The names are in! 14 coffee houses have been selected to participate in the preliminary round of the America’s Best Coffeehouse Competition for the Eastern Region. The competition is one of many events under the umbrella of Coffee Fest, which is a series of specialty coffee events and tradeshows that originated back in 1992. This particular competition sets out to find the top three coffee houses in the Eastern Region of both the United States and Canada. This year, the following coffee houses were selected for competition:

• Barbaric Bean Coffee Roasters, 48 Main Avenue, Ocean Grove, NJ.
  
• Bold Bean Coffee Roasters,869 Stockton Street Suite 1-2, Jacksonville, FL.
• Coffee Tea and Me, 421 Main St, Melrose, MA.
• Lalajava Coffeehouse, 290 W. Main Street, Northborough, MA.
• Molten Java,213 Greenwood Ave, Bethel, CT.
• Mudhouse, Downtown Mall, 213 W. Main St., Charlottesville, VA.
• Muggswigz,137 Walnut Ave. NE, Canton, OH.
• Mugshots Coffeehouse,1925 Fairmount Ave, Philadelphia, PA.
• Nolita Mart & Espresso Bar, 156 Mott Street, New York, NY.
• Peregrine Espresso, 660 Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast, Washington, DC.
• Phoenix Coffee Company, 1700 East Ninth Street, Cleveland, OH
• Red Velvet Cafe, 1188 Hill Road N, Pickerington, OH.
• Thinking Cup, 165 Tremont Street, Boston, MA.
• Town Hall Coffee, 358 Montgomery Ave, Merion Station, PA.

What happens next? There will be a 30 day period of fan voting and secret judges and shoppers visiting each of the coffeehouses, after which the 14 contestants will be narrowed down to 8 on February 14th. Head on over to the Coffee Fest website to cast your vote for your favorite coffee shop in the Eastern Region!