Do you know about Jane?

If you don’t know where that is or what I’m talking about then you absolutely need to quickly add it to the top of your bucket list.

Jane on Fillmore is one of my favorite coffee shops in San Francisco because of it’s ability to combine friendly and knowledgable service, high quality coffee, a solid food offering (everything’s great, from toast to granola), and a breathtaking decor and atmosphere. The wooden floor works well with the black and white theme (which carries over from the floral wallpaper to the logo to the pattern on the tables to the graffiti on the giant mirror to the ‘for here’ mugs). Their flag logo triumphantly declares Jane to the world, seemingly full of pride as it blows with the wind in it’s 2D form. With good reason! I love everything about Jane on Fillmore, the original Jane of San Francisco, one of my all-around favorite cafés. Even though it’s in Pacific Heights, finding parking is reasonably easy. Or maybe I’m just lucky here and the coffee-Gods just want to get me to my next cup at Jane as quickly as possible; who knows.

They brew Stumptown, and this partnership seems to work perfectly: combining the quality roasters quality beans with the quality baristas quality brewing skills.

Today I ordered an iced soy latte and toast, while Robyne ordered an iced mocha with almond milk, which she described as good choice, well balanced and not too sweet. My latte was craftily created with soy and Hair Bender espresso, a blend from Stumptown that changes throughout the year. It’s well rounded and tries to cover all the profile notes, leaning more chocolatey than floral or citrus.

For our post-Halloween coffee fix Amanda and I decided to go to Snowbird Coffee in Inner Sunset. I was attracted by the fact it was a new coffee shop I’ve never visited, as well as their chalkboard sandwich sign outside and their navy-blue and tan color scheme inside. There’s a long pathway/slope that you walk down and further in to the coffee shop, building excitement with every step closer to the smell of quality coffee.

We ordered two hot almond milk lattes and this is a decision I would both repeat and recommend. The drink itself was beautiful in the areas of taste + design + balance. They roast their own espresso at a warehouse in Oakland (they aren’t allowed to roast in their current spot on 9th Street because people live above it). The latte uses their Neverland Espresso blend, which they explained goes with theme of coffee shop, where everyone who works here comes from some creative background. Also, they just opened 3 weeks ago, and mentioned how, with the timing, they dedicated the Neverlend blend to Robin Williams (who played Peter Pan in Hook).

The Neverlend is a blend of a few Guatemalan beans. It has a nutty and cacao flavor – somewhat like dark chocolate covered espresso beans mixed with dark chocolate covered almonds.

Their hand stamped cups show their attention to detail and quality, and I felt the orange colored stamp was appropriate for post-Halloween raging coffee.

Because Amanda and I are only human and sometimes clumsy, one of us spilled. You know what they say, don’t cry over spilled milk, only spilled coffee.

Black Magic lives up to it’s name: mysteriously smooth, a classic Italian espresso with a supernatural kick and notes of dark chocolate and red berry.  This medium-roast is one of Groundwork’s Signature Espresso Blends and worth trying.  I fell in love with this espresso at first sip and would have to rank it as one of my all-time favorites.

My first time at Groundwork can definitely be described as magical (pun intended) due to the wonderful company (hello Pamela and Ian), the Pressed Juice, the non-dairy alternatives, and the high quality organic coffee beans.

I ordered the iced latte with hemp milk due to the following facts: I’ve never tried hemp milk, I love lattes, and I was feeling adventurous enough to try something new.

Okay, confession.. I sampled the hemp milk before ordering it for my entire 24 oz. latte. I wasn’t entirely willing to risk ordering this latte if the milk was going to end up ruining it.

The lingering taste in my mouth makes it seem as if I actually consumed a piece of dark chocolate instead of coffee; how did this happen?  I know I didn’t order a mocha and there was no cacao mixed in there. Magicians, never reveals their secrets…