PhD in coffee and tea. Plus couscous.

My knowledge of coffee? It ranges from joe with milk to joe “au naturel.” So when I happened upon this new (couple of months, max) Place-With-No-Name (at least as far as outside signage) at J Street by the ballpark, I slither in like a sidewinder, not wanting to be noticed.

This is because I’m not too sure about all the strange things you’re supposed to know how to order, such as shakerato, bai mu dan, genmaicha, charcoal roasted tung ting, naked pu-erh, hot pressure, cold pressure. You need a PhD in coffee and tea to navigate your way around the choices here. It’s like a wine bar for coffee aficionados. (For all the coffee details on Copa, check out this Pour Over.)

Also, the space is smart and airy in that spare, Japan-meets-Scandinavia bareness sort of way. Tons of room for good tables for sipping and lap-topping and a huge garage-door wall lifts up to expose the sidewalk seating. A white stand-up counter links the inside to the outside.

Foodwise, we’re at the end of lunch. Stops at three. It’s a simple choice of sandwiches or salad. But not that cheap. The croquet-madame, which I’d really like to go for, has ham, caramelized onions, tomato, Swiss cheese, and béarnaise sauce. It runs $14. Chicken salad sandwich is $13, with the grilled cheese sandwich at $10. The three salads they have go for $9 each. Kale, Mediterranean couscous, and spinach.

So I go for salad because it’s cheaper, and I choose the couscous, just because that sounds more filling.

And a cuppa joe. Lord. You have to choose country, combo, bean…. I go for the Ethiopia Wamena. Because Ethiopia is where coffee was born. Only problem: costs $4.75. Ow.

Okay, I’ll admit: it is smooth and good, and they bring it to you with a spare glass jug that gives you a couple of refills.

But the big surprise is the couscous salad. Basically, turns out, couscous is semolina. Traditional Berber food. These little durum wheat balls are the rice of North Africa. And just as filling. The taste comes from the arugula plus red and green bell peppers, red onion, little tomatoes, goat cheese (tastes like), a vinaigrette, and best of all a generous sprinkling of Kalamata olives that they have taken the trouble to pit. The flavor lights up! The olives really give the combo its muscle.

So, yes, the coffee is not cheap but good. The salad, excellent. And it says something that even in the late afternoon, on this not-very-busy street, and with no signs up to say who the heck they are, Copa Vida (“Cup of Life”) is busy as heck, humming with, well, life.