There are many great choices, but I'm partial to Bike Fridays myself. Great touring bikes, handle panniers and racks, steel frames, and yes, you can choose your color. DH and I did a 9-day self-supported tour back in 2004 on 'em with full panniers and racks, and they performed great in all ways. Now we're mainly using them for grocery store runs, but they work great for that too. You can build them with any type of handlebars you like (flat, touring, etc) since they're semi-custom.

In addition to be very utilitarian, they're also seriously fun to ride -- the small wheels make 'em super responsive and easy to get around obstacles. They accelerate really quickly too.