14 - Dazbog Coffee - Auraria Campus Location, Denver

Quirky.  Styled.  Intense.  Russian.

Coffee Shop:
Dazbog Coffee (Auraria Campus)
http://www.dazbog.com
890 Auraria Pkwy
Denver, CO 80202

Date Visited:
Monday, May 2, 2016
About 12:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Purchased:
Coffee of the day: $1.95

This is not normally a coffee shop location I would have sought out (on a campus, no parking), but I ended up needing to wait around the campus for a bit and saw a Dazbog Coffee, which I had never tried before and had been wanting to check out.  So it was a serendipitous place to hang out.

Okay, so it's a Russian-themed coffee shop chain.  I think it's hilarious.  There is all of this black and red and Russian all over the place.  There is a sign on the wall about a "KGBlend" coffee.

This is a very quirky, styled place so I was interested in their signature drinks.  I investigated getting a "Chokolat Cappuccino" but the chocolate powder had dairy in it, even though it was dark chocolate.  The "White Nights Red Eye" is two shots of espresso immersed in their coffee of the day.  I heartily approve of this drink, and the appropriate intensity, but I was not interested in that much intensity.  So I just went with the coffee of the day.

There were actually two.  So I had the option of Russian Roulette or a Brazilian something.  OBVIOUSLY I chose the Russian Roulette.  The actual kind of coffee meant nothing to me in that moment.

Dazbog Coffee.  The inside looked like coffee, I promise.

It was really dark coffee.  I wasn't getting a lot of flavor undertones and things, mostly just distinctly dark.  It wasn't that bitter, so the combination of really dark/not bitter was cool.  I think I would have been disappointed if it was a light roast or if it had a lot of airy character.  It needed to be intense.  The name helped it feel intense.  But the coffee backed it up appropriately enough.  I was pleased with the experience.

There were students everywhere, as expected.  It seemed like more of a grab-and-go place for students getting caffeine in between classes ands stuff, but there were decent places to sit inside.  There was also seating outside.  There were a few people/groups inside working or tutoring.  This is a very quirky and styled place, and I wonder if/how different this one is since it is student-oriented on a campus.  It had a bit of a Starbucks-chain-store like feel (not really like Starbucks at all, but similar in the service and the niche).  This store was still a free-standing structure, but I wonder how it compares to other locations.  They might vary a lot, from airport to residential neighborhood, this one somewhere in between.  Anyway, no idea.  There are a lot of locations, but I haven't been to any of them before.

The music was bizarre.  Stuff like Ain't No Mountain High Enough and War and experimental rock, or something.  It was quite loud.  But somehow it worked.  I settled in after a few songs.  There was a method.  Maybe it was that everything needed its own version of intenseness.

Anyway, not a location I would seek out, but good enough if it is convenient.  I don't know about the chain in general, but it is definitely worth experiencing at least once.

***Last:

OH MY GOD THERE MAY HAVE BEEN A BREAKTHROUGH.

I drank part of the coffee black, because it was Russian Roulette and needed to be intense.  Then I went back and asked if I could use the almond milk as creamer.  They were happy to oblige - and they handed me Pacific "BARISTA SERIES" almond milk.  There is a barista series!  It is crafted to be creamier and foam better and make better latte art (the package even said this).

Now I am wondering if THIS is the difference between almond milk lattes I don't like and almond milk lattes I do like!  This could be a major factor!

I think I was too excited and put too much almond milk in the coffee.  It was still decent, but a bit too strong on the almond milk flavor...but totally my fault.  I missed the intenseness that I covered up.  But I added a bunch of sugar also, so then it turned into an intensely creamed-and-sugared coffee.

No wi-fi issues.

There is no parking, but it's on a campus mostly for students and people who are there anyway, so it's sort of acceptable.  I was in a garage that was $1.50/30 minutes, $6 maximum (which is actually better than I was expecting), but I obviously was doing that because I had to be there anyway and wouldn't do that just for coffee here.