Just spent the first week in my new domicile, Albuquerque. Before unpacking my home equipment, I am looking forward to meeting the local roasters, baristas and combinations thereof.

This post is premature to be a 'Cafes in Albuquerque' rundown since I just arrived. Consider it a 'coffee bucket list' and, hopefully, it will be filled out with tasting notes over the next few months, from others as well as myself.

This seems to be an exciting time (August 2014) to be in Albuquerque because of the appearance of new roasters and cafes which promise the continued development of a rich and varied quality coffee community. However, this might be said for a number of cities at this time (i.e., Dallas).

At this point, I would like to offer a link to a web site that I discovered in lieu of my own 'shopping list':
http://www.nmcoffeemap.com/p/roasters.html
The main text mentions roasters while "The List' in the box on the right seems to be cafes.
As in any internet posting, there is always the tendency to be out of date, especially where the evanescent lives of coffee cafes are concerned.
While nmcoffeemap may be my guide, I would already add newcomers to both roasters and cafes:
Cafes:
Iconik in Santa Fe: they roast their own and served me a great espresso. They serve pastries and meals there but they do not appear to be distracted from their resonsibility to serve great coffee.
Boiler Monkey: this was my first taste of Prosum Roasters espresso and it was good. Google 'boiler monkey' and you will find that it was a well-regarded food truck. In its present incarnation it is a brick-and-mortar store at 742 Mountain Rd. NW in ABQ. I am not optimistic that the present location will bring the customers that Matt, the owner deserves, but I am new to the city and could be wrong, plus, Matt appears to be very flexible and inventive in his approach to retail and might morph again. Stay tuned.
La Quiche de Parisienne is not a coffee shop but I mention it because it is my one and only taste of Red Rock espresso. The depth and quality of flavor was very good although it was slightly lacking in body. This was attributed to being in a good bistro but not a coffee-first establishment. My visit has had two effects: one, I want to buy some Red Rock and bring it home, two, I have returned to La Quiche for their wonderful pastries (5800 Eubank Blvd. NE).
New Mexico Pie Company (4003 Carlisle Blvd. NE) is also not a coffee shop but was my first taste of Fat Boy Roasters espresso. I only had it as an Americano and it was twice served to me in a paper cup but the flavor was good. I would like to try a Fat Boy double shot at a coffee extablishment before considering bringing home a pound. So why mention NM Pie CO at all? Because the hot chocolate is the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted (with the possible exception of Trianon coffee on Bee Cave Rd. in Austin). Theobromine is a close cousin of caffeine. If your body cannot tolerate caffeine (as my wife cannot) and you do not want to descend into the frustrating miasma of decaf coffee (exceptions exist!) then the appreciation of cocoas and hot chocolate is a logical alternative. At NM Pie CO, chef and owner Andrea S. blends, cocoa, coffee liquor disks and chocolate syrup into a hot chocolate served in a ceramic mug with whipped cream and a sprinkle of chocolate powder that is creamy, chocolately, and sweet without being too sweet. It is wonderful. She also puts the same attention to detail into her pies. It might be mentioned that her pies, both sweet and savory, are masterfully done with truly flaky crusts. Her pies are much better than the 'finds' that one reads about on chowhound that require one to drive 40 miles out of the way to find a little old southern lady who might or might not be open for business. By comparison, this is a sure and better thing!
Roasters:
Iconik was mentioned above. I find it disapponiting that they do not put the roast date on their bags but as a responsible member of the coffee community, there is no reason why I cannot engage them in dialogue as to roast dates. Let the Krups owners buy the bags willy nilly. I plan to try their espresso at home but I will not drive 2 hours round trip to buy it, yet.
The new kid in town is Prosum Roasters (3228 Los Arboles Ave NE). Cindy and her husband moved here from Olympia, Washington just this summer and are already up and running with a roastery. Visit her weekdays 6:30 am - !0:30 am at her location to try her pulls, pourovers or cold brew coffee. She is out on delivery in the afternoons. She roasts both a high-note espresso and a mellow, full bodied espresso, as well as SOs for pourovers. In my opinion, her cold brew coffees are the standouts, full of subtle flavors and nuances. As the name implies, they are serious about supporting the communities of growers.

