COZ Coffee Roasting Company?

[El Graduado]

There is no need whatsoever to take coffee with you to Cozumel unless you have some very unusual need.

Cozumel has come a long way since the days when the only coffee available on the island was instant. You ordered coffee at a restaurant, you got a cup of hot water; the jar of Nescafe was already on every table.

 

[mstevens]

Cozumel has come a long way since the days when the only coffee available on the island was instant. You ordered coffee at a restaurant, you got a cup of hot water; the jar of Nescafe was already on every table.

I wouldn't be surprised if that were still be the case at a few places, but I no longer see the jar at the places I go. I do see people (mostly my age and older) order Nescafe specifically even at places that I know have perfectly decent "real" coffee. There always seems to be a jar in the back.

 

[rmssetc]

I stopped into Cozumel Coffee several times when I was there Dec/Jan. Nice clean operation, friendly people, seemed to know their coffee well.

However... I wasn't fond of their roast. I've been roasting my own coffee for about 8 years (lots of different origin coffees, mainly Mexican or Central American & Ethopian), and I drink striaght espresso almost exclusively. The coffee at Cozumel Coffee is not roasted with espresso as the goal. It seemed to make a good French press or drip preparation, but for several reasons Cozumel Coffee wasn't serving great espresso*. I had a nice chat with them about it, and they acknowledged & completely understood my observations about the roast, bean age, and shot preparation. At that time, they said they were planning to change the roast frequency (and possibly profiles) to be able to serve better espressos.

* This isn't necessarily a problem, and may just be a case of a business accurately assessing and meeting their market. I don't recall seeing anyone else ordering straight espresso whenever I was in CC, and the espresso-based drinks that people were ordering had so much other 'stuff' (lots of milk, flavoring, ice, etc) that the finer distinctions in roast levels, age of the beans, etc, would probably have been lost anyway.

 

[mstevens]

The coffee at Cozumel Coffee is not roasted with espresso as the goal.

That's certainly accurate. If you can pull your own shots on the island, give Momoto Cafe (which I mis-named upthread) a try. There might be someone there who knows how to use the very nice equipment they have to make an espresso, but I don't think you can count on that.

If you need a decent shot on the island and can't or don't want to make it yourself, check out El Coffee on Calle 3 S just off Melgar. I'm fairly certain they use Momoto beans.