Kinley's House Coffee & Tea — Restaurant in El Paso

When one visits El Paso after a long period of separation, memories of the past resurface and reanimate themselves again. When I think of coffee or tea, it brings up good times of lively social discussions accompanied by a relaxing ambiance. Never would I expect to feel a sense of trepidation and disappointment from a local coffee shop that serves college students. As I entered the building it had notes of hipster written all over it, however, it was cut short by the lack of personal touches and uniqueness. What was to be seen, was your typical coffee shop mind you, filled with only young people. If that is what the minimum criteria's appear to be to be called a hipster location, then my dorm room is the best coffee venue you might as well bother to know. The only reason I would go now would be to probably try their cheesecake, get some napkins and wait for the inflammation to kick in from celiac. I recognize that I am dragging them hard, but when I start thinking maybe we should have gone to Starbucks across the street instead of supporting local businesses, you have a problem there.

Now being from Austin and traveling the world, including Italy, home to the perfecto, espresso, and so on, my palate has been spoiled with great beverages. I am also a college student, triple major, so one can imagine I require coffee to even sleep. So please take this review with a grain of salt when I describe the body and aroma of the drinks served to me and my associate. My associate is an El Paso native, born and raised in the Segundo barrio, 2nd ward and was revisiting on personal matters.

The chai latte tasted like the leftovers of the milk after you finish your cinnamon toast crunch except with a nice cup of water added to the mix. The chai powder can be described as minimal at best. No hints of black pepper, anise, ginger, or cardamom, simply cinnamon. Perhaps the latter could use some rebranding? The barista really needs to work on the balance ratio for if he bothers to taste the drinks he’s practice on, I did not order a warm glass of milk but a beverage that would improve my sense of well-being and aid in digestion. Chai must have an enough sweet flavor or the spices lose their full robustness. Chai is creamy, fragrant with black tea, fresh cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, peppercorns, and enough sugar to bring out the spice flavor that was yet to be seen.

The barista defiantly seemed to be having a difficult time as he provided us with a burnt foam filled cup that should be called memories of mocha. To make it more ironic, although the beans were burnt the beverage was cold when we received it. Keep it simple: don't put boiling water in coffee. It's like torture for coffee beans. I know some people swear that pouring boiling water onto coffee is the only way to ensure that it doesn't cool down too much during the tenth of a second it takes to fall out of the pitcher and hit the grounds. Try setting the water to a nice temperature below 205, again you burnt the beans yet I don’t know how the drink we received ended up cold. Burnt flavors produced by hot water are in fact different from the bitter flavors brought out in the beans naturally. Again, hot water extracts the flavor compounds first and then the bitter, quickly going to nasty if you are not careful. Paying six dollars for a cup of air seems almost as depressing as getting flashbacks from things I don’t want to remember. Memories of Mocha…It brings tears to my eyes. Just rename shop “cafefue” it perfectly describes the lack initiative and direction going on. Covfefe would also suffice, for it was a mistake with the staff supplied that you would ever mean to serve actual coffee. Maybe you do make good coffee, it just wasn’t yesterday.

This was an insult not only to coffee but to my associate on what good coffee is assumed to be in El Paso nowadays. Boy...

Updated review: 02/04/2024 BEWARE!!! NEVER AGAIN!!!

I treated myself to go get some taro frozen yogurt. The taro frozen yogurt WAS a favorite of mine to make the drive from the Eastside. Well no longer!!!

Long story short, got the frozen yogurt topped with sliced almonds and a little dark chocolate. When I tasted it, it seemed to taste a little fermented. What I mean by that is that, it had a slight carbonated feel to the tongue but the taste still tasted like taro. That being said, I sat down and "enjoyed" my yogurt. I had not had anything to eat all day so this was my breakfast, lunch and dinner for the day.

Needless to say, my "treat" treated me into the bathroom all of around 36hrs afterwards. Dehydrated and still feeling queezy, I gave Kinleys a call to inform them of their serious food safety concern. That ALSO did not go well. I was hoping to speak to the owner, a kind Korean man that I've seen a handful of times throughout the years.

I got the unprofessional Mexican wife instead. Ugh!!! In Spanish, I explained to her my experience and concerns. It's yogurt! Since it is frozen, it should allow minimal pathogenic bacterial growth. The only growth that should occur after mixing the powder should be the natural bacterial cultures existent in yogurt. Therefore, no fermentation taste should exist in frozen yogurt if handled properly. This lady repeated herself multiple times explaining that they attempt to always handle everything cleanly at Kinleys. Regardless, she stated that her husband should be calling me to follow up. She took my name & number for a supposed return call.

Additionally during the phone call, she proposed quite an inept question. She wanted to know if I kept eating my yogurt. I responded, "Yes but what does that have to do with the food handing concern I bring up to your attention? How inept of you."

Yeah......well, I'm still "waiting" for that...

This is my second time going. I really liked it the first time decided to go again. But was disappointed. I didn’t feel as soon as I went a worker that was on break, kept staring at me. So I went to the back, but it was way too hot so I moved to the front, I got my food and my drink and started doing myhomework. Food was OK. Coffee was bad like always lol but it’s fine I knew what I was getting myself in I know the coffee is not good here. But I was done eating and I just felt like they wanted me to leave they took the plate from me without saying anything no eye contact was made just took it and immediately turned around, I was sitting on the table and then the guy started cleaning around me so I figured they took the plate, They started cleaning the table where I’m in they clearly want me to leave so I got my stuff and went somewhere else. Like I said, I’ve been here before so I know once you’re done eating, you put the plate where all the other dirty dishes are. So I’m not coming back here again, coffee is not good and food is not good enough to be worth coming back and have ppl make you feel like you’re not welcome and want...