Hungry Eye 42 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine ing the same cup every day. By sipping around town, you can fall in love with cof- fee all over again. TO DRIP, PERCHANCE TO BREW F or a cool, clean vibe with sleek fur- nishings, it’s easy to like Bard Cof- fee at 185 Middle Street. Wicked Joe Coffee, the Topsham-based company that sells wholesale organic and fair-trade beans nationally, owns this Old Port shop and roasts its custom beans. Menus run to both brewed and “poured- Tandemofferscoffee tastingatitsroasteryon AndersonStreet. Fromleft:Alex Spear checks the progress of the roasting beans at CBD;apour-over iscarefullypreparedat Bard;ArabicaonFree Streetopeneditsdoorsto coffeeloversin1995. You don’t have to look far for a good cup of coffee. In the West End, Aurora Provisions offers tasty, organic Carpe Diem coffee blends. At 722 Congress Street, Yordprom coffee, roasted in Topsham, is delicious. Belleville, the French bakery on Munjoy Hill with various and glorious croissants, serves Tandem’s Time & Temperature roast. Off the peninsula, The Proper Cup just opened in February at 500 Forest Avenue. With in- dustrial black walls and salvaged-wood counters lined with metal stools, it’s poised for neigh- borhood and student hoards. “Our coffees are from Flight Coffee Company in Bedford, New Hampshire,” says Proper Cup co-owner Rachel Kriei. “They try to bring out the natural flavor of the beans, so no super-dark roasts.” Sip a 12-ounce cup of rich Brazilian medium roast ($2.41) and a HiFi donut and check out the crazy chandelier light sculpture fashioned from plumbing pipes and filament bulbs. A motorcycle is mounted on a table in the middle of the huge room. “It’s spend- ing its retirement here,” says Kriei. A few blocks up Forest at 643,Little Woodfords is serving Vivid Cof- fee from Winooski,Vermont.“We’ve got single-origin drips,and espres- so,” says Andrew Zarro,one of the owners.“Mill Cove Baking at FORK Food Lab makes us great scones and cakes and amazing pop-tarts.” Before I even ask, he answers the inevitable Woodfords Corner question. “You can park on the street right out front–we’re on the outbound side.” Coffee Town, ME over” hot coffee drinks. An 8-ounce cup of brewed dark roast is $2.50 (I stuck to plain black coffee everywhere, for the sake of comparison). It’s utterly delicious with a deep, black espresso-like tang but no burnt bitterness. There are pastries from the Bak- er’s Bench in Westbrook and Kamasouptra soups at lunchtime. Poured-over is serious here, and it’s not cheap. A 12-ounce cup is $3.50. What’s the appeal? “You’re going to really taste the bean,” says a barista at the pour-over sta- tion. She recommends a Guatemalan bean called Antonio Domingo. “That’s the farm- er who grew the beans.” Poured-over is also slow. She scoops Antonio’s beans, grinds them, and puts them into a cone filter over a glass Che- mex beaker on a tiny warming plate. She pours hot water in gradual increments over the beans. A good five or six minutes have elapsed since we started talking. Anyone in a hurry would have to plan ahead. “People who like coffee this way think it’s the only way,” she says.