Trip Report: The Organic Coffee Co.
Posted by TheShot on 06 Apr 2006 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Fair Trade, Local Brew
Opening just this month, this café was started by The Rogers Family Company (perhaps best known for their ‘inorganic’ and dirt cheap San Francisco Bay Coffee Co. beans, available at Costco) and other investors. It’s heavy on the Fair Trade organic coffees, and that’s just where its social causes begin.
They heavily brand their devotion to community, economic, and social development — and they appear to live up to their word in where they buy their beans, how they support farmers, how they contribute to the local community, and even in hiring ‘challenged’ staff. Even in SF, the list of causes and do-gooderness is so in-your-face, it’s honestly a bit too much here — giving the place a cult-like feel. I applaud them for their well-intended causes, but I like to have a good espresso without feeling like I’m marinating in them.
Inside there are five wooden tables, and in addition to espresso they also serve salads and sandwiches. They offer about ten bean blends: Hurricane Espresso being their choice for espresso, and three decaf blends. They serve espresso as double shots only, filling a large shotglass if you ask for it — otherwise it’s a small paper cup (they do offer brown Nuova Point cups for larger drinks, such as cappuccinos). They pull shots from a two-group Futurmat F3 with a good amount of even, medium brown crema.
The espresso itself has substance, but it unfortunately runs a bit too bitter and ashy for its otherwise deeper tobacco flavor (oh, the irony in that). They get a lot down here save for the final flavor in the cup — they are almost too busy saving the world to make a great-tasting espresso (it’s the one cause they neglect a little). However, the place offers plenty for SF’s espresso drinkers with a cause.
2 Comments »
on 28 Jul 2006 at 12:29 pm -04:00T 1.TheShot.coffeeratings.com » Trip Report: NaS Coffee @ Rincon Center said …
[...] This is the last remains of the NaS Coffee chain that has since folded every other location around town. In fact, their corporate Web site has even skipped town. Chances are this location kept the NaS name out of convenience, despite the chain’s failure at corporate expansion. But tasting the coffee, you can’t say that their failure is suprising. Newer chains like The Organic Coffee Company are trying to succeed where NaS failed, but good luck to them — they’re going to need it. [...]
on 15 Sep 2006 at 2:22 pm -04:00T 2.TheShot.coffeeratings.com » Trip Report: Lettüs Café Organic said …
[...] The umlaut in the name might suggest a 1980’s metal band (pronounced ‘let-TOOOSE‘?), but this place is actually an ultra-organic café. It follows the trend of ‘preachy’ eateries that cross the line from espousing sustainable, organic agriculture to slapping you across the face with it. [...]