you prefer having your coffee scooped by humans from a burlap bag on the floor, visit the hippies at Porto Rico (like the one who dissed me for accepting a “petroleum product”–i.e. plastic bag–for my half pound of coffee beans. Dude, my hands were full.)

Roasting Plant, 81 Orchard Street

Update 1/13/11: Mercury Dime is closed and is now a barber shop.

A carriage-house turned coffee spot, The Mercury Dime on Fifth Street actually started out as a wine bar, but the plan got vehemently smacked down by the nightlife-loathing neighbors. (Fifth Street residents are a particularly mobilized bunch, especially after fighting The Cooper Square Hotel‘s now-unstoppable Babel-like rise toward the sun.)

For now the block is sunny, quiet, and caffeinated. And unlike one of owner Sasha Petraske’s other ventures, referral-only speakeasy Milk & Honey, you don’t need a secret phone number to get in. Instead, the heavy black door swings open to a clean, classy cafe, with four tables and high-quality, Ethiopian coffee. There’s supposedly food and wi-fi on the way, but for now, it’s just a minimalist menu of coffee and espresso drinks, and given the owner’s connoisseurship with cocktails, it’s bound to be pretty good.
Their official opening is this Friday.

The Mercury Dime 246 E. 5th St.

It’s actually Abraço, and I think it’s destined to be my favorite neighborhood coffee spot. I wandered in this morning, too weak to amble much farther than (good god) Dunkin’ Donuts, and instantly my day started looking up. The barista, a cheerful, lanky dude with a mop of gray hair (I think this could only be Jamie), poured me a polished cappuccino. The espresso ($3) tasted a little less mellow than 9th Street Espresso‘s, more slap-you-in-the face, but was very good, and topped with leafy foam art. While I waited, I was swayed into ordering zeppole–two fried-to-order balls of light, doughnut-like ricotta, rolled in sugar ($3). The standing-only space holds two narrow bars just wide enough for coffee cups, so the folks eating in were either chatting or just drinking coffee–no newspapers, laptops, or cell phones. But ambiance aside (Abraço is Portuguese for “hug”), this cafe’s secret weapon is that it has an actual cook, so there’s a whole rotating lunch menu to explore, complete with grilled cheese panini ($6), a deliciously light, eggy frittata ($4), and sweet-and-savory olive cookies ($2).

The only downside is that Abraço is sure to be popular, so I’ll have to get my happy tropicalia coffee fix early to beat the rush.

Abraço Espresso, 86 E. 7th St., at First Ave. 8 am – 8 pm, Sun. 9 am – 8 pm.