They say you never forget your first love…

…and Coava was mine.

They are the first Portland-local roaster and cafe I fell in love with.

When I first moved to Portland, there was a Coava cafe in the same building as my apartment, on the lobby floor. Nearly all 5 work-days, nearly every week since I moved here, I worked from that cafe in the upstairs seating area surrounded by Monstera Deliciosas, PSU students, and speakers playing indi tracks I’d never heard before.

I’ve consumed more Coava espresso than any other form of espresso in my life by a long shot. It’s no surprise that they earn a perfect 10/10; fruity but not too blond, bitter but not too dark.

I’ll forever mourn their west-side location, but their headquarters shop on SE Main and Grand right off the 6 bus line is a much nicer cafe anyways. The seating area is home to beautiful woodworking projects from Bamboo Revolution with whom Coava shares a space, along with antique roasting equipment and open-air garage doors and fans (at least in the summer time).

For this review I had a doppio of the Java Papatong, a washed-process from Indonesia, but I’ve loved many of their other roasts:

• the San Marcos,
• the SO Blend from the Americas and East Africa,
• the Darfusu washed process,
• the Fazenda Serra do Boné from Brazil,

and plenty of others. Their roasts are all seasonal, so try whatever they have.