The iced coffee includes a shot of espresso, a nice jolt of caffeine that didn’t give me the jittery sweats like Peet’s usually does. Unfortunately they don’t have a soy milk option. So for those of us who are lactose intolerant (me included) I would suggest popping a lactaid or just riding out the gassy/bloated feeling that will surely come soon after. One of the baristas looks like the lead singer from Hoobastank, I’ll save all puns relating to “The Reason” for myself.
To be economical, I’m trying to give up $4+ espresso drinks and drip my own coffee instead so I ventured to Chelsea to scout Ninth Street Espresso. They only had blends and one Guatemalan available, so I decided to head over to Stumptown instead and walked away with a nice-smelling bag of “Mordecofe” from Ethiopia. Two caps (Ninth St. had good flavor, Stumptown’s foam was richer) and a stop at Doughnut Plant later, I had quite the coffee buzzzzzzzzz and kind of defeated the purpose of trying to save money. Oops!
I can see why the “blackout” cake doughnut is so popular especially since it’s filled with chocolate pudding, but it felt like more cake than doughnut. The PBJ was ok but nothing special. Even after eating these two halves, I still have a buzzzzz. To quote Alice, “lalalalalalala I love coffee!”
Chiang & Chong take NYC 