Review Date: February 21st, 2017

Upscale, not uphill.

Zion Coffee Company is based out of Morton and has recently branched out into having a retail location for purchasing/serving their coffee. A good friend of mine alerted me that this location has opened… so being a coffee lover, here I am… writing a blog post about Zion.

Now, when I think of the word Zion, images of hills/mountains come to my mind. Zion National Park, Mt. Zion and the definition of the word itself. What Zion Coffee Bar is actually a rather upscale coffeehouse that is hospital white with little-to-none decor/a feeling of spaciousness. The interior is rather spacey and open and they offer a semi-private upstairs area that overlooks half of the coffeehouse. That’s where I spent most of my time while here.

Ok, so I am not a huge fan of the interior but what about the coffee? Well I had the day off from work and wanted to treat myself. So I grabbed a Jinotega pourover and a caramel macchiato. What I got was a decent tasting coffee and a macchiato that was more an espresso shot with a small wafer/cookie thing. The barista tried to explain that it would be a 3oz. shot of flavored espresso but I took it the wrong way and thought it was that much espresso in a cup with milk and flavorings.

So I’m out $9 on two drinks and a tip. A bit miffed but whatever. So I sip the espresso and it’s decent for being so little liquid. Then as my coffee cooled down, I sipped that and it was pretty decent, too. As I am alternating my drinks, this lady has her kid there. No big deal, right? Well, the kid kept screeching every few minutes. It almost made me leave early, but luckily she left before that happened.

Sounds like a bad time, right? Well after the kid/mom left and I resigned myself to the fact that I actually enjoyed my coffee a bit, my opinion of the place improved. On top of sitting up stairs and enjoying the view, I was watching the cook make oodles and oodles of delicious looking food. I also noticed they had hard liquor behind the bar. My friend told me they served alcohol but it was after a certain time of the day. So if you are not feeling coffee, they offer alcohol, too. This may be the first coffeehouse I have been to that serves hard liquor!

In the end, Zion offers a unique take of a coffeehouse. It is the plainest one I have visited so far that offered okay coffee and delicious looking food… Yet it seemed to be a hit as they were half full/constantly busy for the two hours I was there. By all means, don’t let my ‘meh’ visit deter you from checking it out. I will probably go back once more just to see if I have a better 2nd visit.

Stay caffeinated, my friends.

Update: In subsequent visits to Zion, I boosted the rating from 2.5 to 3.5. While I still found issue with sounds bouncing off the walls, the deliciousness and quality of my drinks helped make up for it.