- Let me do you a favor. I’ll drink Americano from various cafés in Cebu to save you time and money. Don’t you love to skip those blends that are not worth sipping?
I’ve been doing coffee shop hopping and cafe Americono tasting with Neil for some time so I might as well involve you, awesome coffee lover.
Like any aspiring coffee connoisseurs out there, we dream of trying the best coffee flavor the earth could offer. (If you’d like to join us in this journey, let me know!) 🙂 So, back to coffee tasting. At the moment, we already have a few early favorites.
Here are five Cebu coffee shops we’re recently obsessed with:
Treat Street Cafe
Craving for an afternoon snack? Treat Street Cafe in Ayala offers desserts and a good cup of coffee to go with them. We’ve never dined here without trying out their desserts. They’re just impossible to resist. Our favorite combo is cafe Americano and their yummy apple pie. The best way to enjoy that combo is to finish the pie then wash it down with coffee. P.S. They used to serve Illy coffee but just last week, they changed it. Still good, I must say. 🙂
Coffee Cat
(Closed now)
Cebu IT Park is never in short supply of coffee shops to serve lots of groggy workers and curious visitors. Yet among the coffeehouses here, Coffee Cat serves the Americano cup I can happily recommend. It is located at the ground floor of JP Morgan building, serving seductive Illy coffee daily. If you’ve heard of this brand, you can expect to drink a consistently and distinctively delicious cup of Americano. We’ve tried Angus beef burger with it. It was acceptable but in hindsight, I thought it would’ve tasted better pairing their coffee with a sweeter snack.
Not Just Coffee
Here’s a confession I need to make: we don’t know where they get their coffee beans. That’s our fault – we didn’t ask. But would you care about the origin if the coffee tastes great? And it is surprisingly inexpensive. If you like your Americano cup remarkably balanced in flavor, small in size, and leaving you wanting more, Not Just Coffee is right for you. Order a heavenly banana cake or empanada on the side. You can find this cafe just across Apple store in SM Cebu.
Brown Cup
You may want to check out my blog post about Brown Cup, Talamban first. If you did, then you know where I get my breakfast favorites. You can get a decent Americano brew here for a good price, a true bang for your buck. When you enter the shop, you’ll see a wall artwork explaining the process of brewing each type of coffee – yes, even fancy ones like cappuccino and latte. The crowd is a mix of businessmen, students, and yuppies like us – it’s crazy I know. P.S. I already said they don’t offer a Wi-Fi but I guess it’s worth repeating. [Update: Brown Cup now offers WiFi that expires after an hour; ask the cashier for more details.]
The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
You may have noticed, CBTL is the only non-boutique coffee shop here. It’s a coffee brand lauded for its fantastic Southern California brew. I’m a bit skeptical when it comes to huge and fashionable cafes but CBTL proved to be different. Neil and I love their branch in A.S. Fortuna. We found that they have the strongest Americano blend among the caffeine spots on this list so try to have a muffin or a slice of cake with it. Fun fact: if you’re drinking their Americano without sugar, creamer, or milk, you can divide a regular cup into three servings so you have three refills throughout the day. (You’re welcome!)
Are you also a coffee fanatic? Share with me your go-to place for a caffeine hit in Cebu!