The Pulled Journal
No credit card required. Works at any coffee shop.
298 posts
April 29, 2026
Spain spent eighty years drinking torrefacto, the sugar-roasted coffee invented during the Civil War. The specialty wave finally arrived in Madrid in 2011. A guide to Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, and Bilbao.
The Dutch East India Company shipped its first coffee to Amsterdam in 1616. Four centuries later, Dutch specialty coffee operates with the same quiet precision. A guide to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, and Eindhoven.
In 1727, Francisco de Mello Palheta crossed into French Guiana and returned with smuggled coffee seeds. Three centuries later, Brazil produces a third of the world's coffee. A guide to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, and Porto Alegre.
Sweden banned coffee five times in the eighteenth century. Today Swedes drink more of it than almost anyone else, anchored by the daily fika ritual. A guide to Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Uppsala, and Lund.
Tim Hortons opened in Hamilton, Ontario in 1964 and shaped Canadian coffee for half a century. The contemporary specialty wave runs through five separate regional traditions. A guide to Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, and Ottawa.
Stamp.me is a digital punch card for partner shops. Pulled Coffee pays real cash at any shop. A side by side comparison for anyone deciding between the two models.
Joe Coffee handles mobile ordering and loyalty stamps at partner cafés. Pulled Coffee pays real cash at any shop. A comparison of two different models for rewarding coffee drinkers.
inKind funds restaurants with capital and pays customers in dining credits. Pulled Coffee pays real cash for any specialty coffee shop visit. A comparison of two different rewards models.
Six coffee rewards apps compared honestly. The model differences matter more than the marketing. A guide to choosing based on how you actually drink coffee.
San Francisco coffee runs through the Mission, SoMa, Hayes Valley, and the Inner Sunset. Ritual on Valencia is the founding Mission room.
San Diego coffee runs from Little Italy north along the coast to Oceanside, east through City Heights and North Park, and inland to Rancho Bernardo. Bird Rock holds the Kettner waterfront.
April 28, 2026
Portland's coffee scene grew up alongside Stumptown and never quite stopped. The city's Southeast quadrant holds the heaviest concentration of roasteries in the United States by population.
Riga coffee is largely the story of Caffeine. The Lithuanian-rooted specialty chain crossed into Latvia and now runs over a hundred locations across the Baltic states, and Riga holds several of them.
April 27, 2026
Philadelphia's coffee scene runs through Pennsport, Old City, Center City, Fishtown, Northern Liberties, and West Philadelphia. Herman's on South 3rd anchors the Pennsport register.
Pilsen coffee is largely the story of CrossCafe. The Czech chain has spread across the city, with multiple branches that anchor the historic square, the Plaza shopping centre, and the residential corners outside the old town.
April 26, 2026
Paia is the North Shore plantation town that surfers turned into a morning crossroads on the way to Hookipa and Hana. Two blocks off the bay, Baldwin Avenue runs the row that holds most of the coffee.
Pahala is the old sugar town on the slopes above the South Hilo coast, the kind of place most visitors only know from the Belt Road sign. The coffee here is the Kau article, grown on the slopes that climb toward Mauna Loa and roasted at altitude.
April 25, 2026
Oakland coffee runs through Uptown, Telegraph Avenue, and the Lake Merritt edge. Tierra Mia anchors Broadway at 20th, founded by Ulysses Romero around the Latin American coffee tradition.
April 24, 2026
New York coffee is not one scene. It is the Lower East Side at Kopitiam, with kopi pulled long and kaya toast on the side.
New York City coffee runs across all five boroughs, and even narrowing to the Lafayette and East 10th corridors leaves out more rooms than it includes. La Colombe holds 270 Lafayette in NoHo, a corner cafe at Prince Street a block from the SoHo Apple Store.
April 23, 2026
Nashville coffee runs from East Bank across the river to Madison and Dickerson Pike. Surefire holds the East Bank build-out near the stadium.
Naalehu is the southernmost town in the United States, a small Belt Road outpost in the Kau coffee country between Volcano and South Point. The coffee here is the working version of a remote agricultural town.
April 22, 2026
Minneapolis coffee runs from the North Loop warehouses south through Lyndale and east to Longfellow. Spyhouse holds the warehouse district at 907 Washington, the fourth Spyhouse cafe and the most refined of the lineup.
Makakilo is the Leeward Oahu town that holds the Ko Olina resort grid, where Aulani sits on Aliinui Drive and the morning runs on a resort schedule. The cafe geography is concentrated.
