Looking to taste the offerings in recommended cafes in the metro Milwaukee/Waukesha areas. Most of the ones I've tried are meh. Thanks.

I've only tried Valentine about 5 years ago. It was pretty good. If you're ever out and about, Ruby in Stevens Point should be good.

Thanks. Yes tried Valentine's. It's nice.

I am a huge fan of Canary Coffee in downtown Milwaukee, spent many hours studying there

My favorite Milwaukee Coffee spots are

1. Valentine: Consistently good coffee, a good selection of roasts, they always have a SO espresso ready to pull. Their coffee is both very good and also affordable. They let me play with their Synesso Hyrda once many years ago. A great place owned by some great people.
2. Pilcrow Coffee: Pilcrow has some exotic coffees and a very forward thinking roasting style; the owner / head roaster used to roast for Ipsento out of Chicago.
3. (soon) Discourse Coffee: Discourse had a cafe in Door County for years, and is in the process of establishing a permanent residence in Milwaukee. Until they get their permanent cafe ready they are doing periodic "pop ups" in areas around Milwaukee. They serve a consistently delicious espresso, but beyond that they are very out of the box with their drink menu, as well as some of the other tasty offerings. Whenever I can make it to a pop up I usually order 3 or 4 things off of the menu for that day, its like a culinary coffee adventure!