La Colombe: The Best Coffee in New York

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For years, getting a good coffee in New York was almost an impossible mission. However, New Yorkers don't know how to walk without clinging to a recyclable cup with their favorite drink. It's 9:30 in the morning and on an imposing corner of New York's Soho, very close to our favorite street, Bond Street, we find a coffee "atelier" with its doors always open: this is how La Colombe presents itself. Between whites and chromes, owners Todd Carmichael and Jean Philippe Iberti roast and taste the coffees they will offer to the public every day. And although the place has nothing to do with the typical Buenos Aires café, they were inspired by the Tortoni to set up this coffee shop where the espresso is served according to the strict patterns of their blends.

Considered by many critics as the place that serves the best coffee in the city, La Colombe does not dazzle with lavish decoration because it focuses on what truly matters: coffee. Surely, you have to queue to get one of their acclaimed espressos or lattes. But the number of people waiting at the door is not a problem: their baristas are known for their efficiency and good service, they are capable of serving impeccable, smooth, and delicious coffees at dizzying speed.

With a coffee full of complex nuances of aroma and flavor, the star of the bar is the imposing bottle with a pressure cap that, in the manner of an old German beer bottle, holds the secret elixir: La Colombe Pure Black Coffee. Preserved for 16 hours in oxygen-free stainless steel barrels, it is a pure black coffee, filtered twice. "100 percent real." No preservatives. No additives, like a good grand reserve wine. Recommended to drink it with ice.

The owners have been successful since they first opened in 1994. Today, La Colombe, with 30 locations, is already in major US cities.

Coffee addicts? Don't think twice, La Colombe is your place.

Featured image: La Colombe coffee shop in New York. Photo by Utsuro Bune, Flickr.