Finding good coffee shops in LA is sort of like trying to find good actors in LA. There are thousands of options, and many of won’t make the grind.
So how do you sort out the good ones? Well, reading COFFEEwithChuck is a start. But I’m a believer in giving a man a fishing rod at some point and helping him catch his own.
When you walk into a coffee shop, start by asking the Baristas (that’s the term for the person making the coffee) something about their coffee. If they say “I don’t drink it” get the heck out of there. You want a place where employees are customers too.
Next you could ask them “what are some of your favorite coffee shops in the area?” If they don’t know, or tell you not to go anywhere else – it’s a sure sign they’re not into coffee culture. Almost without fail, great coffee shop baristas are freaks about coffee and have been to all the other coffee shops in the area.
Lastly, if they pass all of these tests, you ask for a cappuccino. This is by far the hardest drink to make correctly, and will quickly separate the ‘get me out of here’ places from the ‘wow this is amazing’ cafes. It’s got to be delicious. At places like Cafe De Leche or Jones Coffee Roasters, for instance – their cappuccino’s are so Godly that even my sister (a ‘coffee with my milk’ girl) relish it with no additives.
Here are some other qualities that all the good coffee shops have, and many of the bad ones don’t: 1) Fresh Hot Coffee (never more than 45 minutes old! This is when brewed coffee dies), 2) Cold Brew (a 24 hour brewing process used to make amazing ice coffee), 3) Freshly Brewed Hot or Ice Tea (to accommodate Los Angeles’ new wave of tea fanatics).
Start fishing baby.
Weekly featured coffee
Cafe De Leche is a soon to be not-so-secret coffee shop in Highland Park. It is only 15 minutes from Fuller, and worth the drive. Free internet, amazing drinks: all of them.
Go to COFFEEwithChuck.NET for more tips, to comment on this article, and to request future article subjects.
The Semi is the weekly school paper for Fuller Theological Seminary. Fuller students, let me know what you think, and what topics you’d be interested in for future articles.