Latin American Coffee Guide
01-05-2016, 10:57 PM
ARGENTINA
BUENOS AIRES
Overall, Buenos Aires is certainly more of a yerba mate kinda place, but it seems the coffee scene is slowly taking hold, which makes a coffee snob like me happy.
LAB - Humboldt 1542 - If you only have time for one coffee in Buenos Aires, this should be your stop. These guys roast their beans and the end result is quite fantastic. Both espresso and pour overs are on point. There is a nice fitout in here with bar seating as well as private tables, definitely a place I would bring a girl. Also had a tasty cookie and the other goods looked appetizing. They have beans from Guatemala, Colombia, Kenya, and Brazil, and they roast different for espresso and pour over methods. I've tried their Brazil offering both on espresso and pour over, as well as their Guatemalan bean on pour over and both are very good. Bag of 250g beans costs between 140 - 150 pesos and I think their pour overs are around the 50 peso mark.
Barrio Cafetero - Reconquista 513; other location is Florida 833, both in Microcentro - Another great coffee spot. They do espressos and espresso drinks very well here and they served me up a very tasty single origin from Colombia. Fair prices, I think I paid somewhere around the 30 peso mark for a double espresso if I remember correctly. I only visited their Reconquista location, and it is a little hole in the wall shop with not much seating. So probably not great for a date, but better to just suck down an espresso at the bar or take something to go.
Negro Cueva de Café - Suipacha 637 Microcentro - Another nice little place with bar seating and also some intimate table seating, probably can seat maybe 20 people in here. They have also very nice espresso. I had a blend of an Ecuadorian bean and a Brazlian bean which was good, smooth, and balanced on the double espresso - I believe this was a house-crafted roast. You can also get a pour over but I didn't try that on my particular visit. Many people were here ordering food as well, and if you can get a table, probably it would be a good date spot. When I visited around 2PM, there were a bunch of suits in here which leads me to believe this is a popular place among the office worker crowd, considering the very central location in the Microcentro.
All Saints Café - Ciudad de La Paz 2300, Belgrano - Cool shop that actually looks very commercialized, almost like a Starbucks. This threw me at first, but once I talked to the barista about the brew bar I felt a little more comfortable. Tried an espresso here of the "organic" coffee on offer, which was a Colombian. It was good, not great. Smooth and sweet, but nothing mind blowing. What was mind-blowing, however, was this Ecuadorean Kalita Wave pour over I got for 34 pesos. One of the best pour over coffees I've had in a long while. A lot of the pour overs here come from other roasters in other countries, so you are not actually able to buy any beans from their brew bar. As far as date spots goes, this is a rather small place but I would definitely bring a girl back here.
Del Viento - Républica Arabe Siria 3037, Palermo - A very nicely designed and thought-out coffee shop (Patagonian-owned), offering more than just coffee with things like chocolates and ice creams which looked amazing, but I didn't partake. They had several varieties of beans on espresso (they use a roaster based outside of the city), somewhere around 5 or more, 2 Colombian origins, a mocha from Brazil and a couple others. With one single espresso and a double, the bill came to 70 pesos. I brought a pretty hot Brazlian chick here on an insta-date from day game, and she loved the place. So green light for date spot. Couldn't close with her as her flight back to Brazil was leaving in less than 4 hours...balls. Looking back I maybe should have gone for the hail mary love hotel option...
Ninina Bakery - Gorriti 4738, Palermo - A very fancy and pricey place (120+ pesos for a slice of cake!?), but with a very nice brew bar. Had a very tasty San Pedro Guatemala pour over here for 52 pesos. The serving was small but expertly done. If your budget is more on the "not cheap-ass backpacker" end of the spectrum, this would be an excellent place to bring a young lady as it seems their food is on point from what I could see and smell, plus you can get a beer or nice glass of wine (they had a nice wine list) as well.
Full City Coffee House - Thames 1535, Palermo - This is a cozy little shop, who roasts their own beans if I remember correctly. I got a Colombian pour over here and wasn't particularly impressed, as the coffee they used seemed quite flat and stale. I will add it to this list because a lot of people rave about this place, and maybe you will have better luck here than I did. Was a small and intimate place, so not sure if date-worthy or not.
Lattente - Thames 1891, Palermo - This is a pretty nice little shop. I stopped in here one day after I was already highly caffeinated, so I didn't actually order anything from here. However, they were fully stocked with LAB beans, and I saw some nice looking cappuccinos coming off the line. So, based on my visual assessment, I would feel confident adding it to this list. Seemed like there were a bunch of people on dates or social meetings, so I would bring a girl here probably if I ever came back to try the coffee.
Latin American Coffee Guide
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