Macondo , Stonington CT

Coffee review

Macondo I found a great coffee shop in Stonington. This place is the real deal. I say this from the perspective of somebody who has raised coffee snobbery to an art form.

I went in with low expectations, it is so rare to go into a coffee shop where the barista actually knows what they are doing. For example, at a well known coffee franchise, the "barista" pushes buttons to make your drink from lousy over-roasted beans. I was immediately intrigued that they post the harvest date of their coffee as well as the roast date, so I ordered a cappuccino. While I was paying for it I was expecting to hear the all-too-familiar "butchering" of the milk as it is being frothed. I'm very particular about frothing the milk. Properly done, frothing produces extremely small bubbles sometimes referred to as micro foam. This can only be achieved by incorporating air into the foam only at the beginning of the frothing process and not towards the end. When you hear the air being sucked into the foam towards the end of the process you know there will be giant bubbles and a complete foam disaster awaiting you. So I started asking some questions and it turns out the woman making the cappuccino really knew what she was doing. She gallantly stood up to my interrogation. It wasn't a full fledged waterboarding, but it was close.

Each shot is ground to order so it hasn't been sitting around losing flavor and aroma. They aim for 30 pounds of pressure when tamping the ground coffee. She twisted the tamper at the end of the press to "polish" the puck. The shot is timed to come out neither too fast (sour), nor too slow (bitter) and they adjust the grind in order achieve the proper properly timed shot.

The result? Gorgeous precision-poured microfoam and rich deep layers of coffee flavor served in an actual ceramic cup. The attention to detail, and properly sourced beans makes a difference. This is without a doubt the best cappuccino available in the area.