Well, that is just the first week here. Looking forward to really getting to know the coffee community. Sprodowns, anyone?

BuckleyT

Nice post, BuckleyT.

You found two roasters that were unknown to me. I'll try a visit to Prosum soon - sounds very interesting. I'm now aware of 10 or so Roasters here in ABQ and maybe 4 or 5 in Santa Fe.

You mentioned Red Rock espresso - A well established high-volume family business. I once got a nice tour from Rachel, whom I met in a Spanish class. Massive equipment, and they turn out a very good espresso - she sent it off to be evaluated by Coffee Review and it scored an impressive 92 points. Curious to me that more local espresso cafes don't use their roasts.

There's a great family shop downtown on Gold Street called Espresso Fino that sometimes sells pies from the NM Pie Co that you like. Is a tiny place with a big 4 group Nuovo Simonelli, use Agapeo (Santa Fe roaster) beans. This shop used to be called Cafe Giuseppe and had a vintage Faema E-61 machine - used to go down there mostly because I liked the machine. Now is worth the trip for the coffee. Across the street is an elegant more spacious space called The Brew (serving Villa Myriam local roasts) and a couple blocks East of there (on 2nd street) is a bright, friendly, artsy place called Zendo with a VA Athena lever machine that pulls fine shots using local beans (Small roaster from Costa Rica who roasts for a couple shops in town.)

There's a block on Silver Avenue just SouthEast of the UNM campus that has 8 levers in one block. One is Michael Thomas Coffee - with a three group Athena and a 2 group Astoria Rapallo, and the other is Limonata - a small trattoria with a three group Astoria. Michael Thomas is a local roaster, and Limonata recently switched from Allegro to locally roasted (Villa Miriam) beans*. Then less than a mile South of there is Michael Thomas' original location with another VA Athena lever and a Diedrich roaster in the back of the shop.

In the UNM area, besides Michael Thomas and Limonata, you can get an espresso at Duggans, Humble, Winning, and Fans of Film and Cinema Cafe. Winning is a popular student hangout and Fans of Film is small and friendly with a unique ambiance.

Two other places that I really like, but not because the coffee is that great, are Bike-In Coffee, and Chatter ABQ. Bike-In coffee is reachable via bike path, weekends only, and closed in winter. It's a very pleasant place to stop for an iced coffee and a fresh from the garden snack when cycling on the wonderful bosque bike path (one of Albuquerque's best features.) Chatter, formerly known as the Church of Beethoven is a Sunday morning event of chamber music and poetry. If you arrive early enough you get a an espresso (and a place to sit) as part of the cover charge.

*Edit addition: Well, they switched the brewed coffee but still use Allegro for espresso drinks. Many of their customers really like that dark roasted Allegro taste, so the owner (Daniela) said she needed to stay with that in order to keep her customers happy.

homeburrero wrote:I'll try a visit to Prosum soon - sounds very interesting.

Following up now that I've visited a few times .... Is a great place to visit for a coffee and a very fine source of fresh beans. Cindy is fun to chat with, really knows her coffee (and the people who produce it), and pulls a very tasty espresso on her Synesso/K30 equipment. She has a few single origins, and at least two espresso blends. I'm liking her bolder espresso (Rockin espresso) and have been enjoying some very good shots at home pulling her single origin Ethiopian as espresso.

I also enjoyed a visit to Iconic in Santa Fe. Maybe not the best walk-to location in town, but a pretty easy bike ride. Great ambiance in the shop, and cool that they actually use that big antique roaster.

The Red Rock we had at Tia Betty Blues last year was quite good.

Hey Guys,
Just back in the states from overseas and really appreciate the updates to the OP. All the places mentioned by homeburrero will keep me busy into next year...

Also, all the permutations of using the local roasters on my spring lever and my HX will also keep me busy.

Revisited NM Pie Company and had a really nice Americano from Fat Boy roasters on their machine, along with a very good goat cheese quiche.

