• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home / About
    • Home
    • About the Site
    • The Authors
    • Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
    • Email me
  • Reviews
    • List of All Reviews
    • Best of Portland by year
      • Reader Survey: Best of Portland Food 2017
      • Best of Portland 2015
      • Best of Portland 2013!
      • Our Top 11 Restaurants 2012
      • Best of Portland 2012
      • Best of Portland 2011
      • Best of Portland 2010!
      • Best of Portland 2009!
      • Best of Portland 2006
    • Steakhouse Roundup
      • Steakhouse Reviews Introduction
      • El Gaucho Steakhouse
      • Morton’s Steakhouse
      • Ringside Steakhouse
      • Ruth’s Chris
      • Steakhouse – Results
    • Product/Business Reviews
      • Retailer Reviews
      • Product Reviews
  • Topics
    • Food Writing
      • Alcohol Related
        • Beer
        • Wine
        • Spirits
      • April Fools Stories For Portland
      • Contests and Competition
      • Food Memories
      • Travel Writing
    • Authors / Book Reviews
    • Cheese information
    • Interviews: Honest dialog with people in the Portland food industry
    • Portland Food and Restaurant News and Discussion
    • Recipes
  • Portland Guides
    • Guide to Portland coffee
      • Portland Coffee Guide
      • A Map of our favorite Portland coffeehouses
      • Reader Survey: Best Coffeehouses in Portland 2017
    • Guide to Local Wine Shops
    • Guide to Portland Bakeries
    • Guide to Portland Distilleries
    • Guide to Portland’s Beer Shops
    • Guide to Dining On a Budget in Portland Oregon
  • Holiday Events!
    • Restaurants Open Christmas Day in Portland 2019
    • Restaurants Open Christmas Eve in Portland 2019
    • 2019 New Year’s Eve Event List for Portland
    • Restaurants Open New Year’s Day in Portland 2019
    • Add your restaurant holiday event
  • Press
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Portland Food and Drink

Throwing Ourselves On The Grenade of Bad Food to Save You

You are here: Home / Coffee / Coffee Guide: Sterling Coffee Roasters

Coffee Guide: Sterling Coffee Roasters

Last Update May 14, 2018 Leave a Comment

Sterling Coffee Portland exterior 518 nw 21st ave.

Sterling Coffee owner Adam McGovern and Aric Miller and their talented crew are purists and perfectionists: you get a pared-down of drinks, pastry items from Bakeshop and that’s it. But that’s all you need here where baristas are known to toss a just made cappuccino if the ristretto or foam isn’t to their standards. They really don’t like to serve espresso and even cappuccinos in to-go cups, feeling it messes with the flavor, and does not honor the ritual and experience of the beverage. Philosophy aside, the staff is warm and friendly and will make you whatever drink you want, whether for stay or takeaway. Recently they moved their shop from M-Bar to their own space a block away at 518 NW 21st Avenue.

How particular are the owners? Get this, he has been known to mix his own milk. Yes, that’s right. Instead of the standard dairy most Portland coffeehouses use, they discovered that mixing a higher end organic brand with Sunshine Dairy milk yielded the results he craves. Sterling Coffee That’s the level of passion that sets much of the Portland coffee scene apart from its peers, and Adam McGovern and crew are on their own level. Both locations offer a variety of brewing methods along with choices from both small batch roasts. These are available for purchase in the shops, online at Sterling Coffee.com, and of course in drinks at the shops.

Although the brewing method offerings change from time to time, customers have had the opportunity to choose a quick drip from one of the vacuüm pots, order an individual French press, a pour over, or their own Moka pot. Sterling Coffee was also one of the first cafés in Portland to offer an incredibly complex mocha and hot chocolate, using very specific high-end chocolatiers from the Portland Cacao Chocolate shop to compliment the coffee beans, finished with a with a dusting of fleur de sel and powdered chocolate.  Mcgovern has an excellent palate, and is able to pick out

flavors from roasts that I never notice at first, but become clear after he mentions them. His descriptions highlight their fine roasting abilities and sense of humor: Perla Guatemala “tastes like tootsie rolls & honey”, and about their signature, Blendo Stupendo, “As luck would have it, so do we: a blend to make a perfect cup of coffee. Every month as we introduce our two new featured coffees we’ll also take the time to find what we think is the best combination of them. If you don’t know which of our coffees you’d like or you simply want some Sterling coffee, Blendo Stupendo is just the thing for you.” The great Gourmand Curnonsky once wrote, “In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection.” We carry this motto over to coffee as well, and Sterling nails it.

