Gold Bean Cafe

 

Gold Bean Cafe

Gold Bean Cafe is a great environment to sit and work. The wifi is free, fast, and reliable. People tend to talk quietly or sit alone working on their own projects. The speakers play pleasant Latin pop at a medium volume that I found actually helped me focus on my own work on my computer. 

The entire cafe has a clean and modern feel. The black and white design is simple yet elegant. It is not a large cafe, but it has an ample amount of seating indoors and outdoors. The outdoor seats have some nice umbrellas to guard them from the sun.

When I came in, I studied the menu, which is displayed on the screens above the counter. This cafe serves some interesting breakfast options, like breakfast sandwiches, bagels, and avocado toast. For lunch, they serve a variety of sandwich and panini options. They even had some delicious-looking fruit smoothies, juice, and lemonade, as well as some pastries on display in the glass case on the counter. 

But their specialty was obviously coffee and tea. Under "classics," they had a drip coffee, a double espresso, a cortado, a cold brew, a cappuccino, an americano, a cafe au lait, a hot chocolate, and a tea option. They also offered a regular latte, a vanilla latte, a caramel latte, a hazelnut latte, and a chai latte, as well as a dark mocha and a white mocha. Interestingly, they also offered eight matcha beverages: a matcha latte, an oat horchata matcha, a fresca con crema matcha, an ube matcha, a cheese foam matcha, a pink foam matcha, an iced vanilla matcha chai, and a matcha green eye. They have another full section devoted to "cold brew infused." There is an oat horchata cold brew, a Thai tea cold brew, black tie, Mazapan cold brew, a Coquita,  an iced protein coffee. Perhaps most intriguingly, they also had a list of "specialty by Gold Bean" options, which included Dulce de Leche, Egg Coffee, Thai Tea, Dirty Chai, Mexican Mocha, Spanish Latte, Iced Flan Latte, Iced Churro Latte, Iced Brown Sugar Espresso, and Vietnamese-Style Iced Coffee. You can customize your drink with oat milk, almond milk, syrups, a drizzle, or an espresso shot. 

You can see them carefully make your drink behind the counter. There are no secrets here, and by that I mean, what you see is what you get. The baristas follow the special recipes step by step to make drinks that are delicious and beautiful. Everything is done with great attention using the right ingredients in the right order to detail to create a professional final product.

I was enticed by the entire menu, but I ended up picking the iced white mocha. The first thing I noticed was that it was beautiful. Toward the top, it was almost entirely white, but at the bottom, it was a caramel color. This did not mean it tasted as though it had been mixed well. Quite the contrary, every sip had a uniform, sweet taste. My favorite part was how powerful the milky flavor was. It tasted similar to white chocolate-flavored milk with only a mild coffee flavor. It was cold, refreshing, and delicious. 

I would strongly recommend this place to anyone looking for a yummy cup of coffee and/or a nice place to work or study. The beverages are good; the environment is nice; the service is good, and the prices are reasonable. 

2131 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704

Monday through Friday: 7:00 am to 6:00 pm

Saturday: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm

Sunday: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm