Aquarela Coffee - DTLA
Curator’s note
Everything here is Brazilian and roasted by the people selling it, on a 2.5-kilo and a 10-kilo San Franciscan, out of six farms the company visits twice a year and pays above market. Kipling opened this counter in 2017 for a former employer and came back in 2022 to run it as his own, in the lobby of the 1931 CalEdison, a great deal of building for a Batida.
Chocolate with house spices, espresso and latte art, served hot or cold, named after the late São Paulo rapper Sabotage.
Brazilian cheese bread, three pieces to an order.
The coffee
Every coffee is a Brazilian single origin the company roasts itself, from six farms it names by region and visits twice a year, with a stated specialization in anaerobic processing.
- Amilton Peixoto - Red Catuaí, "Lona" Fermentation
- Red Catuaí
- Lona fermentation: small lots wrapped in tarp for a slow aerobic fermentation, pulp removed after
- Amilton Peixoto, Peixoto Family
chocolate · melon · yellow and red fruits · creamy and clean body
- The Peixoto Family - Mundo Novo, Natural
- Mundo Novo
- Natural
- Neide Peixoto, with daughter Lauriel and brother-in-law Joaquim
Tootsie Roll · Cinnamon/Cardamom · Yellow Raisin · Pecan-Pie sweetness
- Tudo de Bom - Espresso and Filter Blend
- Natural, Pulped and Anaerobic processes
Milk Chocolate · Cherry · Molasses · Sweet
The room
Aquarela pours out of downtown's grandest lobby: the CalEdison's, finished in 1931 by Allison & Rible, two stories tall under a thirty-foot coffered ceiling with at least seventeen kinds of marble across the floor and walls. Hugo Ballin's mural Power closes the far end of the lobby.
The vibe
Photos
People
Been to Aquarela Coffee - DTLA?
Leave a note for the next person: what to order, where to sit.