Bean Street Coffee is a cozy little coffee shop in San Mateo. Honestly, there’s only one reason I came here and it’s because they carry Kopi Luwak. I explained what Kopi Luwak was in a previous review, but if you’re too lazy to click the link and read, it’s basically coffee beans that have passed through a civet’s digestive tract. “But how would they accomplish such a feat?” Pretty much exactly how you would imagine. The civets eat the coffee berries and then once they pass, farmers (coffee bean pickers?) go through the poop and fish out the coffee beans. It sounds incredibly disgusting (and it is when you think about it) but it produces one of the most expensive and exclusive coffees in the world. For reference, this place sells their Kopi Luwak for $695 per pound or $39 for a 12 oz cup. Yeah. That’s a spicy meatball.
Kopi Luwak – I don’t know if they’re usually this precise when making coffee, but they were sure to measure and weigh the beans before brewing the cup. Honestly though, I was a little disappointed with the Kopi Luwak. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but for $39 I was kind of hoping it would be like drinking ecstasy. Turns out it just tastes like a really good, really smooth cup of coffee. Low acid, good flavor, but didn’t give me the raging erection I was hoping for. Definitely not worth $39, unless you reaaally know your coffee. And even then, you’d have a tough time picking this sucker out in a taste test of quality coffees. Assuming, of course, the other coffees also have hints of poop flavoring. I’m just kidding. The coffee doesn’t taste like poop. Actually, I have no idea what poop tastes like so for all I know it tastes exactly like poop.
Iced Espresso Drinks – I don’t remember what these were, but I suspect there was an iced mocha and possibly a vanilla latte in here. I don’t really remember, so I can’t really say how they tasted. Probably pretty similar to any other independent coffee joint? Again, I was here for the Kopi Luwak. I don’t even know why I ordered an iced espresso drink to go along with it. For some reason I thought the 12 oz Kopi Luwak wouldn’t cut it and I’d need even more caffeine afterwards. So young I was. So foolish.
Bean Street Coffee
359 S B St
San Mateo, CA 94401
(650) 579-1844
