Coffee Shop:
Kaladi Coffee Roasters
https://www.kaladicoffee.com
1730 E Evans ave
Denver, CO 80210
Date Visited:
Wednesday, May 3, 2016
About 2:45 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Purchased:
16 oz Venetian Cream: $4.00
 |
| Ha. You can see my reflection. |
I saw this on the board:
Venetian Cream: "Always iced, always non-dairy, always a secret recipe."
____
EDIT 6/4/16: See my edit at the bottom of the post, but it's not actually dairy free (and it's not actually a secret recipe). I asked to make sure it had no milk/egg/etc products in it and the barista said it didn't, definitely. And she was lying because she didn't actually know. Really unprofessional. Especially for a question about dairy in a drink advertised as non-dairy. So basically, they actually suck. But here was my reaction day of.
____
Um, my choice was made. They have a secret recipe! [EDIT: They don't, actually.]
I asked to make sure it wasn't low on caffeine, and the barista said it was actually high on the caffeine. I have to confirm. I got jittery.
Partly because it was too easy to drink! I was guzzling it!
It was pretty sweet, but I thought it blended really well with the coffee. It took me a minute to place the specific delicious coffee taste I was tasting, but I eventually realized it tasted a lot like coffee ice cream! Which I always loved, even when I was a kid and didn't like coffee at all.
 |
| Delicious Secret Recipe Venetian Cream [EDIT: It was good...it's just a lie.] |
I liked this drink a LOT. My only issue is that I'm not sure I could get it all the time because I really was jittery and I don't know if I could fully enjoy it if I had to force myself to drink it more slowly.
The coffee shop doesn't have any comfy/cushy seating or lounging areas, but I still found it a really nice place to hang out. Like, when you want the "coffee shop hangout" experience, this is a really good bet. It smelled SO good. They were grinding beans all the time. It was wonderful. I think they are primarily a distributor (I mean, they are a distributor, I am not sure about the "primarily"), so it made sense. They have a decent amount of seating, but I can see how it would fill up sometimes, with its proximity to DU. There were definitely a lot of students and people working while I was there. But this speaks to its niceness of a place to hang out.
Another note - I realized when I looked up the location that I had been here once before. Hung out to chat with someone for a while - it was also nice for that. Most of the tables and chairs are old/cheap, but it works because it's such a good "coffee shop" atmosphere with all the grinding beans and stuff. Importantly - this is the place that introduced me (the other time I was there) to a Mate Late, which is a late made with yerba mate and I liked it a lot!
I am also glad that I have now gotten a coffee-based drink from them! Because they are a really legit roaster and distributor. Their web site is amazing. I recommend. Especially this: https://www.kaladicoffee.com/about-our-coffee/
ESPECIALLY the sections about bitterness and acidity and labeling and flavor and EVERYTHING. I am not sure what to think specifically yet. I need time to absorb all of this information. It is definitely helpful to my coffee education adventure. I will be consulting this in the future. I will also be figuring out how it fits into the rest of the coffee world.
Kaladi's big thing is that they air roast their beans, which minimizes the acidity and bitterness of the beans. My understanding is that the process is a bit gentler because the beans are not roasted by coming into direct contact with hot physical objects - instead there is a buffer of air. I like this concept. I would like to spend time exploring how it affects beans and how much of a difference I notice and if I like it.
I definitely want to go back to this coffee shop at least one more time to try straight coffee. I am pretty sure I have had coffee from their beans before (Nixon's uses Kaladi beans), but I definitely want to try it straight from their own shop as well. That was they control all aspects of the situation. That situation is worth trying.
The wi-fi was slow enough at times to annoy me a bit while I was there, but it was functional.
They don't have parking, and being close to DU parking is a bit of a problem (though they are also within walking distance for a lot of students). However, if you go a few blocks away from the university there is free, unlimited street parking. And there is plenty of free 1hr parking in the near vicinity.
EDIT 6/3/16 and 6/4/16: I just inquired about the Venetian Cream at Nixon's and found out that it has a milk derivative in it. I specifically asked at Kaladi's if it was definitely vegan in addition to being dairy-free, like not just dairy-free, but no milk products/egg, etc....and they said yes. I get when people think dairy-free means vegan, but I specified...
I checked with Kaladi on the phone and they said, "Oh, it's not even dairy-free, either."
So basically...really crappy barista I had.
And like...are they calling this a secret recipe and using a bag mix?
I think they kinda suck now.
Like...the menu says it is non-dairy. This is a reasonable question to expect a correct answer on. And she didn't even say she didn't know. She said it like they had intentionally made a non-dairy drink.
I don't often go for the really sweet/flavored/lots of weird ingredients drinks anyway, so while it was fun I wouldn't have been disappointed to not get it. Obviously I won't again. Kaladi's still seems really cool for coffee, but this drink aspect sucked. And if they are being misleading on their menu and through their baristas...maybe they are not actually that awesome.
No comments:
Post a Comment