Mission Bakery & Cafe

Location: inside the student center at Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara

Reviewed: February 18, 2007

Espresso: SCU as a whole recently switched their coffee accounts to Barefoot beans. This has resulted in quite the improvement since I attended a couple of years ago. Today, they were serving Redwood. The barista didn't seem to grind the shot to order, but she did give it a heavy tamp (on top of a very full portafilter). The shot was poured directly into a smallish (6oz?) paper cup. It had a nicely-coloured crema, which, although not thick per se, was pretty good given the wideness of the cup. It was thick and full-bodied and coated the tongue well. It contained just a tinge of honey-sweetness.

Atmosphere: Well, um, it's in the student center. Not much to comment on here.

Verdict: Even though they need some training, if this stuff had been there when I was in school, I wouldn't have needed to take the bar exam twice, because of all that time I wasted traveling away from campus for my coffee.