The post-work, pre-drinkswithfriends espresso is a crucial part of my day as it defines the end of one day-part and the beginning of another, waking me up from office slump and getting me excited about the night ahead of me. This espresso must also usually be accompanied by a pastry to get the job done effectively, as a sweet buffer is very much necessary to protect my sensitive chex-mix-and-other-mild-vending-machine-crap numbed stomach from the harsh kick of the coffee. But sometimes I don’t feel like a pastry because it weighs me down; I need something delicious but light to help me fly straight into the night like a hummingbird.

Affogato

The solution is the Affogato at Thinking Cup. An airy-light, frosty dollop of pearly white, vanilla-bean speckled ice cream sinking and slowly melting into a thick, almost syrupy, bitter black espresso capped off with a beautiful light mocha-brown layer of espresso froth floating on top. Delicate spoonfuls of the creamy, sweet cold  ice cream followed closely by sips of jet black, bitter, hot espresso offer the perfect alarm clock for both my tense body and cobwebbed mind: gentle yet insistant, soft yet loud.