Coffea Roasterie and Espresso Bar — Restaurant in Wayne Township

I used to love this place, but then had an experience a week ago that was pretty terrible.

I'm from out of town, and look forward to coming to this place specifically because I enjoy their masala spice blend. Myself and my family were there last Saturday. They ordered the 8 oz flavored iced lattes. I wanted to be able to taste the espresso more, but also wanted the nostalgia of the spice blend because it's been so good every time. So I asked if I could just get a bit of the masala spices in an espresso macchiato. I don't like lattes, they're too much milk for me especially right after lunch (which was when we went).

The guy at the register was fine, but he was trying to steer me away from getting this drink by saying I should just get a masala latte with less milk. I didn't want the full amount of flavor that comes in it, I didn't want the honey, and I really did just want the very small amount of milk that comes in a macchiato, so I asked if I could just have a little bit of the spices on top of the macchiato and I'd pay extra if I had to. Keep in mind, this is a premade spice blend so it's the equivalent of putting cinnamon on top of the drink, not difficult. So the guy said this would be ok, and we all went to wait for our drinks right near where the drinks were being made.

The first thing that was strange was the way my family's iced lattes were made. They had been $4.25 for an 8 oz cup, so you'd expect they would be top quality drinks for this price. However, the girl made them by putting the flavor in the plastic cup, pouring the hot espresso directly into the plastic cup not meant for hot beverages, and then pouring in the milk and then the ice. This alone is pretty bad, but not the worst thing ever. Just disappointing to pay so much for a drink that tastes vaguely like plastic since hot liquids were poured directly into a plastic cup.

Then, she got to my drink. I could see why the guy had steered me away from even making this simple request. She freaked out, right in front of all of us and was like "I don't know what to do with this. Why did you ring it up like this?"

When he said he was simply doing what I had wanted, she was like "Ugh, ok, I guess you did the best you could given the SITUATION."

Then, she proceeded to make my drink basically out of spite because I guess she didn't think it was something that should have been ordered. She dumped a huge amount of spices into my drink, instead of just putting some on top.

I didn't fully realize how much of the spices she had put in there, so when I took one step forward to get the drink I said "I'm sorry it was kind of a weird request!" because I felt bad that this not so difficult drink had seemed to cause so much distress.

This is where it got to be the worst. She didn't say anything. We were standing literally 3 feet apart over the counter, making eye contact, and she just blank faced instead of responding. I'm bad in awkward situations, so after about 10 seconds of that I just left. How do you just ignore someone who says something to you? Let alone if I'm a customer or not, it's just basic human decency to reply if someone says something to you and she clearly heard me.

I didn't taste the drink until I was outside, and it was completely undrinkable. My sister said she had seen her dump two heaping spoonfuls of something into the drink, I'm assuming it must have been the spices because it was terrible.

I didn't go back in or anything as I should have, I just sucked it up and left. I wasn't going to leave a review, and instead I left the company a Facebook message because I figured the owner may want to know that this situation happened. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt based on the other times I had been there and enjoyed my drinks.

I didn't expect them to reply while I was still in town, as I was leaving the next day. I did expect a response, with something indicating that they care this happened. It's been over a week and they haven't replied, so I guess this instance does reflect the attitude of the...

I'm a native son, though currently exiled to Chicago. We're spoiled for coffee in Chicago. I'm doubly spoiled, because I roast and brew at a farmer's market. I'm triply spoiled because I know great coffee people, from whom I continue to learn a lot. There's no end to what you can know.

In the Chicago suburbs there's been a weird phenomenon, though. The region's smaller, independent one-shop roasters have generally failed. There are several reasons, but one constant seems to be bad bean selection and, worse, over-roasting. Too dark.

So imagine my surprise to come back to South Dakota, where I've never found good coffee, and find a roaster and coffee shop that surpasses pretty much anything in the Chicago burbs. Coffea is probably the best place for coffee for a couple hundred miles around.

They do their microfoam right in a cappa, though their espresso blend could use some tweaks. It's good -- but they could strive for a distinctive signature on the palate. I'm not going to strike a point for that, though.

Their brewing bar is well-equipped with several methods. They charge differently by the method, based on how much time the method requires from the PBTC. Thus, a Hario dripper is more expensive than a Clever, because it's a multi-pour versus one-pour immersion.

Seriously, this shop could do little more to impress me. The layout is interesting -- sharing huge seating space with a wine shop (at least, that's what it looked like across the area between; I didn't have time to explore). I think from a professional standpoint they might profit from adding a Bunn Trifecta, simply because it would give them a lot of control over brewing variables for nailing a good cup profile, then dialing in their other methods using the Trifecta cupping as a palatal reference point. Obviously they could also offer Trifecta brews to customers as well.

A couple of their barista will be competing at 2012 Coffee Fest in Chicago shortly after I write this. I hope they do well and make a good impression. On the other hand, South Dakota's such an excellent state that such places ought to be kept a guarded secret. Wouldn't want Chicagoans moving there, with their...

I have never had such an unsatisfying experience as a customer. Usually when I would go to Coffea in the past I have always been greeted and felt like a welcomed, valued customer, but instead going in today I felt like just another dollar to the local coffee shop. A friend and I had gone into Coffea expecting a wonderful experience as usual but this time it was nothing as expected. We had just gone to lunch so we were waiting a few minutes for the food to settle in our tummies to order our coffee, but instead being able to enjoy our time in the coffee shop, we were interrupted by a barista who was asking us to purchase a coffee, since we were using their "free Wi-Fi" and their fireplace , and mentioning that the cheapest coffee was only one dollar, as if we couldn't afford anything better. We understand that money is important to any business, but since we are there so often, and have never left without purchasing a drink, we would be okay waiting a little while before purchasing. Unfortunately this isn't the first time we have had a problem with Coffea, there was a previous incident involving a barista telling my group of friends and myself to leave because they were getting ready to close, but I found it very peculiar that out of the many other customers, they only told the group of minorities to leave and did not tell anyone else. I decided to ignore this incident because I just assumed that they didn't mean anything by it, but after this unsatisfying situation I can see that Coffea isn't the cozy little place that valued each customer, and in reality that every customer is just...