Undercurrent Coffee — Restaurant in Charlotte

Order: Drip Coffee, Cappuccino Price: $8 Positives: Good cappuccino, awesome space, can’t want to see once it’s all open Negatives: No pour over, a tad weak tldr: I’m super excited for this space in general. I love the whole “market” feel and I really think Undercurrent is going to bring a lot to the space. I will say that all the coffee had good flavor but tasted just a little weak for my preferences.

Thoughts: Even though we were only in Charlotte for a few days we went to a few different cafes. This is sort of a thing for us, we will often go to several coffee shops a day for up to five days before finally settling on our “regular”. We are aware we have a problem. Anyway something that I was beginning to notice is that very few places do poor overs. They just have a drip coffee and then espresso drinks. That’s super weird and jarring for me because most coffee places I like have pour overs, and it’s both one of my favorite ways to have my coffee made, and one of the most consistent ways to see if a coffee shop has high quality beans and a good brewing process. So the fact that none of these coffee shops could do a pour over kind of threw me.

Regardless, we got a drip coffee instead, and a cappuccino. Both of them were actually very good. I was honestly surprised at how good the drip coffee, was which is a testament to the quality of their coffee beans. Normally I don’t like drip coffee because it sits in an insulated container and gets so hot that it taste burnt. In this case it didn’t taste burnt at all, it still had depth and complexity of flavor. The cappuccino was very flavorful and rich. That being said, I do think that both of the drinks were on the weaker side for my taste but not as extreme as some other places I’ve been.

Undercurrent also has a unique scenario going on because they are in a market. The entire place is super cool and when it’s done, seems to be ready to be filled with places to hang out, a few small unique shops, and a bunch of restaurants. Right now it definitely isn’t finished (it being the market, Undercurrent is 100% up and running) and there’s only a handful of restaurants open but I can’t wait to see this place when it’s finished. I will definitely make a point to come back if I’m ever headed through Charlotte. For this current trip we just hung out for about 20 minutes and spent some time looking around and drinking our coffee, but I could definitely see people hanging out here for extended periods of time.

All in all I think Undercurrent is a pretty solid place to go get your coffee especially if you also need food or want to hang out with anyone. Like I said, the flavor was definitely there but for people who like really strong coffee this might not make the cut, or you may need to ask him to put more espresso in the drinks. But I know that my wife and I will be back...

This place had the single worst cup of coffee I've ever purchased. I went back to see if the iced was better than the drip coffee, and I ended up tossing the iced coffee, which says a lot. HOWEVER!! The staff were really polite, answered all my questions and were super knowledgeable. They were polite, friendly, and very kind. The atmosphere was fairly awesome. The place looks and SMELLS amazing. But the coffee was extremely lacking, even though the prices were beyond reasonable and the staff were great. A friend compared the taste to Maxwell House, but having never had Maxwell House, I cannot confirm. I can just confirm they tried my cup of drip coffee. They're also using eco-plastics (from recycled plant matter?) for the utensils and straws, which is awesome. But, for a coffee shop... the...

Very cool place. Located inside a refurbished older large building that now consists of food stands, restaurants, and shops called Optimist Park. Barista was so sweet and awesome. I got a brown sugar vanilla cappuccino. I'm a former barista and can say she made the drink PERFECT. Was so yummy! Not overly sweet, perfect foam and even had latte art on top. My only con here was the lack of size options. There wasn't one for this drink. The cup was maybe 10oz? I also went back, as I had been sitting outside, to get another 10 mins before closing. There was someone washing dishes you could see in the back, but no one helped me and the register area looked shut down. Other than that, loved my experience and...