5 Coffees That Had Me Saying, "UM. WOW."

How 'bout we talk about my good friend, Joe?
I love a good coffee. I love a bad coffee. I love anything that pumps caffeine into my veins within thirty minutes of my annoying Marimba alarm. I changed it to "I See The Light" from the Tangled soundtrack for two weeks, but then decided I didn't want such a peaceful song associated with the most miserable time in the day. Default iPhone alarms, it is.
I digress.
Coffee. Cassandra hates the coffee I drink on school mornings, because I throw as many hazelnut and french vanilla creamers, splashes of soy milk, and raw sugar into my cup as I can when no one's looking, and she thinks it's too sweet. Sure. Okay. Whatever gets the job done. Which actually usually means Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts on the way to work more recently. But there have been a few coffees I've had in my life that have literally made me stop in my tracks, and go: WOW this is good.
In no particular order:
Sant'Eustachio Il Caffe - Rome, Italy

Supposedly the best cappuccino in Rome.

Maybe all of Italy.

I don't disagree.

Stumptown Coffee - New York, New York

The inspiration for this post. I ordered an iced latte because it was lazy Sunday, and I was literally speechless after the first sip. Such magic.
Blue Bottle Coffee - San Francisco, California

Funnily enough, I've had more Blue Bottle since coming to NYC,

than I actually did in its native home of San Francisco.

My go-to is still an iced latte (as always), but I'm trying out an iced New Orleans next time.

Heard it's more or less incredible.

Monmouth Coffee - London, England

Situated in the very best place in all the world - Borough Market, Monmouth has a very special spot in my heart. I dragged my coffee snob of a friend here, who was reluctant to believe that Caroline-who-loves-crap-coffee could find actually decent java. He glared at me, took a sip, said a bunch of swear words, and went - "HOLY, wow."
Philz Coffee - Bay Area, California

My friend has a little song, a little jingle for when we make a Philz run, that's how happy Philz makes us. A go-to for Silicon Valley types, there's always important meetings going on that you can catch tidbits of. And Dave Franco goes a lot, too, apparently. The specialty coffees here are my favorite. Iced Mint Mojito coffee, Gingerbread Latte, and my personal favorite - Ecstatic Iced Coffee. Can't go wrong here.
Honorable mentions: quite a few, we'll leave it at that.
Where did you find the best coffee you've ever had?