This week we are visiting the local coffee hang out in Irvine, California to kick off our Coffee Latte review, the drink in the cup. My choice how to review, after all the coffee aficionado in this world, I am not one of them nor pretend to be, all I want in life is just a good cup of “joe”.
With this in mind, I bring you my review of various coffee’s & coffee latte’s of the local coffee shops, compare, learn, review with me, add your own experiences, comments and the like, after all this is a blog with a two way communication, anyone with a internet connection these days can be an expert, “yea mom it is true, I read it on the internet” !!
disclaimer as we need set our record straight: we own or work at Volcano Coffee a wholesale coffee broker of raw green beans, and none of the places we review we sell to, in fact we sell no beans into the united states, so this is a fair & balanced review of , well just coffee in the cup. Now do we know what we are talking about, hum,,,?? not really, coffee is coffee, some good some bad, some really really bad… the others are just OK. Does the local coffee shops hold up to an Italian coffee house, no way, not in a million years,,, but then again that is what our traveling around may find out, there are a few of the true coffee believers who own a coffee establishment, who actual care, in this very blog we will find them, discover their locations, and tell the world, “dear blog, today…” we found the perfect cup.
Guidelines: what ever i feel like telling you, depends upon my mood.
Where: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, chain store 5653 Alton Parkway Irvine CA, 92604
Served in a: Paper cup, or for here a Glass mug, otherwise we requested a real ceramic cup see photo
Espresso Quality: one half on a ten scale, very low quality shot, thin
Temperature: luke warm, barely hot, cup was cold not pre-heated, so espresso absorbed the coldness of the cup
Latte art Quality: Zero, in fact told they are not allowed to do so, never done one
The pour: dump in with a spoon over for the foam added
The milk: half left over from last latte, fresh added then re-heated all mixed to form something warm & white foamy stuff.
The stir: wooden only, no spoons on premiss
Logo Cup & Saucer: YEA, great, start a collection set of your very own, worth taking home.
Outside Tables: Great provided by Irvine Company, green metal with umbrella’s, good , heaters at night
Parking: 100% easy in-out for the commuter
The walk-in girls, babe meter: 55% good walk-bys on the babe meter, nice legs, professional dressed for work
Crying kids: zero today
Barista knowledge: Zero, said she had no formal training, push this button, stick pot of milk here.
Store cleanliness: 65%, inside full of students on notebooks, no place to sit
Time of day: 11 am morning
Overall Rating 1-10 score: minus-1
Photos of our samples:
I’m excited to follow your adventures Dad! You have truly given me the travel “bug”. I was dreaming the other night about traveling to India and brining home some wonderful spices & beautiful fabric. As I sit here with my own cup of joe (Fair trade Sumatra) I can’t help but smile and be proud of a dad who never gives up, who keeps on giving to the world and keeps on striving to make something of it. I think your photography is beautiful. I never thought I had any talent, but you always did, and when you gave me a camera 19 years ago I thought for sure you would get tired of the hundreds of photos we developed of the birds outside my window! Ha, ha, I’ll never forget that. You didn’t care, you just kept buying me film. Nice that today’s kids just have to buy a bigger hard drive! 🙂 I hope that in the coming years perhaps we can meet somewhere foreign to enjoy a cup of joe together and take some pictures too.