My love-hate relationship with coffee / plea for new coffee shops

As you can tell by the title of this posting, I have mixed feelings about coffee. On the one hand, coffee is an elixir; party too hard the night before and need a pick-me-up? Coffee will do the trick. Getting up at the crack of dawn and need a little help before sitting down for a busy day at the office? Go coffee. And the smell? Oh I LOVE the smell of coffee. Strong, smoky and fragrant.

On the other hand, coffee is also disgusting. How can something that smells so incredible taste so incredibly disgusting? I would never drink my coffee black (okay, unless I was seriously desperate). It's bitter, burnt and...bitter. Did I mention bitter? Cream and sweetener all the way!

And if I drink too much, I get heart palpitations. Not to mention that coffee acts as a diuretic (joy).

Ironically, as I write this, I'm hunkered down at my local Starbucks.

But coffee is also an incredible baking ingredient. I've used instant coffee (yes, yes, blasphemy to you hardcore coffee drinkers) in cookies and am currently testing it out as an ingredient in savoury dishes (my poor, poor, loved ones). Oddly enough, I've never tried coffee in anything beyond, well, coffee.

So...with the weather getting colder, and coffee becoming a necessity (I definitely drink more coffee in the winter), I send this plea out to you, my fellow readers: I'm on the lookout for some new coffee shops in the Toronto area (but I'm also willing to travel as far as Prince Edward County). Please share your coffee stories / recommendations with me. Thanks in advance.