More Coffeeshops!! Gypsy Place Coffee

It's Marathon Monday, and I don't have anything to do, nor much work to get done. And so we continue on the coffee shop grind. It's also such a nice day, it'd be a shame if I spent the entire day indoors.

I might make this into a series. I should really lean into the foodie part of me.

According to online reviews, this place is highly rated for vibes and their healthy food options. There is a wide variety of smoothies and smoothie bowls, along with regular brunch items (toast, sandwiches, waffles, etc). I've never had fancy superfood bowl type stuff before so this is my first time trying them!

Gypsy Place Coffee and Juice

Rating: 4/5
Location: 90 Hampshire St, Cambridge, MA 02139
Ordered: Latte (4.25), Citrine Bowl (15), Bread Pudding (3.25)
Time spent: 2.75 hours

Vibes: It's a very cozy coffee shop located at the corner of the intersection of two streets in the suburbs of Cambridge. The chairs and tables are a warm red wood, with patterns engraved in them. Very rustic, very gypsy. There are hanging fairy lights, plants, both live and dried, brightly colored glass ornaments and gypsy-patterned tapestry. It's not terribly large, but there aren't that many people here today, thankfully. It's honestly so nice because of the lack of people. I feel like I could chill here the entire day. Spanish pop songs are playing kind of loudly. The baristas seem to be mostly Hispanic. Against one wall are hella comfy-looking couches. My one gripe is that there are very few outlets, and I sat in three different spots, trying to find a way to connect my stupid dying laptop to power without creating a trip hazard with my cord. There's free wifi, but there's a two-hour limit, which I found out the hard way :(.

Bowl: Looks very cute and instagrammable. It's a bowl of smoothie topped with rows of coconut, dried mangoes, oats, and various seeds. It's definitely very healthy. The smoothie has a subtle taste, and I can only really pinpoint mango. It's supposed to also have pineapple and orange in it. There's a little bit of spice to it that comes from the ginger, honey, and bee pollen, which are all cool additions! It's hard for me to do it justice because I'm not used to a lot of the flavors present, and it's definitely a flavor profile I don't get everyday. I love the seeds that adds crunch to eat bite, and the dried fruit that slowly releases sweetness in each bite. Oh, and it also had a flower on top. I may or may not have taken a bite out of it. It may or may not have added a beautiful aroma to the bowl. It's honestly very aromatic, full of flavors that I'm not familiar with. Very good, new experience.

Latte: The first thing that I notice is the slight sweetness in my first sip. The milk taste is quite present, and there's also a good mix of sour and bitter aftertaste (though my palate might be affected by the smoothie bowl). Actually, after eating more of the citrine bowl, I now have a harder time picking up on the sourness of the coffee, but it's still present, to be clear. I really like all the different flavors present in the latte, though. However, no latte art :(

Bread Pudding: Again, not a frequenter of this food. I'm used to bread pudding being this soft and gooey thing, but this was definitely a very solid, bread-like bread pudding. It consists of two layers with chocolate in between the two cup-like pieces. I was given a spoon to eat this with, but I ended up grabbing it with my hands and biting into it. It has a pretty hard exterior, so the spoon was not working too well. I did not find it dry, however, so that's very good! It's not too sweet in general, and though it did not look like the bread pudding that I know, it tasted very subtly like it. It has a mild taste in general. There were bits of nuts and seeds throughout the pudding, giving it a nice crunch.

Value: Okay, so it is 15$ for a bowl. Everything else is very reasonably priced, maybe on the cheaper side for a Boston-area coffee shop. But the bowl is 15 whole dollars. Was it a lot? Yeah, I suppose. It did also contain some good, natural flavors or whatnot, so the 15$ is probably very reasonably priced. All I'm saying is that you'd be paying more for brunch here than other coffee shops with traditional food items. I did not see the price before I ordered and I was very shocked when my total came out to be 25$, because I had expected a bunch of fruit and seeds to be quite cheap (I mean, fruit is pretty cheap, no?). This poor college student just saw the dent in her wallet.

Rating: Great vibes, very nice and cozy. (probably) Great value. Food overall was a little bit on the blander side, which tracks for how healthy it's supposed to be. Coffee was not anything special. I'd be coming back to try all the different bowls tbh, and even then I'm not that big of a fan of them. But it's very solid. No complaints. I think it's just me not being a big fan of smoothie bowls.