The Hermit Specialty Coffee

Jesus runs The Hermit out of a small Houston Street storefront in Laredo, and what makes the shop unusual is that he treats nearly every visit as a chance to introduce someone to specialty coffee. People come in and leave understanding the difference between commercial beans and the bag he just pulled off the roaster, which is a kind of unhurried teaching most cafes can't make room for during a morning rush.

The cupping sessions are the lead. Book one if you can swing the time; it's the fastest way to learn what's been hiding in the cup of coffee you've been drinking on autopilot. The bar pulls a full slate of espresso drinks (espresso, cubanito, cortado, latte) and the bag lineup leans named-producer in a way that means something. The Mujeres Cafeteras line, including the Carolina Ramirez Edition, is the one to pay attention to, because women-producer-named coffees that arrive with real provenance and a paper trail are not as common as the marketing on bigger bags would have you think. The Hermit Blend 2.0 and The Natural fill out the everyday options.

Laredo doesn't have a long list of specialty-coffee bars built around education. A shop where the owner will sit with you for thirty minutes is, in a border town, the kind of small operation worth driving across the city for. The room is set up for the bar and the conversation, not for laptop sessions. Drinkers who want to learn from the owner, customers interested in named-producer beans, and espresso drinkers are the right audience. Someone hoping to settle in with a laptop for three hours should look for a different room in Laredo.