Also, found during my recent Jury Duty adventure in downtown San Diego is a small place called Kuma Cafe.  There’s small signs on Broadway with a cute little bear face on them directing you to their somewhat hidden location just off Broadway. They are serving coffee roasted by local San Diego roasters, The Westbean.

At first, when I saw the barrista clean the shower head prior to pulling the shot for my cappuccino, I had high hopes.  That shows an attention to detail often not seen.  The shot even looked like it poured well.  Sadly, the coffee just wasn’t that good.  The coffee was mostly lost in the milk (which was steamed fine).  What flavor there was didn’t pair well with the milk.   Also, I’m not a huge fan of The WestBean anyway…I’ve had their beans at other cafes in town.

But, The WestBean has recently scored a really great review on Coffee Review.  So, statistically, the fault here lies with the preparation.  The espresso machine isn’t a big name brand, but knowing what you can do with a Gaggia Classic, I can’t fault the machine too much.  The grinder was a Mazzer doser style.  So, my guess here is that the coffee was sitting in the doser for way too long and went stale (yes folks…freshly grinding does make that big a difference).  Cafe Kuma was almost empty when I was in there about 3pm on a Wed.  If you aren’t serving the volume to clear out the doser, you are better off with an “on demand” style grinder.

Kuma Cafe also has smoothies and acai bowls, which I didn’t try.  But, if you are in this area near Santa Fe Depot and looking for coffee, Copa Vida is a better choice.