Kaya Coffee & Tea

Just started coming here this week, and I’m already hooked! I love the atmosphere, it’s relaxing while still lively so it’s the perfect spot for me to come hangout and work on homework and such since I don’t like working in the silence. They also have great food! Earlier in the week I had a Swiss grilled cheese with a cup of their tomato basil soup. Both were delicious, but the soup’s consistency was closer to a tomato sauce so I used it really only for dipping. Today I had a create your own salad with romaine lettuce, croutons, bacon, and Swiss cheese, with their homemade balsamic dressing. It was a very generous sized salad for only $ 6 and I probably ate only half of it, ²⁄₃ at most. I really liked how it was cut up pieces of Swiss cheese, and there was a good amount of it so I wasn’t feeling like I needed more cheese like I normally do at other places. The balsamic was delicious, but if you’re like me and like a lot of dressing on your salad, you’ll have to ask for extra. Overall, I’m really impressed by this place and I wish I had discovered it earlier!

This place is really neat and I want to like it… but they put my red Thai curry in the microwave. Not to reheat it, but as part of the preparation O. o

Surely this place is the hipster central, and all the cool kids of CMU are here. Very interesting décor, lot of cozy places to cuddle with a book/​laptop/​significant other. I tried a chai tea latte and it was just like starbucks. I was not impressed. They have a chai milkshake which i might try later (when i am not battling a cold)

Amazing coffee! Great place to sit and do work! Tons of outlets for your computer and devices! Only issues I have are sometimes other customers aren’t aware you are actually working and get loud and sometimes the baristas are slow! But well worth the wait! I especially love the «Get Over It»

Kaya is the epitome of a cute, local coffee shop with all of the comforts of a chain. There’s plenty of seating, great music, and speedy service. But the thing that sets Kaya apart is the great quality of their drinks. I absolutely love their chai tea latte, and haven’t found one like it anywhere else. Their open mic nights make for a fun place to study, read, or catch up with friends. They have a book and cd share in the back where you can leave one, take one.

This is a nice change of scenery for studying. They have free wi-​fi and are cool with me sitting there for hours. The coffee is great.

I was stuck at CMU with a whole gang of middle and high school kids. I went to the union for lunch and it was packed and loud. I ended up finding Kaya and had a wonderful sandwich and a fantastic cup of coffee. I cam back later in the day with some other parents who needed a break from the kids.

Kaya was the first café I found when I moved to Mt. Pleasant, and it has made all the difference in the 3 years I’ve lived here. Without Kaya, Mt. Pleasant doesn’t have much. With Kaya, its not such a bad place to live. When I was finishing writing my book last year, I spent nearly as much time in Kaya as at home. It’s that kind of place: students studying, professors grading or writing, townies hanging out, families playing board games. Always comfortable. Great friendly baristas, not corporate-​perky like at the chain coffees hops, just genuinely nice people.
What else? Good strong coffee of course (most of it fair trade and organic). I’m not much into frou-​frou espresso drinks, but sometimes I treat myself to the delicious tea lattes. And the homemade curries and soups are the best cheap meal in town. My kids also love the nutella on toast. My favorite snack is the chips with home-​made hummus (ask for it with a handful of dried Michigan cherries for a real treat).

Kaya is one of the few things I truly miss about Mt. Pleasant.
Their impressive array of unique coffee and tea drinks speaks for itself, and every one I’ve tried has been delicious. My absolute favorite is their plain old chai latte with whole milk. Get one and you’ll understand.
Drinks aside, the vibe at Kaya is very relaxed and perfect for studying or quiet hanging out with a few friends. I always liked to pull out the Scrabble board and exercise my seven-​letters-​or-​less vocabulary. A friend and I used to sit and play three or four games in a row, and the staff never tried to make us feel guilty for occupying a table for hours and only getting one drink apiece.
The only caveat at Kaya is that the open-​mic nights can result in no open seats, so if it’s one of those nights (Wednesdays as I recall), you may have to take your drink to go, or just stand :-)

Every once in a blue moon you run into a place that has the perfect blend of atmosphere, food, prices, people and music! There exist such a place in Mt. Pleasant, MI and its name is Kaya! Never have I been in a coffee shop that is so inviting and peaceful to be in, along with great food, music and people.
First, the food and coffee. The selection of coffee is varied and all have great and unique tastes. My personal favorite is the Candy bar. Yum! As for the sandwiches, they are very fresh and tasty. The names for all there selections is pretty clever also!
The people/​enviornment. Its very relaxed and I love it for that. Not the usual hustle and bustle of most coffee shops, but instead a place to wind down and have some great conversations with people. Always friendly and great art oriented decorations.
In all honesty this will be a coffee shop I will visit for the rest of my life. I love Kaya and hope everybody gets to enjoy a cup one day!

