Green T Coffee Shop

   

       The Green T coffee shop is located on 754 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115 (at the Green Line "Fenwood Road" stop). Near by are the six colleges of Fenway, Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Museum of Fine Arts.
     The coffee shop is open Mon. - Wed. 5:30am-6:30pm, Thurs. and Fri. 5:30am-3am, Sat. 7am-3am, Sun. 7am-6pm.
      There is no drive thru, but they have a nice sitting area. Also during the summer months, the open a walk by window were customers can purchase their coffee quickly on their way to catch a train.
      The clientele is mostly college students and doctors in large groups. The shop specializes in hot/cold coffee and teas as well as smoothies and cappuccino's. Breakfast sandwiches, bagels, cupcakes, and banana bread are also made daily.
       The shop gets their coffee from Red Barn Roasters, located in Upton MA. Their medium roast house dark blend is very popular and their new monthly special is the Ethiopian Harrah blend.
Check out their website!



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Sandy's Coffee Corner

12 Monponsett Street Hanson, MA

I had a chance to visit this coffee shop a few times around 9 a.m. on different days.  It is located at the intersection of routes 27 and 53 which are two main roads that see a lot of traffic throughout the whole day.  The biggest competition Sandy's Coffee Corner has is a Dunkin' Donuts located right across the intersection.  During one of my visits I was able to talk with the owner and she porvided me with some good information about the shop.  It is more of an early morning place where a regular crowd of older customers come in to talk and socialize, the busiest hours are between six and nine in the morning.  Every time I was in the shop there was always people sitting around a U shaped countertop talking with each other, it seemed everyone new one another.  Whenever someone else walked in the people in the shop said hi greeted that person like it was their normal routine.  The owner told me that she had been in business at that location for 14 years and that she buys all of her coffee from Bostons Best in Easton.  This shop has about ten different flavors for ice coffee as well as some pastries, muffins and other treats to eat.  I ordered a breakfast sandwich and a small hot coffee the first time I was there and thought they were both good.  It was nothing spectacular but I will definitely go again.  The atmosphere was kind of a simple place where customers could sit around and talk.  There is not any books around or a quite place you could do any reading or homework, most people went there to see a familiar face, talk and get their morning coffee.  Overall this is a nice simple shop that caters more to an older crowd of customers.  The food and coffee were both good and sold at fair prices.

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By: Sean Doherty

Coffee Sensations

     I chose to visit the local coffee shop, "Coffee Sensations" for my presentation. This coffee shop is located in Medway, Massachusetts. I went to this shop a few times, the first time being around 12:00 PM on a Saturday, the second time being around 10:00 AM on a Sunday. This shop was quite quiet during my first visit, with only a few people sitting on their laptops with schoolwork spread out along the table. However, this shop was quite bustling on the Sunday I went, and was filled with younger adults as well as elderly individuals waiting in line for their coffee. Most of the customers ordered their coffee and sat down to drink it alone, but a few others simply ordered their coffee to go. A majority of the customers appeared to be younger adults, ranging from the age of 18-26. I also took note that most of the customers were female. The coffee shop had a few promotional signs advertising seasonal flavors, such as "gingerbread man" for the winter months. I had the opportunity to try "winter wonderland", another seasonal coffee flavor- it was great! Coffee Sensations alternates promotional coffee flavors according to the current season. It was a great pleasure to visit this local coffee shop, and I will certainly be returning sometime soon.


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By:

Lauren Hodgkins

May 3, 2013

Tap Coffee

Location: 150, Nanchang Road, Luwan, Shanghai, China
 
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Tap Coffee is a pretty special cafe in  Shanghai. The theme of this cafe is to advocate environment protection. Every chair in the lobby of the first floor are made by abandoned or broken taps. Also, the menu are using by the recycle paper. An special account will be given if you buy the coffee with your own cups.

It opened up last year, and runs by two girls, Sam He and Sailing Liao, who have been stayed in Australia for several years. Sam used to be an international student in Melbourne, and she got a coffee-making certification in Australia. Another owner, Sailing, used to be a desert maker in a fancy and expensive cafe for almost three years. One reason that a lot of people prefer to come to this cafe is that they can enjoy more cheap but the same taste coffee and desert here rather than that fancy cafe.

 

This cafe has two floors. When we come inside, tables and chairs are put in order. Walked through the lobby, a nice counter and a magazine holder are shown in front of us. If people come to the cafe alone, they may not feel lonely, because they can read the magazine or enjoy the free wifi here. Walked inside, there is a side table and stair to the second floor.



 

 

Walk along the stairs, we entered into the second floor. This is how the second floor looks like. It supports people a secret and quiet place to talk or rest. The waitress told me that customers usually prefer to sit in the first floor during the afternoon time, because the lobby in the first floor is a perfect spot to enjoy the sunshine and the environment outside. However, during the evening time, people prefer to sit in the second floor, because of the mysterious decorations and comfortable environment.

 

 

 This cafe serve latte, mocha, cappuccino, long black, espresso, Macchiato. The most famous coffee they served is Flat White, which is developed in Australia. Also, another popular order is the coffee with hello kitty cream inside. I did not try this, because we have to make a reservation of it first. But I did order some nice dessert. Yummy!

 

The Waitress is very nice, but she seems do not know a lot of coffee. I guessed that she may not work here for a long time.

