Lubbock Coffee and Tea

New Space Being Built

2010-12-02T07:58:00.001-08:00

I caught wind recently that Healthy Essentials will be opening a newer larger retail space next door to their current location, and they will be serving coffee, tea, and smoothies.

Rumor is that their espresso set up is the old Stein's Coffee and Sandwiches(closed) gear. If this is true, then Healthy Essentials will be pulling shots on a La Marzocco Linea with a Nuova Simonelli MDX grinder. I assume that they will also continue using Dazbog unless they've done some homework of their own to source better (read: fresher and better) coffee.

I would keep an eye out for this logo to pop up on Abbeville at 82nd in the near future.

News in the Coffee Retail World for Lubbock

2009-01-27T01:13:00.000-08:00

Aroma's Therapy Coffee House (previously known as Aroma's Coffee House) has closed its doors. It was up for sale for a few months, and although a few people had considered buying it, no-one did, and the retailer is no more.

The retail division of Day Break Coffee Roasters was purchased by the owner of J&B Coffee at 26th and Boston (who happens to also be the owner of Roly Poly Sandwiches at 4th and Frankford). If you don't know by now, it seems pretty clear that the "Arriba!" coffee line sold by United/Market Street/Amigos is Day Break coffee in other badging. The coffees look the same, taste the same, and the offerings match up.

Lubbock Coffee legend Sugar Brown's Coffee is planning to move into their new roasting outfit somewhere on the NE side of town with a Probat L12 roaster that came from Coffee Eiland in Dallas. (or so I heard from a reliable Sugar Brown's representative)

Coffee Haus seems to have dwindling traffic, and Koffee Kup on Slide has been closed for quite some time. This blogger suspects that this is a company that is not self-supporting, and the money is bound to dry up sooner or later.

Mangia Bevanda was sold, and renamed P&L's Cafe. It was bought as a gift, from what I've been told, and it remains to be seen how it will fare, although it was seen for sale on several business listings.

We've added a link to our list: http://tx-coffee.com
It seems to be a great resource for all things coffee in Texas, as well as general news, updates, and opinions.

A national recession is in full swing, and it seems Lubbock is not immune to the effects, no matter what your favorite local news anchor tells you. It is the opinion of this blog that the only guaranteed way to make sure a coffee retailer will survive, is if they focus on the quality of their products. It seems folks are paying more attention to the value of what they are purchasing, and businesses built on being "local", or built on personality may not survive.

If you know of a business in the area that could use some help in the quality department, there is an independent trainer in Lubbock that advertises on tx-coffee.com called EspressoTrainer.com. It has been said by lots of people that the best investment is an investment in yourself. The same just might be true for businesses as well.

There was a gathering of enthusiasts who called their meetings the Lubbock Coffee Club for awhile, but it seems to have been a few months since the last gathering, as most of the members are students, and a few have either moved away, or have left the coffee business.

If you have never seen latte art, Sugar Brown's is making it a regular habit these days, so drop in and ask about it if you want to see this art form in person.

Red Baron Car Wash in Idalou built a small coffee bar into their business, and it seems to be a Day Break carbon copy menu. It figures, I guess, since they're using Day Break coffee.

Java J in Levelland opened about a year or so ago, I hear, also serving Day Break Coffee as well as ice cream, located very near the South Plains College levelland campus.

That's all for now. If you know of any new shops, new happenings, or news you'd like to see in these pages, let us know at lubbockcoffee@gmail.com.

Happy sipping.

New Feature: Reader Requested Review

2006-12-01T21:28:00.000-08:00

If you would like Lubbock Coffee and Tea to review a local Lubbock coffee and/or tea establishment, please send an email to lubbockcoffee@gmail.com with "Requested Review" in the title, and the name and address of the establishment in the body.

The review will follow probably within two weeks of having received the email.

Thank you for your interest.

