Summit Coffee: Worth the drive up to Davidson
Summit Coffee has started roasting its own beans, and I drove all the way to Davidson to get a taste.
I waited until most folks were toiling away at their day jobs before hitting the highway – 11 a.m. on a Thursday seemed safe. Traffic was light, and I chided myself for thinking the drive to the Lake Norman area was longer than it really was.
“Living on a Prayer” blasted through my car’s speakers as I took Exit 25 off I-77. The GPS directed me to turn right on Sam Furr Road, pronouncing it “Sahm.” The area was even foreign to my smartphone.
Plenty of people have told me I need to spend a day in Davidson, that I’ll fall in love with its small-town warmth. The drive up I-77, however, has always intimidated me.
So when I heard Summit Coffee, the area’s premier coffee shop open since 1998, was going into the roasting business, I decided it was finally time to see what all the fuss was about. What better reason to leave the comfort of central Charlotte than for coffee, right?
My first stop was a nondescript building off Bailey Road, where Summit Coffee began roasting its own coffee just the other week. In the back warehouse space in Cornelius sat the impressive San Franciscan roaster.
Evan Pollitt, who is working to become certified through the Specialty Coffee Association of America, was shoveling green coffee beans from bags into large containers.
Co-owner Brian Helfrich told me the machine arrived about three weeks ago from Nevada, and they only fired it up for the first time five days before my visit.
A photo posted by @summitcoffee on Jun 1, 2015 at 6:57am PDT
Helfrich said they bought 3,600 pounds of fair-trade, organic coffee from eight different countries, including Brazil, Ethiopia and Burundi. All of the beans had been handpicked to ensure a quality taste.
To see for myself, I headed to Main Street, where Summit Coffee’s flagship shop is located.
As it turned out, I picked a good day to visit. Summit started selling its own coffee that morning. (Previously, the shop brewed Durham-based Counter Culture Coffee.)
I asked for a cup of the house blend – the Base Camp. Note: They’re also roasting single origin coffees that push the boundaries of what you’d expect coffee to taste like.
“Coffee is such a personal thing,” Helfrich said. “At the end of the day, we want to provide coffee and a coffee shop and whatever coffee drink that people want. We want to put ourselves in position to deliver the best product for whatever that may be.”
Although I usually add cream and sugar, I opted to drink this cup like a real journalist. It wasn’t bitter like I expected – smooth and nutty, in fact – and I finished my drink out in front of the shop.
People passed me by with their dogs, kids and smartphones, not knowing a stranger sipped in their midst.
Later, after ordering a latte, I discovered Summit has a second floor with more seating (and plenty of outlets for laptop charging) and a back patio, plus craft beer on tap.
The drive back to Charlotte was a lot less stressful than I’d imagined. I maneuvered traffic like I made that commute on a daily basis. The fact that my head was swimming in caffeine probably didn’t hurt.
Either way, Summit Coffee had a new fan.
Photos by Kim Lawson.
This story was originally published June 9, 2015 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Summit Coffee: Worth the drive up to Davidson."