Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting
Various locations throughout Monterey County | (831) 624-5935, carmelcoffeeroasters.com
Nepetalactone is the wickedly delicious oil found in catnip. Well, it’s wickedly delicious to cats, anyway. It flips purring kittens into stalking felines. That same transformation happens here in human form, only it comes by way of perfectly roasted little beans. The scent alone beckons. And that’s no diffused cat oil. That’s raw bean, baby, right out of the roaster and into the mug. It’s different here, in all its righteously organic glory. This mini-chain is so successful it’s grown to seven coffeehouses countywide, but the small town-ness of it hasn’t left. It’s personal. It’s homey. It’s legally addictive.