You know, after a while, it is just best (for me) to shut up and drink.

B

Dear Homeburrero and all,

If I drink coffee, it is difficult for me to shut up.

My Albuquerque favorites:
Fat Boy's espresso blend as served by Andrea at the NM Pie Company
Prosum's Laid Back espresso as pulled by roaster Cindy in her shop
Ikonic's Brad Pitt as pulled in their shop in Santa Fe

Have not tried yet:
Red Rock
Whiting Coffee
Espresso Fino (nee Cafe Giuseppe)
Zendo

Did not like:
Ecco Espresso Santa Fe (Ambrosia)
Michael Thomas (in house)
Villa Myriam dark as brewed by Range Cafe
Humble (did not go there, see below)

At present, no reason to try:
Blunt Bros.
Flying Star
Satellite
The Brew

The cup of coffee served to me at The Ranch Cafe was worse (more intrinsically tarry but not 'brewer burned') than I can remember ever receiving (years ago) at Starbuck's and one of only two cups of retail coffee I have sent back or dumped that I can remember. There is no excuse for Villa Myriam to produce such swill and despite their human-interest overlay, I will not touch the stuff, light or dark.

Fat Boy roasters used to exist in the back of Muskrat Coffee in the foothills east of Albuquerque but have just moved into northwest Albuquerque and changed their name to 'Trifecta' essentially abdicating a really sincere and funky location and personality and adopting, in its stead, some nondescript, sleek branding-type name easily confused with a local christian program and dozens of other similarly branded cafes around the globe. I hope they show more loyalty to their roasts than they do to their image, the former being admittedly the most important.

Limonata is owned by Daniella, as Homeburrero mentioned, and she also owns Torino's at Home where I had a really great ratatouille last year and a really lousy pasta dish this year (ratatouille being out of season this time of year). She has a really great-looking two Bosco group Astoria machine at the restaurant but when I grilled her about why she insisted on serving Allegro she said something about family loyalty and her need for dependable roasts. Needless to say, when I was offered a shot, I declined. Life is too short... She does occasionally make a very good tiramisu; when good it is almost identical to that made by the inventor of tiramisu, Carmenantonio Ianiccone who still makes close to his original (can't get some local Treviso ingredients) in Baltimore, MD.

Ikonic's Brad Pitt espresso is beginning to wear a little thin on the palate and everything else they have is single-origin, which I am biased against for espresso, with the few in-general exceptions posed and/or proven to me by skilled baristas or experienced home-infusers.

Humble espresso, for instance, makes a point of serving only SO espresso. It is roasted by the capable Cindy G. of Prosum. One day, while sitting in the Prosum roastery, I had a chance to sample her Rocket and Laid Back espresso blends, as well as the SO Nicaraguan that she roasts for Humble. The SO came in third of three. When I walked into Humble and found that that is all they were grinding for shots, I just walked out again. There is a reason why espresso roasts have been blended for a century.

Coffee in Albuquerque is like coffee in Manhattan: it is overclustered in the 'bohemian' part of town and missing from the 'affluent' part of town, except for ABQ that is a west-east division whereas in NYC it is south-north. Suffering from undeserved good fortune as I do, it therefore becomes a 'schlep' (NYC term) to get to all of the cafes under discussion.

Buckley

I'm astonished none of the New Mexico folks has so far mentioned Holy Spirit Espresso in Santa Fe (http://www.holyspiritespresso.com/). I can't imagine there's better coffee available in the state, or possibly the Southwest. Bill Deutsch (the owner/barista) is a true craftsman, and a master of his craft.

Thought I'd share that that Giuseppe (Mimmo Espresso) and Cindy (Prosum Roasters) will be hosting a barista training class on April 4.

Only link I've found is on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/mimmoespresso/ ... =3&theater

Wish I could go, but have plans to be out of town that weekend.

Here's a capture (with permission) of the announcement for the facebook averse:

i visited Iconik in Santa Fe last weekend - great shop. Sampled two of their offerings as pour over and purchased a bag of San Emilio El Salvador beans. They had a bluegrass group playing and the place was packed. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.