Writer Anita Isalska goes on a quest to unearth the city’s most unusual brews by challenging Chat GPT to rival Intrepid’s human-led Urban Adventures on a coffee-lover’s tour of Seattle.
I’ve had better coffee dates. My shirt is sticking to my back after a 20-minute walk across the expressway. Inside the cafe, the line to order is so long that it’s doubling back on itself. Even the small talk is underwhelming.
‘You’re right to question it!’ my companion replies, when I ask why we’re queuing in an overcrowded coffee chain. ‘But if you appreciate design and ambience as part of the coffee experience, this is top tier.’
If the unwavering positivity and appeasing tone didn’t give it away, my date today is ChatGPT.
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My robot travel concierge
I’ve asked the generative AI tool to guide me on a coffee-lover’s tour of Seattle to see how it compares to the human approach of a group tour. As a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest, lured away from the San Francisco Bay Area by the promise of big mountains and craft coffee, it’s a glorious excuse to kick back some espressos.
And in a global tech hub renowned for coffee snobbery, what could be more Seattle than an AI-led tour of Capitol Hill, packed with colourful cafes, restaurants and bookstores, LGBTQIA+ and counterculture spots?
I’m not the only person exploring Seattle with a little help from AI. Once upon a time, travellers were limited to forums, guidebooks and word of mouth, until review sites and influencers stole their thunder. Now, roughly 40 per cent of us lean on AI to plan our travels, according to a 2024 Statista report – and new tools keep popping up, from mood-based planners like Mindtrip and Layla to Ray-Bans that provide instant language translations.
My own feelings about AI are complex. I jumped aboard the AI hype train while working for tech startups, but I’m also a writer who resents AI ‘learning from’ – or rather, devouring and regurgitating – work I’ve painstakingly researched and published over the years. I’m in awe of the frontiers AI could advance, but deeply wary of what its misuse might mean. That’s a lot of baggage to accompany a few espressos.
Just OK, computer
In a few taps, an AI-generated itinerary blinks onto my screen. My prompt, in case you’re wondering, is for a two-hour walkable itinerary to guide a coffee-lover around Seattle. What I receive is a detailed step-by-step guide to where to go and even which coffees to order. At first, it looks impressive… until I start walking.
The actual journey times are double ChatGPT’s estimates and the route is decidedly unfriendly to humans, crossing the roaring I-5 expressway twice. I’m instructed to consume four coffees in two hours (who needs sleep?) and some of the stops don’t exist.
My chosen AI tool has a knowledge cutoff date of June 2024, but it still recommends detours to two places that have been closed for years. (‘You’re right to check!’ comes the cheerful reply, when I query it).
But although my AI tour maestro sometimes misses, it also takes me to some damn fine coffee. At the third stop, Espresso Vivace, I faithfully follow its recommendation to order a Caffe Nico. It arrives in a cloud of cinnamon, an orange peel garnish hinting at the note of citrus in my first creamy sip. It’s an Amalfi Coast holiday in a cup, a brilliant recommendation surfaced in seconds by ChatGPT… on the back of thousands of human-authored articles and reviews, of course.
Human chemistry and connection
AI tools are advancing at warp speed, so critiques of AI gaffes may quickly become old news. The bigger question is this: what do we lose, as travellers, when we’re led by AI?
The answer arrives swiftly when I join Urban Adventures with Intrepid for an expert (read: human) led two-hour Seattle coffee culture tour. I’m back in the world of the living, joining a collective of travel-hungry coffee appreciators as we prepare to maraud around Capitol Hill in search of the best brews.
Our local leader, Lee Dunlap – armed with boundless energy – sets the tone. ‘I always start every tour by saying: “Give me a good coffee anecdote – what do you usually drink?”’
It turns out we’re a motley group, ranging from flat-white snobs (me among them) and Dunkin Donuts coffee loyalists to people who barely drink coffee and just want to mooch around colourful Capitol Hill.
Some of them chat excitedly about their kayaking adventures, one couple is in the city for a heavy metal gig and another pair may or may not be a little hungover. Luckily, coffee is at hand… In drink preferences and beyond, we have gloriously little in common – except we’re all here, sipping coffee together.
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Is hazelnut in the room right now?
‘All the coffee shops we visit, they’re happy to see you come in and they’re excited to share their passion for coffee,’ says Lee.
He ushers us into Little Oddfellows, a coffee spot inside Seattle’s legendary Elliott Bay Book Company. Rather like a seance, we gather in a circle and our voices call out to no one in particular: ‘hazelnut, I’m getting hazelnut!’ Nostrils flare, pair by pair, as Lee passes jars of coffee beans around the table to sniff.
‘Coffee, as a plant, is fascinating,’ enthuses Lee, who has a horticultural background and volunteers in local parks. ‘A lot of people don’t think about that when they’re drinking their coffee in the morning, but if you look into all the chemistry behind it – how it affects the human body, its ecological footprint – it’s a really fascinating thing.’
Lee challenges us to discern the complex flavours hidden in a dark roast. Our chatter is replaced by theatrically loud sipping, until a triumphant cry of ‘lemon zest!’ rings out.
A cocktail of common grounds
Being unshackled from apps feels energising. Instead of tapping questions into an AI chatbot, I’m focused on the nods and grimaces of my fellow sippers, swishing my coffee from cheek to cheek to unlock elusive flavours. When we sample mushroom coffee at Wunderground Cafe, I’m fully present for all the jokes about psychedelics.
As we walk between cafes, our little group reshuffles. Like a living kaleidoscope, we form new conversational pairs. Once we reach Ghost Note Coffee, known for its coffee cocktails, everyone is fully in step.
‘Right now, espresso tonics and espresso sodas are really big in Seattle,’ explains Lee. ‘And South East Asian flavours – such as yuzu, ube, taro – also filter into brews, because we have such a great community here in the city.’
Ice cubes clink in our glasses of Lush Life, a sweetly refreshing iced coffee with almond milk, blossom honey and grapefruit aromatics. We haven’t all graduated into coffee connoisseurs, but everyone has a little more confidence in asserting their favourites – and we’re all mining Lee for insider intel, so we can keep exploring the coffee scene later.
The sweetness of a good story
‘I’d say Caffe Vita is the place to go to try really interesting, sweet, sometimes juicy coffees,’ says Lee. ‘They’re not for everybody – they’re bright, acidic, almost tea-like.’
‘Coffee is also about the human element, like Stitch Cafe: they’re a small cafe that opened up last year with crocheters, knitters, people working on projects…’
Quirky cafes and love-it-or-hate-it coffee, straight from the mouth of a plant-nerd coffee expert, are my kind of recommendations. They aren’t just cafes, they’re part of Lee’s own story – and that emotional currency couldn’t be further from my earlier AI tour.
With no personal stories to tell, what’s going on when ChatGPT recommends a cafe? I decide to ask it.
‘Since I can’t feel excitement, I lean on language,’ replies ChatGPT. ‘I highlight what makes a place loved by others – “laid-back vibe”, “award-winning latte art”, “perfect for people-watching”. That’s me echoing the enthusiasm people tend to express.’
AI uses pattern-matching to pull from a colossal river of data. It doesn’t recommend; it replicates.
For my money, I prefer a sprinkling of serendipity and a good story to go with my coffee. On my next trip, I’ll take dialogue over datasets.
Anita sipped her way around Seattle’s coffee scene with Urban Adventures – a selection of locally led day tours, curated by Intrepid.