Coffee Haus (University & 15th) Avg. 2.0

2006-09-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

Word has it that this business was recently acquired by the owners of Koffee Kup, for better or for worse.
Coffee Haus has a rather stripped-down feeling atmosphere, but it's quite cozy nonetheless.
There is a Brasilia Portofino 2-group machine, with a Mazzer SuperJolly (that I could see.. there might be more). This shop uses a Melitta cup-at-a-time brew system for drip coffee, unfortunately, all of the coffee is ground hours before use and stored in tupperware containers. Coffee is scooped out of the tupperware container, and into the filter prior to brewing. While the coffee is BREWED fresh, it is not ground fresh, which sort of defeats the whole purpose of the cup-at-a-time concept for quality and freshness of product.

Drink Ordered:

Traditional Cappuccino

Grind per shot: no
Tamped: yes
Extraction time: about 20 seconds

The PBTC dosed ground coffee from a VERY full doser into the double filterbasket. The filterbasket was not entirely full, and no distribution method was used, when the too-small tamper was pressed down onto the "mound" (it was more of an unorganized pile, really) of ground coffee in a not-so-vertical manner. There was a significant angle on the top of the puck before locking into the group-head.

The espresso was pulled into a rather large (3oz, or so) metal recepticle, and not directly into the for-here cappuccino cup. Why, I will never understand.

The espresso was then poured into the cup, which was just under half full (meaning, the espresso was about 2.75oz in volume.. far too much liquid for a double shot).

A gigantic (I want to say much bigger than 32oz, but I have no idea how much bigger.. far too large for a cappuccino, regardless) milk pitcher was 1/3 filled with milk, and the milk-coated steam-wand was sunk into the pitcher. The steam was activated, and the end product was poured into the cup with the froth being held back. the cup was filled nearly to the brim before the PBTC stopped pouring liquid, and, at which point, began to spoon some foam ontop of the contents of the cup.

The foam was possibly some of the worst I have ever seen in Lubbock. It did not appear that the barista had been adequately trained.

The espresso was watery, diluted, and over-extracted. I detected about a 15% robusta in the blend, which didn't help matters outside of crema-production.. there was a thin layer, thanks to the robusta.

The taste was surprisingly not overly bitter. I was able to drink the whole thing without the addition of sugar or other sweeteners.

I get the impression that the blend is very forgiving, but that the skills of the staff are not up to par.

Total Score:
2 out of 10

MudHen Espresso (19th & Frankford) Avg. 0.25

2006-08-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

MudHen Espresso just opened maybe two or three weeks ago. It is a drive-through operation in the Lowe's grocery parking lot.

I was unable to time the shot, or check for tamping, or see how full the doser was due to the nature of the "building".

Drinks Ordered:

Double small cappuccino (8oz)
16oz. Iced mocha

The reviews:

Double Cappuccino

The foam was not very dense. It very much resembled dirty dish-soap bubbles in a cup.

The espresso was bitter. Extremely bitter, and very astringent. No amount of sugar could have salvaged this drink. As soon as I arrived at my destination, the cup and all of its contents went directly into the garabage.

There were fairly coarse-looking coffee grounds on the inner wall of the cup. This leads me to believe that the grind setting was much too coarse, and that the work-space is littered with stale coffee grounds. These coffee particles were much too large to have squeezed through the filterbasket perforations.

Overall, I give this drink a score of:

0 out of 10

Iced Mocha

The espresso in this drink was every bit as horrible as the cappuccino, but the Hershey's syrup used helped to cut the astringency, so only the bitterness was noticable. There was no sign or visual of a Hershey's chocolate syrup bottle, but the tart twang and synthetic mouthfeel of the product is unmistakeable.

The appearance of the slightly-mixed drink was very unique, and visually entertaining. It's a shame that the actual drink quality did not match the appearance.

Total score:

.5 out of 10 (for the nifty appearance)

Starbucks Coffee (University) Avg. 6.8

2006-07-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

Walking in, it's your standard typical Starbucks. Everything is cookie-cutter fabulous and exactly as it would be at some other location over 1K miles away.

The equipment is the ever-depressing Saeco Verisimo 440 Superautomatic.

The drip coffee is in the last ten minutes of however long the timer was set for.

Drink ordered:

Double Short Cappuccino (that's 8oz.)