This is probably one of the places I miss most from the Pleasant Mountain town. They have some of the tastiest drinks but that’s not the reason I absolutely adore this tiny coffee shop. It’s all about the atmosphere. I love that you can grab a couch and pull out your laptop and spend the whole day doing homework and they don’t hurry you out. I love that they have the best variety of tea lattes I’ve ever seen.
Also if you get a chance go on open mic nights. It’s a great way to hear some new music and meet some awesome people. On top of that, in the summer grab a Chai Milkshake. It’s probably my favorite cold drink.
I’m surprised to hear they take cards now, I just always kept a little cash in my bag to buy a drink on the way to the computer lab in Grawn. And like someone else said, there is an ATM like literally next door.

I miss Kaya even though I live in NYC, a place with an overabundance of coffee shops. The drinks I miss most are their tea lattes… they’re made with different types of teas, milk and different Torani syrups. My favorite was the Merle the Wonder Tea but each one is ridiculously good and completely unique. I haven’t found anything like their tea lattes anywhere else.
My daughter loved the chai milkshake and polar bears (they were always kind enough to make them with decaf espresso for her).
I spent many a night there while I was an undergrad at CMU and I try to return whenever I am in town visiting the family. There’s just something about Kaya that really is unique and can’t be found anywhere else.

Like some others, I used to live in the area and have been looking for a «Kaya» since I moved to the NYC area. Some get pretty close, but none are quite the same.
Kaya is definately the best coffee shop in mid-​Michigan (I am pretty sure I have been to every coffee shop within a 40 mile radius of Alma). When I lived in Alma, I would drive to Mt. Pleasant just to sit and have some coffee. Very cozy with different settings for different coffee experiences. There are the two comfy seats pleasantly tucked away for a conversation with a close friend or prospective significant other, a nice counter with power outlets to do work, and bigger spaces for hanging out with friends. There is a nice little library which is great when waiting for a friend to get there. There are frequent events to enjoy, the coffee and tea are great, and the food is not too bad either.

Best coffee place I have ever been to. Hands down. And I have been to ALOT of coffee shops.
While I have had many cups of tea and coffee here, the Tea Latte: Merle (the wonder?) is the best. I also love the little dish of stamps to sift through or donate to… makes for a great gift when making a card for someone (decorate the front with stamps).
Oh and I almost forgot to say one more thing! Kudos for the hummus and blue corn chips. My friends and I would take breaks in between class to grab the hummus. Delicious.
I live in Arizona now and while I have scouted some satisfying coffee & tea places here, I still miss my Merle at Kaya.
$ 5 in cash is gonna get you a few cups of great coffee… and for those who don’t have any change on them and demand to use their plastic, um hello… there is an ATM literally next door to the place. come on people… enjoy that Kaya is not corporate.

A couple of friends and I were driving back to Lansing from Gaylord/​Grayling and were looking for a coffee place. We’d hit up Beaner’s (oops, Biggby… still resent that silly name choice) on the way, but none of us are huge fans. On the return trip, we sought out something different… something local. After a couple of stops we were getting restless, but we finally found Kaya. Unfortunately, although their door was still propped wide open, they’d just closed.
But wait! We asked nicely. The girl working there relented with very little convincing and agreed to make us some drinks. I’ve been craving a non-​chai tea latte ever since my last visit to Argo in Chicago but never saw anything like that on any menus. I was so happy to see tea lattes on Kaya’s menu. My skinny Purple Haze was excellent.
Bravo for yumminess, Kaya! And extra points for fixing us drinks even after close… random acts of kindness are always much appreciated!

I prefer UCup to Kaya for the sheer fact that when I started going to CMU Kaya did not accept credit cards and UCup did. While that might be part of the scene Kaya was trying to portray, it was inconvenient. With new owners, Kaya now accepts credit cards, but I think it will have a hard time to sway loyal UCup customers. The service I have experienced at Kaya is always been very slow and the baristas are not as helpful as at other coffee shops. If you are looking for a coffee shop with entertainment, Kaya does host great open mic nights, but if you are looking for a quiet place to study or chat with a friends, Kaya is not your «cup of tea».

Oh… I hate to disagree with a previous review, but part of the beauty of Kaya i the fact that they don’t «take plastic.» If you want a comprehensively plastic scene, go to Starbucks. If you want a very reasonably priced cup of coffee shared among baristas who take the time to get to know you, go to Kaya. Great scene, comfortable seating, and a fantastic place to unwind after a busy day. I live in Chicago now, and have been in search of a «Kaya» seemingly ever since I left Mount Pleasant. The fact of the matter is that you can’t improve upon perfection. ;o)
Try it. You’ll go back.