#thethinkingcup

The Thinking Cup is one of the best cafes I've ever been to. It is a Pre-world war II house turned into a library cafe. it has been repeatedly called a haunted house and their neighbors swear they've seen a red-eyed woman in white, floating around the property. But all we've seen so far are friendly staffs! Haha

This past holiday weekend, I visited my friends at school out east in Connecticut.  We made fabulous jell-o shots for the fourth, coming in a later post, stay tuned.  On Sunday I was lucky to be able to tag along with one of my friends for the night to visit one of my favorite cities, Boston, MA.  We did a little shopping, trekked through the North End, and had some orgasmic cannolis, but more on that in a later post. 

I follow an account on Instagram called glitterguide  The account hasn't really impressed me yet, I just threw them a follow on a whim, but they just so happened to post a picture from "The Thinking Cup" coffee shop while I was in Boston.  I had some time to kill while waiting for a bus on Sunday morning, so after checking maps, I decided to check it out.

At first I was a little disappointed to find out that The Thinking Cup was a chain, but I believe it is a Boston chain, so it sufficed.  I walked from South Station through Chinatown for about 10 minutes, lugging my suitcases the whole way, to check this place out.

It was also pretty muggy out, not going to lie I broke a little bit of a sweat looking for this place.

When I got there, I was thoroughly impressed with the place.  They had a beautiful bakery case, complete with macaroons.  Everything was dark wood, the tables had old newspaper clippings decorating them, giving the whole room an old New England Boston feel. 

I ordered a Mocha.  I knew this place would probably have great latte art, so I didn't want to mess that up by ordering a cappuccino, which I know I would have to add sweetener to because of my weak taste buds. 

& I was right.

They had good latte art, but nothing out-of-the-ordinary impressive.  The mocha was good, although a little bitter for my palette.  I ended up being a wuss & having to add sweetener anyways.

All in all, great little place.  I thoroughly enjoyed my basic bitch breakfast and would definitely head back again, next time I'm in Boston.  Wow, this is sad, I won't be out East again until January.

~the breakfast of basic bitches~

Something that has always baffled me about school and the East Coast in general is the popularity of Dunkin' Donuts.  Before I went to school there, I wouldn't have even considered putting anything other than a Munchkin from there into my body on purpose.  But East Coasters lap that shit up.  Apparently Dunkin' originated somewhere out there, which probably is the cause of the popularity.  

Whenever Dunkin is having some kind of giveaway, my East Coast friends blow up Twitter and Instagram.  Here at home, we have 99 cent Dunkin happy hour between 3-6 every single day, and not a person cares.  Although in our defense, I was sorely missing Dunkin a couple weeks ago, so I ordered a Toasted Almond iced coffee in the CTA station at Rosemont, and it was not up to snuff.  I might just be suspicious, but it tasted watered down.  Maybe they just produce a better product out east. 

At home in Chicago, all the Dunkin' Donuts are the lowest of the low coffee shops.  Not even kidding, I think people look more highly on McDonalds coffee than Dunkin' coffee.  The doughnuts are acceptable, but not the coffee.  All the shops are conjoined with Baskin Robbins, which I think cheapens their brand out here.  They are also all owned by immigrants from India, not to be racist, but I think that causes the community to generalize them with convenience stores and gas stations.  Dunkin' is the drink of peasants here.  I wouldn't dream of bringing Dunkin' into my internship because I feel like everyone would take one look and turn up their noses.

Confession, however, I've grown to really enjoy Dunkin'.  I've probably been forced to, as every weekend day sorority activity is accompanied by a Dunkin' run before, but I really love it.  Sure, the flavor syrups are too sweet and the coffee flavor isn't strong, but I love it.  I'll take a jamocha almond fudge or toasted almond coffee black with 2 Splenda any day of the week.

Yesterday, on my first day back to the internship downtown, I arrived early as usual.  I decided to hop on google maps and find a good cafe to get a latte, as there are so many cute cafes in the Wicker Park area that I would like to check out by the close of the Summer.  At first I found Intelligencia coffee, at the corner of Milwaukee and Ashland, right down the street from the studio.  I was disappointed on the drive-in, however, to see that it isn't opening until July 17.  I will definitely make a pilgrimmage there in 2 weeks.  The next one I found, with a whopping 4.4 stars out of 5, was lovely.  Literally Lovely, as that was the name of the coffee shop.  It was on Milwaukee, not too far down from Intelligencia, and only a 10 minute walk from where I parked, even closer back to the office.  That's saying something in that it was street cleaning day and I had to park far AF from the office. 

I got to Lovely, and wow, I was impressed.  Not only was the space it was in massive for a downtown Chicago cafe, but it was gorgeous.  It was the stuff of vintage wet dreams.  I love antiques and flea markets, and they beautifully incorporated antiques into their shop to make them look classy and clean, and not old, stuffy, and dusty like antiques can easily look.

They also had a bit of humor, which I always appreciate.

I ordered a mocha because I wanted to compare it to The Thinking Cup, and because I like mochas. I was sad that I had to get it to go so I could get to work on time, as that meant no latte art. 

I was thoroughly impressed by the mocha, it was much better than The Thinking Cup.  It was a lot less bitter, and had better chocolate flavor.  

I also briefly saw something about wedding cakes and catering when I was in there, and a prettily decorated fake cake sitting in the corner.  I'll probably pop back in & grab a pamphlet to bring back to the office, as the place was just lovely.