The attendant begins by frothing the milk. I can hear the pitcher being raised and lowered, creating large bubbles rather than the desireably sweet silky microfroth found in high quality establishments.

Upon finish, the milk pitcher is tapped against the counter to break up the larger bubbles, and swirled to help incorporate the froth back into the milk mixture. Both are a good sign.

The espresso shot is pulled by pressing a button. the shot is a bit quick, and blonds very early on.

The milk is then poured into the cup by holding back the froth with a spoon, and then spooning on the froth once the cup is a little over half full.

This practice, for a cappuccino, is against quality standards in general, as well as Starbucks standards for drink preparation.

Still, the result is not the worst thing I have ever tasted in Lubbock.

The espresso is thin and weak, with a dominant roasty flavor lacking in complexity and origin flavors.

The froth, while not very good, is some of the best I've seen in Lubbock.

All in all, The cappuccino is drinkable, if not a little enjoyable.

It's not what I would consider to be high quality, but it's not necessarily bad. I would put this somewhere between mediocre to good.

Final score
6.8 out of 10

Brother Martin's Coffee Haus (2615 19th St.) Avg. 0

2006-07-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

Located in the Lutheran Student Center across the street from Texas Tech University.

The room adjacent to the "coffee bar" is fairly comfortable, with high tables and chairs, and a relaxing atmosphere.

The coffee bar itself appears to be a transformed establishment kitchen. A 1-group Rio machine, and a Rio flat-burr commercial grinder. The true manufacturers of the respective machines is anyone's guess.

Drink ordered:

Double Cappuccino

The doser was full of ground (who knows when) Daybreak coffee (not a good sign).

The filterbasket was well under-dosed and not tamped at all, meaning extremely week coffee (I dare not call it espresso).

I shrug it off, as I have become quite accustomed to below-average coffee from most establishments in Lubbock.

The milk is steaming, and I listen as I hear it pushed far beyond the point of scalding.

With less foam than my companion's latte (very very little, if any), burned milk, and possibly the weakest excuse for espresso I have ever tasted, this was one of the worst cappuccinos I believe I have ever tasted.

Served in a 12oz. to-go cup. There was no ceramic cup in sight.

Grind per shot: no
Tamped: no
Shot time: NA
Milk froth: terrible(hardly existent)

Overall score: 0 out of 10

Don't waste your time.

Aroma's Coffee House (82nd & Slide) Avg. 4

2006-05-17T02:00:00.000-07:00

Drink ordered:

Traditional Cappuccino
Loose Leaf Tea

The atmosphere of Aroma's is drastically improved from what it once was. No longer does it feel like a crowded study lounge, it is more spread out with an added leather couch and a bench made from an old church pew.

Their selection of loose leaf tea is in plain sight and is served in single serve French Presses.

Unfortunately, the lack of natural teas in favor of a mass of flavored tea varieties leaves much to be desired for the tea purist. Still. Loose leafe tea served in french presses is a huge step up in the tea market for Lubbock.

The coffee is from Panache Coffee of Portland, OR. The coffee appears to be roasted far too dark for flavor of origin to be a determining factor in the espresso blend. The beans were almost black, and were entirely coated in oil. To some, the ideal espresso blend.. for professionals, a bad sign.

The grinder's doser was completely full, and the person behind the counter (I'll not insult the title of Barista in this case) failed to perform and adequate tamp.

Traditional Cappuccino

The cappuccino was served in a traditional brown and white Italian-made ACF cup and saucer. Very cool. I wish more cafes in Lubbock gave a nod to the Italian tradition.

Upon first glance, the liquid was too dark with no sign of crema, and the foam was comprised of gigantic bubbles. Anyone who knows good coffee knows that big bubbles in foam is a sure sign of ignorance, apathy, or both of quality coffee.

Upon first taste, the espresso is thin, bitter, and some of the worst I've had in Lubbock. The milk was thin, with all foam being wasted as larger, flavorless bubbles which were, without my consent, dusted with ground cinnamon powder.

Sugar could not save this drink. The combination was so bad, it was beyond repair.

