For the last three weeks leading up to yesterday, I have been staying with the family that's about to open Minneapolis' newest excellent coffee refuge: Blue Ox Coffee Company.

They are wonderful people and took such great care of me. And, wow, do they know their stuff about coffee. Their home coffee setup is as impressive as what you'd find at some really great coffeeshops all over the country. Climbing out of my bed in the morning and popping upstairs to find an expertly-brewed iced Chemex waiting on the kitchen counter is really something I'm going to miss.

But I won't miss it as much as them! Melanie and Sara and Anders, thank you so much! I hope I can repay all your kindnesses a thousand-thousand-fold. And oh boy, am I gonna try!

Blue Ox is opening very soon (like: weeks, folks) at the intersection of 38th St and Chicago Av in South Minneapolis. The owners, as I said above, know their stuff and are ready to showcase coffees from some of my previous employers like Counter Culture Coffee (Durham, NC) and Anodyne Coffee Co (Milwaukee, WI), and others!

They've got a La Marzocco GB/5 ready to roll, as well as brew methods galore to showcase. And from what I've seen of the blueprints and the build-out so far, the joint is going to be pretty cool, and a welcomed addition to the area.

The owners are down to earth and approachable: if you don't want to "taste all the notes" and just want to grab delicious coffee and a muffin to go, they've got you covered, too.

For more info, you can read about how they were written up recently in Heavy Table, a Twin Cities-based food magazine. Or, you can follow them on Facebook or Twitter. Do it!

A friend of mine and barista at South Philly's incomparable Ultimo Coffee recently wrote (OK, tweeted) asking about the whereabouts of good coffee shops in the Twin Cities area. And, furthermore, this guy has got pretty high standards for coffee. Luckily, so do the Twin Cities! Let's take a look at some of my favorite haunts, so far, in alphabetical order. This list is fairly Minneapolis-heavy, so sorry about that in advance.

Angry Catfish (MPLS)
I work here, and boy am I smitten! It's in South Minneapolis near the light rail on 42 St. It's one of the few Intelligentsia accounts in town and my coworkers are not-kiddingly-good at the craft. They also are a full-service bike shop, if you were wondering how they could be any fucking cooler?

Black Sheep (SP)
I basically only went once for a throwdown (latte art competition) in my first week of being in town. It's in the southwest suburbs of St. Paul. Despite having only been once (during non-open hours), after meeting some of the staff and seeing some of them in action at the throwdown, I can speak with a relative degree of confidence that these people know their shit. They roast in-house and have been around for longer than most of the other "A" shops in town, from what I gather.

Bull Run (MPLS)
Newly opened in the space formerly occupied by Cars R Coffins (a recently deceased bike shop + coffeeshop combo). Their coffee is roasted in town in a separate facility. The shop, located at Lyndale Av and 34 St, has got a great "Midtowny" location. I'm sure that area has an actual name, which I will certainly learn, in time!

Dogwood Coffee (MPLS)
Nestled in the front lobby area of Calhoun Square Mall is Dogwood Coffee, where several venerable coffee ninjas currently hang their hats. They roast in town at a separate facility, use milk from a local dairy farm, and have public cuppings every Thursday evening. It's in Uptown on Hennepin and 31st!

(When you're there, maybe you can pick up Keith's Coffee Map for great info on shops in and around the Twin Cities.)

Kopplin's (SP)
It's apparently the oldest specialty coffee game in town. Haven't been yet, as it's in St. Paul and I'm a busy guy. But, all the coffee folks in town speak very highly of it, and many of them cut their coffee teeth there in the past.

Quixotic Coffee (SP)
A stellar spinoff/side-project of Madcap Coffee (Grand Rapids, Michigan). I've only been a few times, but, once again, those few times were more than enough assurance for the claim that you're gonna be impressed by the baristas here.

Spyhouse (Hennepin or Nicollet Av locations, MPLS)
Two locations. They're both enormous, feature excellently-prepared coffee chiefly from Verve (but also other roasters?) and are really well-designed, if you're into that sort of thing.

By no means is this an exhaustive list of all the wonderful places to get well-prepared coffee in the Twin Cities. This is, however, an exhaustive list of the places I currently frequent or hope to frequent very soon.

If you would like more detailed information about more shops, then you should check out this guy's blog: it's a great day for coffee. (Looks like he's a barista, too, so you can trust him not to bust out any stupid honkey complaints about a coffeeshop's lack of power outlets, their fondness for playing "rap" or "hippity-hop music," or for not offering hazelnut syrup.)

As always, if you have anything to share (like corrections or comments), I hope you make full use of the comment box down below!

Just in case you're a little behind on the blog and need a real quick catch-up sesh, here's the deal: My name is Seth Lester. For the last two years, two months, and ten days, I have been traveling the country, working in coffeeshops to pay my way. In this period of time, I have lived in eight American cities. Yes, that's right, eight! And I loved every one of them.

If you would like a fun (ooh, and interactive!) re-cap of the cities in which I have lived and worked, you should check out my interactive Work History page. Or just ask me to tell you about whichever city you would like! I especially like to talk about Philadelphia or Chicago: those were my favorites.

A week has passed since I put my few belongings on Amtrak's Empire Builder train and rode through vast, wide-open Wisconsin and across the Mississippi River into my new home: Minneapolis. And, folks, I think I'm in love. It's only been a week since I showed up in town, but I can already tell I'm gonna hate leaving.

I've got 13 more summertime weeks to explore my new Minnesotan home. By the end of summer, will I have conquered the Twin Cities, or will the Twin Cities have conquered me?