Sawada Coffee

What an honor it would be to have a coffee shop named after you. If you’re the past winner of the Latte Art World Championship like Hiroshi Sawada then it is well deserved. This is how Chicago now has the pleasure of enjoying Sawada Coffee

Latte Art WORLD Champion! Let me just pause to take that in, I had no idea there was even such a competition. I am in owe and impressed.

Sawada Coffee

backwall

Seeing as I enjoy and appreciate good latte art I was quite excited when hearing Sawada Coffee was opening in the West Loop. I did not know or realize Sawada Coffee opened INSIDE Green Street Smoked Meats I knew they were, what appeared on a map next to each other, but no, these two wonderful establishments share a common space. Both are owned by Hogsalt Hospitality.

Walking up to the building it looks like a small graffiti-ridden warehouse. You step up into the small space and are instantly welcomed by warmth and the smell of fresh coffee. The coffee bar is along the far east wall overlooking Green Street. The actual coffee bar space is rather narrow and small there are a few seats along the window and a ping-pong table in the center of the space with small bar stools around the circumference. Then it opens up into Green Street Smoked Meats, just a few steps down and you can find seating among all the picnic table style tables. This is quite possibly the best use of space, as Sawada Coffee is clearly at the peak of popularity right now and the extra butt seats are needed to accommodate all the customers. This also allows for more people to come in and use the space to work, like me working on this post 🙂

Sitting in Sawada

There is complimentary wifi! Huge plus.The music is a tad on the loud side, so if you are looking for a more quiet coffee shop this might not be the best option. But, the music is lively and upbeat Indie pop genera. I think perfect for a hip coffee shop like this, and who wants to listen to quite slow music in the morning? That would just put you right back to sleep.

The Drinks

First I ordered their Military latte. This was reviewed as one the best lattes in town and is quite unique. It was a strong espresso mixed with green tea matcha powder. The art on top of the latte was stellar,(go figure) a leaf with the steamed milk, brown dots of espresso surrounded by the green matcha tea powder. Extremely original and beautiful to look at.

Military Latte

Aroma smells no different than a normal latte, ground espresso with steamed milk. The taste was delicious, perfect drinking temperature right away, no need to wait for it to cool down. The latte itself has a very strong espresso coffee flavor. The taste of espresso sits in the back of your mouth and lingers on your tongue. Much stronger than any other latte I have had, it woke me up with the first sip. They do not hold back on making this latte strong, which I love.

The taste of espresso can be at times bitter if not prepared properly, but this was done wonderfully. Mixed with the milk, the balance was perfection.

I cannot forget the green tea matcha! I have never in my life tried or had green tea matcha in ANYTHING. This was a first for me. I have see in in drinks before but never tried it. Not being the biggest fan of green tea in general I was a little skeptical, this is also why I have never had the desire to order anything with matcha in it. The green tea matcha sits on top of the latte like a thin skin layer, when taking a sip you could hypothetically pull away with a matcha stash if not careful. But it is the perfect addition to this latte, giving it a light tea flavor. The matcha is a little grainy and will cling to the side of your mug. The matcha addition gives the latte the extra caffeinated buzz.

On to a few of the other items I ordered.

Sawada Spread

Military doughnut – your standard old fashioned doughnut with a glaze,on this special military doughnut there is a glaze of green and brown dribbled on top. At first I just assumed this was food dye but the extra glaze was matcha green tea and espresso flavored! Delicious. basically it was the military latte in delectable doughnut form.

Blueberry Muffin – This was one of the largest blueberry muffins I have ever seen! This puts any other muffin to shame. Not only was the size far superior to all other muffins, the flavor was to die for. I love blueberry muffins and am very picky, they need to be overflowing with berries. I can’t stand when there isn’t a blueberry in every bite. So you can imagine my struggle with ever finding a truly good blueberry muffin. This knocked my expectations out of the park! Wow! They jammed so many blueberries into this muffin I was pleasantly surprised. The muffin itself was the perfect taste where you could truly get the corn flavor of the muffin mixed with the blueberry. To top it all off the sweet cinnamon sugar crumble on top was mouth watering to look at. The muffin is worth trying if you love a berry packed muffin.

BBmuffin

After enjoying my special Military latte I of course had too try the coffee before leaving, this post would not be complete without.

By the way let me just say the barista behind the coffee bar are the BEST! So Friendly, helpful and patient. Considering Sawada Coffee and Green Street Smoked Meats were packed by this point.

Sawada roasts Metropolitan coffee beans which have a delicious rich dark bold aroma and appearance that make you want to guzzled the whole cup, temperature was not permitting. The coffee had a nutty chocolate hint to the taste that is quite enjoyable. This is the perfect cup of coffee to enjoy black as it naturally has a sweet taste to it. 

Only only struggle with this coffee shop was while enjoying my coffee I was constantly tempted with the delicious wafts of smoked meat coming from Green Street Smoked Meats kitchen. I left craving pulled pork and BBQ.  

Where is your favorite coffee shop for a latte? Anyone have other places or suggestions on where to try more matcha?

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