Spring Break Cafe Hopping pt 4: Render Coffee

It was raining today, but since there wasn't a very strong wind, I push forwards on my cafe hopping journey. Today, I crossed the river to hit up this coffee shop near Berklee and Northeastern. I've been trying to taste more local-crafted coffees and this was one of the shops that did that. I actually biked here so I was soaked when I arrived. I also did not sleep as much as I should on break last night, so the cup of coffee is appreciated.

Render Coffee

Rating: 3/5
Location: 563 Columbus Ave APT 2, Boston, MA 02118
Ordered: Latte with skim milk (5.25), pain au chocolat (5), chicken pesto sandwich on ciabatta (12)
Time spent: 2 hours

Vibes: It's located near Berklee so they have tons of paintings of jazz hung around the place There's soft jazz/r&b playing. Or well, lowkey, it sounds like the backing track to some MF Doom songs. It's very quiet though. Basically every customer here is working away on their laptops, which makes sense, since it's not far away from some universities. There aren't a lot of people here though, maybe because it's a Thursday afternoon and people are in class. The baristas are also students, and they were gossiping with each other when I arrived. It's giving university Starbucks lowkey. There's way too many of them working for the amount of customers in here. My latte came in a to-go cup and my food arrived in those stereotypical brown paper bags. Not the best vibes. There was a little greenhouse-looking thing in the back where you could sit in this round room that juts out, with glass walls everywhere. There was also plenty of outlets, so that was very nice for me because I'm about to do some coding after this.

Latte: It's a very interesting, unique flavor. It does not smell like the traditional coffee scent at all. It reminds me of a raspberry dark chocolate flavor (with the main flavor being chocolate). I'd describe it as earthy, though I don't know if that's the right word. It's definitely not chocolate-tasting, but something about the scent reminds me of bitter dark chocolate. It's not bitter, exactly, not in the way that coffee is usually bitter. It's bitter in the way that Chinese medicine is bitter, and only a hint of it. I remember having to drink some concoction when I had a fever, and the bitterness of that tea lingered at the back of my throat in a gross way. Yes, this reminds me of medicine lowkey. It has quite a weak aroma, but it tastes quite strong and solid. I think for someone who enjoys this flavor, it's a very well done coffee. I unfortunately don't enjoy this flavor and added sugar to it to help me drink it (it did not help, the aroma was still there, it just got sweeter).

Pain au chocolat: Not very crispy, so there really isn't that much sugar on the outside. It's generally not too sweet. The chocolate tastes like the normal kind of chocolate that you expect in a pain au chocolat: semi-sweet, semi-dark. It doesn't really have the many layers that a croissant does, but the bread inside is still light and fluffy.

Sandwich: It has chicken, tomato, lettuce, and pesto on toasted ciabatta bread. There was also bacon and goat cheese. I wasn't paying too close attention to the menu. I expected it to be a warm sandwich (I honestly have no reason to expect this, idk why), but it was cold and honestly on my first bite, it kind of reminded me of sandwich I would get at the deli, and my first impression was that the chicken is hella dry. Anyways, flavors, flavors. The first flavors are the tanginess of the pesto that slowly gives way to a sort of minty taste as a transition into the aroma of goat cheese. The bacon adds a nice salty and sweet kick to the flavor. I can actually taste a little bit of the tomato, which adds a good amount of moisture to the sandwich. The ciabatta is nice and crunchy, and the lettuce adds to the crunch too. I think the aroma of the ciabatta gets overpowered by the goat cheese, especially since both of these you experience at the end of the eating journey (if that makes sense. It's like how the the taste transitions.). Honestly, it's kind of cool how the flavors and aromas transition between each other. I will say that calling it a chicken pesto sandwich is a bit weird, because this feels closer to a BLT than a chicken pesto.

Value: Hella expensive for not that much of a good time, at least for me (see rating). The latte was a bit pricier than average. The pain au chocolat is the same size as those you would get at Tatte or some other chain coffee shop for the same-ish price (cuz those places are expensive) and comparative or maybe even worse quality. The sandwich is normal-ish size, but honestly does not feel very worth the price. Like I said, it felt like a deli sandwich, which is what all BLTs feel like. Plus everything came in not at all cute deli bags. I feel like I'm paying more for not as good of a time.

Rating: I didn't like the taste of the coffee, pastry was fine, and the chicken was dry and I don't particularly enjoy the taste of goat cheese. It was expensive too. I respect the commitment to using local ingredients, at least in the coffee, so I'm not going to lower the rating that much. The sandwich was definitely on the unbalanced side in terms of flavor, and the pastry was hella mid. Vibes are also not the best.