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| - We are huge fans of Cartel Coffee Lab.
The Mrs. is a coffee nut so we drive all over in search of the best cup and the best beans. It is one of our two very favorite places.
First of all, their coffee beans... We are firm believers in getting beans that are locally roasted. We've subscribed to the belief that flavor is lost as you get too far out from the roasting. Cartel roasts their own and does a ridiculous job. They do a great decaf and a number of interesting and excellent regular varietals. If you don't already buy locally roasted beans, do yourself a favor and give Cartel's a shot.
As far as their in-house coffee drinks, the Cartel folk are pretty much obsessive in their pursuit of excellence. You won't find the million varieties of crazy drinks they now do in many coffeehouses but you will find excellent drinks done by people who are serious about what they are doing. I for one, am happy to roll with their recommendations when I am there and enjoy my whole milk, leaded latte with agave syrup.
They also have a Clover machine (which many say does the best brewed coffee) which does 1 cup at a time. You will also see the beans individually packaged for the clover right nearby. One of the philosophies the folks there have expressed is that you want to get the beans brewing as soon after grind as possible. They've even minimized the number of steps you have to take to do this.
Cartel Coffee Lab is also a very, very cool place. It's kind of tucked away in a strip mall off University back behind Eastside Records. They've taken this industrial space and kept some of that which adds to the charm and also have put very cool local art throughout. Some of it changes which is also nice. They've also fabricated some things like the bar and space dividers which give it a neat look. Their roaster also sits out in full view. In addition to all this, they always have great music playing. Something about sitting down on one of those couches with their background music instantly relaxes me.
And the last bonus for me is that with them being so obsessive about coffee, they also sell some great equipment in the front. We bought our burr grinder from them and couldn't be happier.
About the only thing about Cartel that is disappointing to us is that they have recently stopped pulling decaf espresso shots. From what I understand, this happened because they switched their grinder system out for a better one. I hope at some point, they decide to grab one of their own burr grinders for sale and reverse this change.
If you haven't tried Cartel Coffee Lab yet, it's a must.
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