Tel Aviv & Coffee

Tel Aviv is an odd city with regards to its coffee. On the one hand it has a thriving cafe culture - much like my beloved Buenos Aires - in which there is a cafe on almost every block and you can find people enjoying a cup of coffee at almost any hour. There is wireless internet at the cafes, light food, a good atmosphere and friendly baristas.

While there are many smaller independent cafes, the most popular is Cafe Cafe. You can think of it as the Starbucks of Tel Aviv. (There are no Starbucks in Tel Aviv - I guess they came in a few years back, failed and fled.) Our neighborhood loves cafe so much that we have 2 Cafe Cafe's right across the street from each other! (One is Cafe Cafe and the other is Cafe Cafe Kosher.)

Anyway, the other hand of the cafe culture here is such that people drink great coffee in the cafes, and really crappy coffee at home. The grocery store has a section about 2 feet wide with coffee - 80% of which is instant! There are a few bags of expensive "Turkish" coffee which are about the size you get in your hotel room (and look to be the same quality).

The conundrum here is that Jen LOVES coffee. I think this is in large part thanks to her dear friend Alexandria who shared her great coffee with Jen in college :) Jen has a coffee bean grinder, a french press, coffee cups and these adorable little red espresso cups (thanks Kathryn!)....and no coffee to put in them :( The "Natural Foods" grocery store (in quotation marks because they also sell fruit loops)had a bag of coffee that looked decent for about $8, but it was finely ground and that doesn't work too well for my french press.

Lamenting the lack of coffee - a coworker told us we could buy good whole bean coffee at The Coffee Bean. So, Jen biked the half mile to the Coffee Bean in search of the infamous whole bean coffee, and there it was! A large bag for 190 Shekels! ($51.35)!!! Oh my gosh! Needless to say, Jen still has no coffee. Any recommendations for online coffee stores that ship internationally???