Never stand between man and coffee. We live in a world where being easily irritated is a socially accepted personality trait; if people are constantly complaining now, imagine a world without coffee. What it would be like then? Unbearable. A cup of joe is the “best part of waking up” (sorry, couldn’t resist), and since the boomers of the superlative coffee generation have popped up from coast to coast, New Yorkers do as they do and took it one step snobbier. In doing so they’ve begun to precede coffee with descriptive adjectives bringing the aromatic and flavor profiles of these unique, specialty roasted and dripped, artisanal coffee blends to our attention. All of which are clearly superior to that (future neglected) brown liquid sitting idly in the sporadically washed coffee pot in your kitchen. The transcendent coffee phenomenon may not have originated in New York, but there’s nothing better that New Yorkers do than self-proclamation, “we are the discoverers of all things exceptional”. Coffee is no exception.

With all of this in mind, you can imagine the uproarious hoopla following the multiple keurig installations in our shared space, with cabinets stocked of wholesale sized boxes of Cookie Cabin* k-cups. Don’t get us wrong it really isn’t that bad and free coffee trumps decent coffee every day of the work-week, so we are (dare I say) satisfied and happy with our in house selection. But a palate for good coffee has become as important in this social circle as the refined palates of classically trained chefs and sommeliers. Therefore, on the weekends we forage for the better-than-good stuff.

The power of bad coffee taste can be quite detrimental to your social life- it ruins friendships, ends relationships, breaks up boybands, and could possibly terminate United Nations alliances. On the contrary, for those who know and live by good coffee, and are hooked on the sensation that makes your taste buds dance on your tongue, just know that you are not alone (actually, you probably already knew that).

While we cannot confirm the validity of Nespresso machines popping up in the office, we decided to ask around for favorite, local coffee shops between Manhattan and Brooklyn. We took the list and drank many a cup-o-coffee, discarding many unworthy blends, added some of our own and voila it appeared, the Superlative Coffee of 2012. Here’s who made the list.

I’m In The Kitchen’s Best Coffee in NY List 2012:

The Randolph (Nolita/Bowery)
Joe The Art of coffee (all over manhattan and in dekalb)
Gimme! Coffee (Nolita, Brooklyn and Upstate NY)
9th Street Espresso (Chelsea Market, Alphabet City, Tompkins Square)
Abraco (East Village)
Fika (Murray Hill/NoMad)
Demi Monde (Coming Soon to the Financial District with beans from LA’s Handsome Coffee Roasters )
Grumpy (Chelsea, LES, Park Slope, Greenpoint)
Toby’sEstate  (Williamsburg)
El Beit (Williamsburg)
Blue Bottle  (Williamsburg)

Photo Credit: Kennymatic

*Cookie Cabin is not a real coffee company, the name of the company has been changed.