Coffee Tea & Spice

About 25 years ago, Coffee Tea & Spice was a very small specialty roaster of fine gourmet coffee. The owner, Bob Voorhees, was one of the most gifted coffee roasters ever to work in San Francisco, who paid minute attention to every aspect of coffee from the green bean through roasting and cupping. He was scrupulous and as artistic as it is possible to be in this commercial field. The business, as you can imagine, was a huge success, and became a real haven for those who really love the very best coffee. He sold the business, which was then resold to the owners of the building (I guess they thought they had what it took). Unfortunately, after this final sale, the quality plummeted and instead of a truly remarkable institution, it became just another place to pick up a cup of average to below average coffee (I use the word coffee here advisedly.) What Voorhees offered was so spectacular that on tasting my first cup of his coffee I thought, rightly, it was the first time I had really tasted coffee. And his superior product was consistent in all the years and through all roasts that he produced.

Sadly, Coffee Tea & Spice was replaced by (another) skate shop. Damn Haight St. punks. I’m leaving my review here anyway so you all know what you missed.
Sometimes you’re walking down Haight St. and you need some coffee. Unfortunately most of the «cafes» on Haight offer terrible coffee, but this place is a gem. It used to have a cozy back room, but now it seems to have been taken over by yet another Haight St. boutique (and you know there could *never* be enough of those!) Even if Coffee Tea & Spice is smaller nowdays, it’s still a good place to pick up a latte and if you’re lucky a cute goth girl will make it for you.