Break Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in Duluth

I’m a bit surprised by some of the negative reviews—though I understand where a few of the comments are coming from. In my experience, concerns about barista attitudes feel somewhat exaggerated. While I’ve had the occasional less-than-warm interaction, it’s been the exception, not the rule.

That said, with two new coffee shops opening nearby in recent months, I do think Break has an opportunity to raise its game. As a former barista myself, I’ve noticed occasional inconsistencies—sometimes the espresso is spot-on, other times it tastes a bit over-extracted or over-roasted. The house-made syrups and seasonal drinks haven’t always been hits for me, but I think with some refinement, they could be fantastic. (8/13/25 update: same sentiment towards the pour over coffee as it’s under extracted and tastes more like watery tea. This can easily be fixed with a 15-minute pour over training).

As a regular customer, I’ve also noticed the cushioned seating showing some wear, which could be worth updating. Many of these areas—such as drink consistency, shot pulling, and customer service—are fixable through additional training and standardization. Refreshing the seating and decor may be a bigger investment, but it would elevate the overall atmosphere.

Break used to be my go-to spot in Duluth, but lately I’ve found myself visiting Land of 1000 Hills or Alchemist more often. I’d love to see Break make a few improvements to win back 100% of my business. The potential is absolutely there, and I think some of the harsher reviews don’t reflect the full picture of what this...

Competent roasters with an outsize view of the value of their beans. Only one out and out home run for me in the past couple of years, a washed Rwanda with beautiful wild notes and elevated central African terroir (don't recall the name), but that was over a year ago, and everything since has been good to just okay, save for a premium boxed natural that was not good at all, surprising as it was packaged and priced as an ultra premium product, similar to current Belayneh. Current offerings top $2/oz. with the Belayneh, a "limited oxygen" (fancy talk for anaerobic) process tipping the scales at well over $3/oz. Look, just because some processor gets out their chemistry set and toys with a little lactic fermentation -- the stuff that happens automatically when you leave your orange juice out on the counter too long -- that doesn't automatically make their coffee special. It's still a highly experimental and speculative space for coffee growers and processors, and lots of anaerobics taste just like that -- an experiment. Boys, there's other folks roasting coffee... You know that, right? A buck and a half an ounce (or less) will get me some pretty awesome stuff because I use the in-ter-net. (Okay, okay, I also understand varietals, regions, terroir, processing etc.) Rent's high in Duluth, I get that, but I bet it's cheaper than New York City, where one of the country's top roasters gets less than your ultra-premium price for an anaerobic honey. Your coffee's good, but it ain't that good. Not...

Great, vibey, and calm place to relax. It has a reading step zone with books already there and cushioned seats. I am giving it 1 star because even though the service and everything else was great, the race track $2 coffee tasted better, and the crossiant was a frozen crossiant, it wasn't even baked first, it was just frozen and reheated. It was burnt and piping hot on the outside and frozen on the inside. Didn't end up getting eaten which sucked because the price is just for the service and environment. Also the coffee is hotter than most coffee shops so be cautious. I would just stick to your regular dunkin, race track, etc cheap coffee/crossiants if you want good tasting ones. If you want to pay for the other stuff there are others that have good tasting coffee/croissants as well so I still wouldn't recommend at...