Grind per shot: no
Tamped: no
Shot time: NA
Milk froth: terrible

The only point given is for the nod to the Italian culture which gave us the beverage made from the very essence of coffee we know as espresso.

1 out of 10

Loose Leaf Tea

The tea is not served with timers for steep time, and the customer is left to guess when to press the tea leaves.

Using the stopwatch equiped with my mobile phone, I timed 4 minutes of steep time, which was a bit too long. I would not time past 3 minutes.

The tea, while loose-leaf and better than tea-bags, was a little on the stale side. Still, though, it's a better experience than other places I have visited.

pre-heated ACF latte (or cappuccino, depending on what is available) cups are handed out with the french presses.

Overall, the tea is good. Not great, but definitely good.

The lack of steep timers is an issue, as is the cleanliness of the french presses and lack of freshness of the tea leaves due, in part, to the storage method.

for Tea, Aroma's Coffee House (perhaps a change of name is in order) scores

7 out of 10

Directory List

2006-05-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

Actively linked locations have been reviewed. Click the name of the company to see the review.

CLOSED-Aroma's Coffee House (82nd & Slide)

Arrogant Texan (University & Broadway)

Barnes & Nobel (TTU campus)

Barnes & Nobel (Slide & Loop 289)

Brother Martin's Coffee Haus (2615 19th St.)

CLOSED-Coffee Haus (14th & University)

CLOSED-Coffee haus (82nd & Frankford)

DayBreak Coffee Roasters (82nd & Quaker)

DayBreak Coffee Roasters (19th & Quaker)

CLOSED-Dot Com Coffee (82nd & I-27)

Hardback Cafe - Hastings (82nd & Slide)

J&B Coffee Co. (Boston & 26th)

CLOSED-Mangia Bevanda (Frankford & 4th)

CLOSED-MudHen Espresso (19th & Frankford)

Oo La Lattes (29th & Slide)

Peet's Coffee and Tea (Market Street, 50th & Indiana)

Peet's Coffee and Tea (United, 82nd & Frankford)

Smokin' Java

Starbucks Coffee (University)

Starbucks Coffee (Slide & 4th)

Starbucks Coffee (Quaker & 82nd) - Temporarily Closed

Starbucks Coffee (Milwaukee & 50th)

Sugar Brown's Coffee (50th, E of Slide)

Dot Com Coffee (1303 82nd) 2.5 avg.

2006-05-15T02:44:00.000-07:00

First of all, the location is kind of awkward. It's almost to HWY 87 it's so far east. On the south side of the road, in a tiny strip-mall.

The atmosphere is absolutely fantastic. I love the setup. In my opinion as a practicing barista, the layout is just perfect. There is seating at the bar, there are booths, and there isn't a seat in the house that would feel claustrophobic in any circumstance. Very impressive.

Nuova Simonelli espresso machine. Grinder is unknown.

Whole bean coffee is kept in clear transparent bins very close to the door completely open to the elements and in broad contact with direct sunlight. Not good.

Too much emphasis on food offerings and not enough emphasis on the coffee.

Drinks ordered:

Polar Mocha
Double "tall"(12oz to-go) cappuccino

Polar Mocha:

The milk is not ice-cold, but cold enough. Hershey's chocolate is used (not so good), but it balances really nicely with the coffee and milk. Great job on the balance of flavors. Sweet, but not too sweet. Coffee flavor is quite obvious. Would recommend if the coffee involved were actually good.

4 out of 10

Double Cappuccino:

Only cups are to-go. 12oz double cappuccino was ordered.

Portafilters left in head: yes
Filterbasket rinsed and wiped clean: no
Grind per shot: no
Proper tamper(was it used?): yes(yes)
Timing: <15 seconds.. POOR

This is possibly the worst espresso experience ever had in Lubbock. Under-extracted, astringent, thin, weak, bitter, all at once. Words cannot describe how awful the espresso was. Two entire packets of sugar could not save this drink which ended up in the trash.

1 out of 10 (why 1? the milk was about average for Lubbock, but far from great)

Go for the environment and layout. Beware the espresso. The food offerings and shop atmosphere alone may be worth the trip. If great coffee is your goal.. avoid like the plague.

