Black Turtle Coffee — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I consider myself a regular, as I've spent hours working and studying here. I was satisfied with my experience until yesterday.

I ordered my usual to stay - a muffin and matcha. The muffin came out first, in a bag to go. I was surprised by that and asked for a plate since I was staying and knew I'd be working for a few hours. I typically get a real ceramic plate when I order to stay so I was very surprised when I was handed a paper plate. I expressed my disappointment aloud, thinking maybe they'd run out of physical plates. The barista then said "oh, I have real plates"...which is when I became concerned. I was standing in front of another customer's table who had also ordered a red velvet muffin to stay. This man's muffin was on a real plate, no go bag. He was situated with a laptop to do work, same as I. The only difference I could see between he and I was our race. I accepted the plate and found a seat to start working...but that experience rubbed me entirely the wrong way.

My order is pretty consistent - an almond milk matcha latte and the occasional red velvet muffin. The latte is almost consistently well whisked and flavorful. The muffin is often not heated fully which I'm actually okay with; keeps it from melting in my hands and it's still delicious. They're a brand new shop and I'm sure are still working out the kinks (the wifi, some outlets not working in the basement) but I love the mission and the vibe of the place. I love their late hours (in comparison to other shops in the city) and their central location.

That treatment, however, concerns me. To proclaim you're minority owned (women, Black) but not enforce the same policy of treatment across all customers is a huge miss. I'll try Black Turtle again as it's worked for me 'til now and I want to see them win, but if something like this happens again they will lose a once-loyal customer.

(p.s. I wanted to send this feedback privately. Please add a contact form or email to your website's Contact...

Getting into Philly at 8:46am via Amtrak, I found myself in desperate need to find a coffee shop with ample seating but not too much noise to take a 9:30am zoom call so that my boss would think I am still in New York ahahahaa.

I rushed over to Alchemy, which is a highly rated coffee shop just down the street, but that place felt like a Doctors office and was packed with people jamming away at their laptops with the charger plugged in. Idk, vibes were off in there...some coffee shops just be doing too much these days...

I had mentally bookmarked Black Turtle Coffee on the way as a viable second option, so did a quick reverse pivot like a prime Allen Iverson and started walking back that way. Upon entry, I knew this was exactly what I was looking for:

Ample seating, music audible but low enough, and a handful of other people in here just posted.

I was seated with my laptop open, noise canceling WH-H910N headphones on by 9:20 and CRUSHED that zoom call powered by this Black Turtle Coffee black americano. My one gripe was that $5 seemed a bit expensive for an americano, but I'm used to nyc prices so I didn't even think about that until I started typing this lmao. I just tap my apple pay and let Jesus take the wheel.

I sit here, my dear reader, jamming away at my laptop with the charger plugged in just LOCKED in and vibing. Black Turtle Coffee is a fantastic place to come get some work done, write pointless food reviews, or just spend some time with yourself. We don't spend enough time with ourselves these days smh.

IG...

As an avid coffee shop goer and barista myself, I have to say my experience here was similar to the other reviewers. Not good. For starters, the coffee is INCREDIBLY expensive, almost 15 dollars for small cappuccino and small PSL (6.90!) plus a 5% processing fee?!?! (Small only has one shot) I said okay, they are a roaster, I’m sure the coffee is worth the price. Boy was I wrong! PSL was decent, but the Cappuccino was undrinkable, had to throw it out. The coffee beans are beyond burned and you can taste the burned coffee really clearly, you can actually smell the burned coffee when you walk in. For a self roaster, I have no idea how the coffee can taste this bad. Coffee presentation was also showed no effort and milk was boiling hot. If going here I’d stick with drip or iced options. They are still a new shop so I’m hoping they can improve on their coffee, if they want to continue charging this much they have to really step it up. For starters not burn the coffee while roasting. Atmosphere was okay, plenty of seating on two floors. With a city with amazing coffee shops, around the Rittenhouse area, this place falls short. Would love to come back again and retry them once they iron out some of the...