roy’s station

barefoot coffee and roy’s station

phil November 28, 2010

During a little South Bay mini vacation we stopped by some coffee places. _1030229dmbarefoot coffee roasters in santa clara.  Is their sign in comic sans? (for the record, I’m ok with comic sans.  Looking at this pictures also reminds me of this hilarious t-shirt.)  I also appreciate the Freedom Burrito and House of Bagels next door, but for different reasons._1030230dm

Anyways, here’s the espresso.   I had their rule of thirds blend, described by barefoot as

“a bright, complex espresso.  Aromas of apricot and pineapple upside down cake.  Butterscotch and brown sugar in the body, with a lemon bar-like acidity and a clean finish.”

I don’t think I tasted all of that – I don’t think I ever taste all of that.   but I did taste a light to medium bodied, quite bright espresso.  I liked it.  Jesse got a pourover of the $8 Hawaiian Ka’u Typica.  Really smooth taste.

_1030273dm We also stopped by former Mobil gas station Roy’s Station in San Jose’s Japantown at the recommendation of a friend.  I had an espresso with beans from Verve coffee roasters.  It was fine, though not quite amazing.  Shots pulled on what looks like a La Marzocco FB/80.

I’ll add these places to the coffee map.  Finally, some south bay representation!

list of bay area coffee shops – with a bay area coffee map

phil October 23, 2010

here’s my subjective ranking of the best espresso/coffee in the san francisco bay area, complete with a google map.

[googlemap width=”640″ height=”480″ src=”http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=112896448665808697633.00048fe8838715e9e8af6&ll=37.823616,-122.306671&spn=0.2689835,0.371824&z=11&output=embed”]

key: more crema = better.  empty cup =  not so good.  Sorry about the funky anti-aliasing.

excellent:

enjoyable:

not bad:

drinkable but not pleasant:

  • farley’s (san francisco/oakland/emervyille, farley’s blend from sunshine? in san leandro)  Recently had a not good one from the 65th st emeryville location.  doh.
  • peerless (oakland, peerless)
  • woody’s cafe (oakland, ?)
  • crepevine (oakland/berkeley, ?)
  • riva (berkeley, ?)
  • starbucks (starbucks)
  • peets (peets)
  • uncommon grounds cafe (berkeley, uncommon grounds)

not drinkable:

  • none yet.  Maybe I have a high tolerance?

credit for working the google maps/wordpress hack: http://digwp.com/2010/01/google-maps-shortcode/ if you want to try this, don’t forget to add the &embed at the end of your link.