J&B Coffee Co.(Boston & 26th) Avg. 2.25

2006-05-08T00:59:00.001-07:00

Drinks ordered:

"Tall" Latte
"Tall" Masked Rider

*Portafilters left in group-head: yes
*Grind per shot: no
*Distribution technique: poor
*Used tamper properly: yes
*Shot pour time: poor
*Milk frothing technique: poor

** (out of six)

The "Tall" latte was 16oz. in a to-go cup. Be careful to look before ordering. No traditional cups in sight.

The espresso was bitter and under-extracted. DayBreak's over-roasted low-quality coffee is used. The foam on the latte was minimal, but not dry. The coffee was stale.

Nuova Simonelli Mac series espresso machine. Nuova Simonelli primary grinder, Mazzer secondary (assumed to be decaf) grinder.

Drink: Latte
Technical score:2 out of 6
Overall Score: 3 out of 10

The "Masked Rider" is a frozen blended drink made with ice, icecream, coffee, and syrups.
The coffee was extremely weak. Coffee type and brew method is undetermined. Espresso is suspected.

The beverage was overly sugary resulting in a sickly feeling after consumption. The coffee in the concoction did little to offset the overly sweet flavor of the icecream. Blend consistency was good. Presentation was average.

Drink: Masked Rider
Technical score: NA
Overall Score: 1.5 out of 10

Tea:

Loose leaf tea is stocked, but freshness is unknown. Brewing process is with tea invusion bags.
No french press, no tea "infuser", no tea pot.

Barnes & Noble Cafe (Texas Tech campus) avg: 4.8

2006-04-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

Neither the B&N Cafe nor Starbucks has ever offered a traditional cappuccino, so this review is based on freshly brewed House Blend from a Fetco Extractor and their Caramel Macchiato.

The drip coffee:
Pouring into the cup, it looked fairly decent, but also noticeably dark.
The coffee was very hot.

The extremely dark roast imparts a very obvious burnt bean carbon flavor in the cup, which needs to be looked past in any review of a Starbucks product, but it cannot be ignored. Starbucks coffee is burned.

The very dark roast does its job of helping to hide the stale bean flavor expected in a cup of coffee brewed from pre-ground coffee from a foil pouch lacking a roast date.

The darker roast imparts a spicy, almost uncomfortable flavor all over the palate.

The body is medium to full, and is well balanced. (keep in mind, this is looking past the obvious burnt bean flavor)

The origins in the blend are difficult to place, which is also to be expected of such a dark roast.

With a little half & half added, the bitterness of the carbon in the coffee contrasts with the non-steamed half & half, which actually tastes fairly sweet thanks to the coffee's own lack of such characteristics.

Together, it balances out pretty decently and provides a drinkable, though not exceptional, cup of coffee.

6.5 out of 10

The Caramel Macchiato:

Of course, the espresso is impossible to taste, and is quite bitter and underdeveloped. Typical of a superautomatic machine set to Starbucks standards.

The caramel sauce is good, and helps to balance the unpleasant flavor of the sub-par espresso.

The vanilla syrup helps to mesh the flavors in a transitional(for lack of a better word) way.

The milk is frothed with large visible bubbles resulting in a rather flat, dull flavor.

It should be noted that the Caramel Macchiato is not a true macchiato, but rather, is a vanilla latte macchiato with caramel sauce applied in a cross-hatched pattern on top.

Quality of coffee:
3 out of 10

Quality of drink concept/build:
5 out of 10

Welcome

2006-04-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

This blog is intended to rate and review various coffee and tea establishments around Lubbock, TX and surrounding areas.

The intent is to be honest and objective in the reviews so potential customers will know exactly what to expect from the chosen establishment.

The drink to be reviewed will be either a traditional cappuccino, or a double shot of espresso. In the case of tea, the menu will determine what is available, as well as determine the attitude of the shop towards their field of choice.

If you would like to contribute to this blog, or if you would like your establishment reviewed, please contact me at lubbockcoffee at gmail dot com. I would be happy to talk to you.