KOKO Coffee/Deli/Carry-Out — Restaurant in Taos

Friendly people, good coffee if they make it right then (in the morning, the coffee in the canisters is also good, but by 2-3:00 older and colder). They have cool drinks in summer, many delicious pastries and pies, including some GF. Before I launch into the pros about Koko's, however, here are the cons as I see them:

Most of the pastries have a lot of sugar. Which inflames every system in the body, leading to all kinds of diseases. Diabetics, dieters, hypoglycemics, and health conscious folks generally should inquire about ingredients before purchasing if sugar is a concern.

People allergic to eggs or dairy should also ask about ingredients in many items. (They can usually look up and tell you the ingredients and will do so nicely.)

3.Their foods are not guaranteed to be organic. Most seem not to be. (I don't know about the coffees now, it just changed owners.) I'm not a fan of having GMOs and glyphosate inside me because the companies designed glyphosate to eat out the digestive track of insects; now it turns out to do the same to humans. (I am a case in point; this isn't hypothetical to me.) Nearly all non-organic foods now contain glyphosate.

Now for the pros:

The staff is friendly.

They sell espressos, Americanos, lattes, teas, etc. Their coffee tastes good to a lot of us. In summer, they have several kinds of cold drinks on ice (such as fruity green or black tea with lime juice and mint, with or without sugar syrup). They have flavored (sugar-based) syrups to add to coffees if you want.

They have a lot of different pastries, including Mexican Tortes. Their GF muffins (very small but tasting good) sell out by 11am most days, but at any time of day they have thick, dense slices of regular and GF cake. Pumpkin, lemon-poppyseed, banana-walnut, and/or apple-pecan, and others. Many delicious pies in a variety of flavors, for those who can eat gluten: peach, apple, cherry, and others. If you can't eat gluten, you can order a GF pie made and pick it up in a day or two. Not cheap, but good for out of town guests needing GF (if they eat nonorganic). The cake slices and pies are safe if you aren't allergic to eggs or milk, are not avoiding sugar, are willing to eat nonorganic (Be sure they're marked GF if you need that.)

In the cold case Koko has good sandwiches, yogurts, salads with various components, wraps, and sushi. They have some vegetarian cold options. If you need a GF sandwich, you need to arrive before lunch - they only stock a few of those. Most cold case items currently arrive mid morning, around 10am though; first thing in the morning the other day I found the cold case empty.

They sell cold breakfast bowls of precooked eggs, greens, mushrooms, and sweet potatoes (in butter or margarine). Cold oatmeal with berries or nuts. They will microwave (is that a concern to you?) your breakfast or other food for you, but as of this time you can ask them to warm it in the little oven, which obviously takes longer.

Koko also sells quite expensive but delectable precooked meal items for take out. Great for when guests are coming to town (if you can afford them, obviously). Spicy shrimp, chicken breasts stuffed with cheese and spinach, roasted brussels sprouts, interesting slaws, and other main and side dish items. Tiramisu slices or whole pies also can feed guests.

They also sell bags of coffee and locally produced granola. Good for gifts or for you, if you check before assuming those are organic. They also sell bags of various chip type things - again not organic.

Important:

I would call Koko to check their current hours unless you visited the previous day and know for sure. Small businesses change hours very often in Taos.

Don't count on being able to sit inside during 9am rush; Koko usually gets a lot of patrons. It's a tiny shop with not many seats. It's not considered cool to take up time at a table there just to work.

Tables are very close together, so no private conversations can be had. It's usually noisy. They have a few small tables out on...

One of my absolute favorite places in Taos. The staff is friendly and always helpful, and the coffee is wonderful! If you live in Taos or are just passing through you need to check out this diamond in the ruff.

@ Terence Chang:I'm not sure where you were getting your information, I highly doubt you asked the staff about the food or coffee. All of the food is made at the Koko kitchen, true the kitchen is not in store; it is in another location, which happens to be very close to the store. This is so Koko can not only keep their store stocked with delicious, freshly made food, but also because their deserts are sold at Cid's Food Market, as well as allowing them to keep up with the catering jobs they handle. And the staff is always happy to make your drink just as you like it, provided you know how that is.

All around an amazing, must visit and wonderfully warm place to have some coffee, grab a sandwich or sit down for a mouth...

KoKos catering is top knotch! We called Diane last minute after finding her online. We had two breakfasts and one lunch catered for around 30 people. Her breakfasts were fantastic. The first day we had the breakfast burritos which came with muffins and a side of fruit for everyone. The burritos came wrapped, labeled, and warm. We also had a few millennial who of course needed dairy free/gluten free/ blah blah who she accommodated with some side dishes of eggs and chile. The second breakfast was the real star. We had the spinach mushroom Swiss baked fritatta. This came with HUGE croissants and fruit. On the evaluations after our meeting when we asked what everyone liked about the retreat everyone said "the food". I will defiantly use Koko again, and I look forward to stopping by her brick and mortar store...