Coffee Awards - Mudslingers

Photo compliments of the interwebs

     We have had some amazing coffee this summer, and we have had some outrageously terrible coffee this summer.  I suppose we have become coffee snobs, but sometimes the hotel coffee is less than enjoyable.  For whatever reason we always comment on the enjoyability of our Cup of Joe and then think back to our best coffee experiences this summer.

Best coffee awards:

• Kelsey Bartlett - We stayed with The Bartletts in Houston for two nights and the Costa Rican coffee Kelsey had on hand was delicious (Side Note - she picked the coffee up in Costa Rica on a layover...one of many perks of being a flight attendant).  She also had a milk foamer / frother thing-a-ma-jig which I got a kick out of!
• Jean Connolly-Carmalt - Our host in Des Moines made a mean cup of coffee and always made at least two pots.  We realized we had been spoiled, because when they moved (which meant packing up the coffee machine) we had some coffee withdraws and were very critical of any cup of coffee we had for the remainder of our Iowa stay.

 Best coffee experience - a hands down winner:

Mudslingers - Indianola, IA

We were headed to the National Balloon Classic in Indianola, IA and we had hit a wall, experiencing a major energy crash and still needing to work the whole afternoon.  Unfortunately, we were well outside of Des Moines and in the middle of the rolling Iowa countryside.  Using my handy-dandy phone, I looked up where the closest coffee shop would be and we quickly made our way to a coffee drive through in Indianola called "Mudslingers."  I had never had coffee from the small drive through "huts" so I was a bit skeptical, but hopeful this place could solve our energy woes.
     We pulled around the corner at 3:45 and the man inside gave us a sad smile and said, "Sorry, we closed at 3."  Being dramatic, I of course said, "Oh goodness! Where can we get a cup of coffee?  We are exhausted!"  He told us of another place, but said they were likely also closed for the day.  He asked where we were headed, where we were from, what brought us to Iowa from Boulder, and was very, very kind.  I suppose we looked defeated because he said, "Well, I can whip you up something.  Is an Americano okay?"   "Sure!  Anything at this point will be wonderful."
    The whole time he made our coffee we debated if he should be paid in cash or credit, because we wanted to make it easy on him since he had been closed for 45 minutes.  We also wanted to tack on a nice big tip.  We figured cash and had it ready for when he came back, but figured we would ask.
     A couple minutes later he opened the window, handed us our coffee and we asked if he would prefer cash or credit.  He smiled and said, "Neither!  All the way from Boulder, you can have it."  We protested and tried to hand him some cash.  He just grinned at us, smiled and said, " Nope!  I know what it is like to be jones-ing for a cup of coffee."  And with that, he closed the window on us.

On another note - it was a delicious cup of coffee!