  • Address – 518 NW 21st Avenue, Portland 97209. Map
  • Website: SterlingCoffee.com

Related

Category: Coffee, Portland Coffeehouse Guide. Related posts about Coffeehouse NW, Sterling Coffee. More about Adam McGovern, Aric Miller.

About Lizzy Caston

Lizzy writes about the types of food she likes to cook the most; simple dishes based on the freshest ingredients and gently coaxed to bring out their best qualities. Things like roast chicken with crackling skin, meat stews, all kinds of soups, and anything on toast. You know, peasant food like your French/Southern/Thai/Lebanese Mother might make.

In her past she held many a food service job, from a high-end traditional Japanese restaurant to a grease-pit diner off of Interstate 5. And she claims to still have nasty case of espresso wrist from the 10 billion lattes she made during her barista years.

Lizzy has an educational background that includes food sciences and politics, and has been a past writer for both cultural and academic publications. She takes a big picture view of the role that all things gastronomic are having in shaping the economy, culture, identity, and ever changing food scene both here and elsewhere. She believes Portland is at a pivotal and creative time food wise, and is constantly amazed and surprised at the bounty our city has to offer.

Previous Post: « Food News for April 17th – Can Business Sue When Ex-Employee Steals Recipes?
Next Post: Coffee Guide: Courier Coffee »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

This site runs on SiteGround hosting

Web Hosting
Tails & Trotters Portland
Donutorama Portland

Guide to Portland Distilleries

Cocktail Distilleries Distillery icon

Your Guide to Portland Oregon Distilleries

A complete list of distilleries open to the public in the Portland area. Updated 11/19.  Portland is a mecca for micro-brews, artisan coffee roasting, chocolatiers, pizza, bread, pastries and more. Oregon also has an established wine industry … [Read More...]

RSS Food & Drink News Feed

  • Gift baskets for the foodie
  • Place Your Bids! Membership Auction Ending Soon
  • Nothing to open on Christmas
  • Noble Rot is thrilled to announce the homecoming of Executive Chef, Greg Smith!
  • This program is bringing food justice and health equity to Portland
  • Rally Pizza Winter Solstice Celebration and Festa Italiana New Years Eve Party!
  • Now taking orders for Bûche de Noël. Go traditional, or sleek and modern!
  • Where you should be to feel true holiday spirit
  • Cascade celebrates 21st anniversary with live tapping, draft release & holiday bottle sale
  • Come see Santa at Filberts this Sunday!
  • Por Qué No Update – Holiday Tamales to support Adelante Mujeres
  • Oregon Truffle Festival Announces Chef and Speaker Lineup for 2020 Events
  • You have to see this cake

Subscribe to our posts via email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Your email address will never be shown or given out.

Join 17,665 other subscribers

Our Instagram

pdx_food_dude

Instagram post 2195428471080243064_2988593889 Making marshmallows for kids during the holidays
Instagram post 2188923661271405250_2988593889 85c Bakery Café in Washington square. Review on PFD
Instagram post 2188801124419993623_2988593889 New Lionheart Coffee in downtown Beaverton at 1st and Watson opened today. If anything like their first location it will be the best coffee in the Beaverton/Hillsboro area. Original location is on SW SchollsFerry Road. Even better, it’s next door to Big’s Chicken.
Instagram post 2188790735288310463_2988593889 La Rose Patisserie, Beaverton.
Instagram post 2185280110842963733_2988593889 Shakshouka at Tasty n Daughter’s. So good!
Instagram post 2185276278280834113_2988593889 Cowboy steak and eggs at Tasty n  Daughters. Always one of my favorite things
Instagram post 2171464437928357035_2988593889 Mille crepe cake
Instagram post 2165601502147013569_2988593889 A bevy of #deliciousdonutspdx
Instagram post 2147482916312476052_2988593889 Found this banana promotion booklet while cleaning out mom’s stuff today. Some of these recipes are pretty… Interesting
Instagram post 2133026860719047984_2988593889 I may not be at #feastpdx this week, but here are a few shots from dinner at Andus restaurant in Vilnius, Lithuania. Plum ice cream, caramelized carrots, and plum.
Load More... Follow on Instagram

© 2019 · PortlandFoodandDrink.com • See Terms of Service and Privacy Policy