Showing posts with label Fire Roasted Coffee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fire Roasted Coffee. Show all posts

Sunday, March 14, 2010

CC: Neat Coffee Shop

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What's does "CC" mean? Location visited: Burnstown, ON
Free WiFi ? : no

Rating:
4+ [
see key]



Aside from Canada's many cities, I can't say I've seen a whole lot of our neighbor to the north. Granted I've passed through lots of interesting-looking towns (especially in the Thousand Islands) but it wasn't until a coffee destination turned up a little off my beaten path in Burnstown that I got a chance to take a nice detour on some back roads.

Said coffee destination is called Neat Coffee Shop, a cafe nestled in an old schoolhouse at the main intersection of town. The exterior consists of two buildings, with the most of the cafe in the blue portion (I have no idea really what they do in the brick section). The interior held a nice open space, with some wood furniture, local art and a big Apple desktop for customers.

Neat roasts their coffee in-house, though per their website they also claim to carry 49th Parallel and Fire Roasted Coffee (49th Parallel's Epic Espresso is their espresso blend). They do have a Clover but it was down for repairs, so I ordered a french press of their Ethiopian. The coffee was really bright with notes of raspberry and caramel, as well as some strong dark notes. The espresso, pulled short and served in a shot glass, had a milkshake-ish head followed by a slap of dark bitterness, plus some flavors of cocoa, lemon and a bit of pepper. While I failed to ask if the espresso that day was 49th's Epic, it seemed that the pull was more of the concern then the espresso blend. Their tea was free leaf.

I can't say that Neat was completely worth the detour but it seems that the place has a lot of potential with a few tweaks (they seem to really like their darker roasts). If you're nearby, give Neat a stop.