Local Coffee — Restaurant in San Antonio

I'm a black coffee kind of guy. I'm frickin beast, I know. I split my black coffee consumption into 3 major groups: normal black coffee, americanos, and cold brews. Sometimes I want my black coffees and americanos hot, sometimes iced. Depends on the weather. Cold brew always iced, obviously.

When we came to Local Coffee Founders under the scorching San Antonio sun, I asked for an iced coffee which was $3.25. She rang me up for $4.50. I looked at the menu hanging above her and said "it says it's $3.25 for a coffee..."

I thought an iced coffee was just a hot coffee, poured on ice. That's it. That's all I wanted. It's what I do at home. Not rocket science.

She seemed baffled and responded "you said you wanted a cold brew?" I said "I asked for an iced coffee..." She looked at me crazy and said "that's the same thing..."

I just kind of stared off in the distance, trying to process this. She filled the silence with "...if you want a normal coffee it comes hot"

She also seemed genuinely confused, so I was trying to be nice and said "If I just wanted that hot coffee, on ice..." "We don't do that." Uhmmmmmm, ok?

I was going to order a hot coffee with a cup of ice on the side just for the plot, but the tension was mounting and I got really shy so I just said "a cold brew is fine."

The cold brew was admittedly GAS, but I was still ready to go scorched earth on this review. Then a funny thing happened: This morning at a coffee shop in NY, the same situation occurred. The barista again was looking at me like I had 3 heads. The evidence was mounting, it must be a me problem.

I took to google and typed in "What is an iced coffee reddit" and have become more confused than ever. It's not as straightforward as I thought. I'm deep on r/barista right now, and there seems to be a lot of contention over this issue.

The baristas of reddit, the most accurate source for anything, are saying there is no clear answer for what is an "iced coffee." Some customers expect a "flashbrew" which is essentially what I was asking for, some expect a cold brew, some expect a black coffee with a little sweetener, and a few psychos expect a latte.

I still feel like an iced coffee should be just a black coffee over ice, but what do I know? People are different, and I feel for baristas when customers expect them to read their mind. I will just have to ask for a coffee with a cup of ice on the side moving forward.

Also, I know this doesn't tie in but there was a dude working out of here with 3 screens set up. A full battle station. Ridiculous. Bro better start paying rent and utilities at that point smh.

I'm ending this review with more questions than I started with, but that's life sometimes. Can I no longer get a regular iced coffee? Is this not a thing people do anymore? Finding the right questions to ask is often more important than answers...

IG @jnov_ Tiktok...

I went in to co-work for the first time and was excited to give it a try. Unfortunately it was pretty busy (1:00 pm) and all of the tables were taken. It took me a minute to find a single stool at the bar against the window in the back.

The ledge against the window was pretty thin and it was hard to set up my computer comfortably to work from. The screen was at a weird angle and I ended up having to pull it forward so that it was off the ledge a bit to be able to work comfortably. That kind of stressed me out because the walkway behind me was pretty narrow. So every time someone passed by I had to move forward and I nudged the computer. There were also a lot of flies nearby so 5 minutes into sitting there, I was ready to go.

I got my usual, a chai latte, but on the first sip I noticed it was nothing but a black tea with milk. There was no hint of the traditional herbs and spices you would come to expect from a chai latte. You could see them in the lid and at the bottom of the drink but you could not taste them; even after swirling and stirring. I drank about half of it before I tossed it and ended up going to a...

Located on a convenient corner, Local Coffee was buzzing with business as it should on a Sunday. Although the line was going out the door, service was smooth with a touch of a friendly vibe. The smell of quality coffee and tea was pleasant and not over baring upon arrival. The bar gives you a clear view of the workstation. My only issue was cleanliness but they were insanely busy. I feel that at the time of ordering that the cashier could mention, "do you need condiments?". I had to ask for Splenda from the young lady in the zone making coffee to grab some for me. I felt that disturbed her flow. She kinda glitched when asked for sweetener. Ordered one hot drink and one cold. The turmeric ginger Chai was perfectly balanced. I did fear the ginger and Chai would fight in the spicey department, nope. Even the temp was perfect. Then I had the dark chocolate almond ice coffee. BRO it was like chocolate milk for adults. I added two Splenda because the dark chocolate was dark lol does that make sense. Anyway if I lived close by they wouldn't be able to...