 

 

Compare to coffee, the dessert here are more popular. For my point, there are two reasons. First, Chinese people prefer to drink tea instead of drinking coffee, however, we have to admit that nowadays  more and more people in China begin to drink coffee. Second, the dessert here look very delicate. Also, as I mentioned before, the chef, Sailing, was used to be a dessert chef in a very popular, fancy and expensive cafe. Thus, people prefer to come here to enjoy the high level dessert with a relatively low price.

 

Most of customers prefer this cafe because of the decoration and the environment inside the cafe. It brings us a warm and neighborhood feeling. It is really a good place for friends spend on afternoon to get together here and enjoy the sunshine and the famous coffee and dessert!

 

I went Tap Cafe on Wednesday morning. No customers here except my friend and I. The day we went is a weekday, so that everyone have to go to work or have school instead of come here to enjoy the coffee. Without anyone inside, I really enjoy the quiet environment!

Even though this Tape Cafe is not the famous cafe in China, but I really like it, because of the nice coffee and warm environment!

Amber Road Cafe, Canton, MA

So a couple weeks ago, I had visited the Amber Road Cafe in Canton, MA. It is a coffee shop/brunch restaurant located around the downtown area, and is, interestingly, on the way to a Starbucks down the road. It's been around for about 4 years now.  I visited on a Sunday, circa noon-time. Usually they are open from 7:00 AM till 2:00 PM most days, sans Mondays. The crowd at the time looked primarily older adult, no one really looked like they were in college. Nevertheless, it was interesting going to check it out considering I must have passed it numerous times but never recognized it.
The time I went was super busy; I had to wait 10-15 minutes before I could be seated at the "bar" area (for lack of a better term). Once I got in, I immediately went to the bar area and ordered some coffee for there. I had noticed that they had some specialty drinks including something called "Tiramasu Iced Coffee", or something like that. They also had a breakfast and lunch menu with plenty of food.
However, I was more interested in just having the regular coffee, considering that I had been learning about coffee. No frills or anything, just coffee. They also have lattes, cappuccinos, and espresso, as well as a few specialty drinks as aforementioned. When I asked about its origins, they said it was Columbian coffee, and that they get the coffee from a supplier called "Raos", which, after doing some research later, is a single-origin coffee distributer that mainly ships around the Boston area but also some other general areas. No info on their site about fair-trade coffee...hmm...
At any rate, whilst consuming my coffee, I was met with a strong bitter taste in my mouth, that wasn't quelled until I put in numerous sugar packets into my coffee (I like my coffee sweetened). Perhaps I've been spoiled by the coffee present in my coffee class...I feel like I have slowly developed into a coffee snob, hahaha. Or maybe I just happened to have been stuck with a bad batch. Truthfully speaking, I don't know. It was fairly busy then and at least one person thought it was strange that I was taking a class about coffee. No lie! The atmosphere wasn't overwhelming, which was nice, though the overall busy-ness made it difficult for me to ask very much.

Here is a picture of the outside (image from hiddenboston.com)

 I was allowed to take pictures there, but considering how busy it was, and that I didn't bring a good camera (only my cell phone camera) I didn't get many good pics of the place.

But I will definitely try it again. I don't think I've made my mind up about this place! Maybe I'll try that Tiramasu coffee...stay for breakfast or lunch...I dunno. Fortunately for me, it is only a short drive from where I live, so geography isn't an issue.

For those who are interested, here is a map of its location:


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It's address is 635 Washington Street, Canton, MA, for the record. In addition,  the map above shows the path to the Starbucks down the road, for the sake of comparison.
-JP Burega

Uber Cafe! Mendon, MA

I did my coffee project at Uber Cafe located in Mendon, MA. For anyone interested in visiting this coffee shop the address is: 32 Hastings St #101 01756 (508) 488-6041 If you like a quiet place to grab some lunch and a coffee this is the place to go. Everytime I went to visit the shop it was near to empty but that might be because it does not have that much recognition yet. This June marks a year that it has been opened and it is also located at the end of a plaza mall, not to mention Dunkin Donuts is 400 feet down the street (walking distance.) However, the place is clean and it also offers outdoor seating. They offer an array of food choices as well as coffee flavors. They get their coffee from Red Barn Coffee. I would recommend this place to anyone! I found it to be very good and this place allowed me to grab a coffee and get some homework done!
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Sweets Coffee, Cakes and Treats By Andrew Gerety

Sweets Coffee, Cakes and Treats

 

 

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I visited Sweets for the first time on a Tuesday at about 11am it is a coffee shop and a bakery.  They have been open for only two years but they are located just down the street from a Dunkin Donuts.  Sweets is located at 56 Main Street in Kingston, MA.  When I went the shop was very quiet and there were only two other older men there.  The owner said they are busiest from about 7am to 9am and then again around lunch time. 

 Inside the shop is very small and there are only five tables to sit at.  They offer a wide variety of flavored coffees and espressos.  The staff is very friendly and welcoming of new customers.  The owner  told me how they make all the baked goods from scratch, offer gluten free items,  and they make lunch daily.  The day I was there she was making meat ball soup for lunch.  They have breakfast sandwiches and muffins to have with your coffee.  The price was comparable to chain coffee shops but the quality was superior.

The baked goods were really good I tried their cookies and a muffin.  The owner told me that they ground the coffee fresh everyday and they get their coffee from a local roaster.  Overall my visit to Sweets was a good one and I would recommend to anyone in the area to give them a try.  It is family owned and operated and a great place to get a coffee and to relax.