Brewing Memories:
A Coffee Lover's Diary
I rate the coffee shops I visited
Coffee Quality (Taste, variety, presentation)
Pastry (Taste, variety, presentation)
Staff (Friendliness & knowledge)
Ambiance (Coziness, nerdiness)
Pricing & Value
and I'm gonna enjoy
every sip of that coffee.
Historically Listed, The Last New Coffee Shop I Visited On The Top
I update my regulars if I try something new.
Mojo Coffee House, (9.5/10) | December 25, 2024
Yes, I have a thing for coffee shops' restroom arts.
Roots Roasting, St. Paul (8.5/10) | November 29, 2024
The street it was looking for and working environment seems nice. So, I would say it is propriate for working and studying. It was little bit small, but very light.
We visited Roots Rosting with Uğur Abi on my last day in St. Paul. It was one of the limited options opened after Thanksgiving. Even though it is a roastery, they did not ask which coffee bean we would like to have. But luckily, the current one has a dark one with chocolate notes I would say, so I like it.
They had this aeropress art in their bathroom, but do not offer any of poor over, v60 or aeropress brews...
They did not have too much pastry options, I think Thanksgiving might be the reason, but still did not seem very appealing.
I was sitting next to this Forever Ware thing in the coffee shop, and one guy who scanned its cup told me about it. If you are grabbing your coffee pretty regularly from this coffee shop, and hating washing and taking care of your thermos, then you will love Forever Ware. You can take out your coffee, and when you bring their cup bag, all you need to do is scan! To be honest, I love ceramic cups, and also the feeling of the paper cup if I am carrying it, but it is still pretty impressive.
As usual, I tried Americano, not too watery. It did not have the texture as thick as Groundswell, but better than average.
Groundswell, St. Paul (9.5/10) | November 27, 2024 & August 3, 2024
From my August visit.
From my November visit.
Groundswell is the closest coffee shop to Uğur Abi's house. For me, it is Needmore of St. Paul (yes, this is my second visit only, but still, the same vibes!). In the summer, I did not realize how big they were actually. After exploring all of their corners, my ambiance score definitely 2/2.
I love big windows as much as I love coffee shops, hopeless romantic is talking! When you combine them with Christmas lights, what can I say? I have to romanticize writing fuzzy & TF-IDF string-matching code in Python...
In terms of coffee taste, I remember last time when I had an iced latte, I was not impressed. It was just a regular latte; however, today's Americano hit me. I believe there is a perfect texture for Americano, Groundswell's Americano had that texture. Sometimes, even though I got two shots of espresso I cannot feel that texture (e.g. Soma Coffee, the local coffee shop in Bloomington). Groundswell achieved that texture with one shot since I already had Aeropress in the morning. They did not ask me about the roast, it was according to my taste, though. I do not know if should I break the point. I like talking about notes of coffee! So, for the coffee, I would say 2.75/3 because of the lack of roasts.
For the staff part, it was nice to get your coffee to your table, and they were helpful. I received respect for my whatever left least order strategy for my pastry choice! (1/1 for staff).
For pricing, I will go with 0.75/1 because there is no medium-size option. I am always a large coffee girl, but thinking about my readers!
Perfect Americano texture I was talking about.
When I first time visit coffee stores, I usually prefer the one the most sold. For Groundswell, it was Sesame Honey Corn Muffin. It was a real Midwesterner pastry! Unlike many American pastries with the perfect amount of sugar. They had a good variety of pastries (3/3 for pastry).
Sovereign Grounds (9.5/10), Minneapolis | November 26, 2024 & August 2, 2024
We visited with Uğur Abi and Sibi, for the 2nd time. It is owned by another Turkish: Hakan Abi! Therefore, they have many Turkish & Mediterranian food options such as Turkish-style potato salad, dolma (Turkish dish), or Turkish pastry we call "Poğaça." I tried their no-bake biscuit cake, and I can assure you it is homemade, Turkish style! (3/3 for pastry)
They have kid play area that made me think about ambiance score, but it's quite separated from nerdy place.
I tried their drip coffee for the first time in August and their cappuccino today! As a dark roast lover, I enjoyed both. While writing this, I am having their decaf roast made with Aeropress (3/3 for coffee).
Pricing is quite shocking for both beans and individual coffees (1/1 for pricing), and also the last time Hakan Abi, and this time Jackson were so friendly (1/1 for staff)!
Unfortunately, at both of these times, we could not spend time in the shop, but I kept saying, I would love to study in this place (1.5/2 for ambiance).