The Turkish Punch

Andala Café- Central Square

Today’s mission, the best pumpkin spice latte known to man. As usual, I was side tracked by a rave review from Hungry?City Guides as I moseyed down River Street and saw Andala Café. I knew the name sounded familiar so I whipped out my trusty guide book and sure enough, page 142, Andala Café, “a must have Middle eastern coffee house”. All thoughts of pumpkin spice hype were put on hold (fear not I will certainly return to that mission within the month) as I tried my hand at Turkish coffee.

All I can say is small cup…big kick. The Turkish figured out how to jam all their caffeine into a cup on eighth the size of our Starbucks Venti Frapacrap’s to go. According to Andala’s owner, a Turkey native, “Americans squeeze the juice out of the coffee bean and that is all, even espresso, just juice squeezed, but in Turkey, we roast the whole thing, get all caffeine, all flavor, less juice.”

While I’m not sure what that means exactly, I believe every word because my first sip felt like a straight shot of adrenaline. No gimmicks, no pumpkin spice or mocha whip, pure coffee with a kick.