Amherst Coffee: Coffee, Food, Wine and More

Amherst Coffee opened its doors in November 2005, as part of the new Amherst Cinema Arts building in Amherst, Massachusetts on Amity Street, across from the Jones Library. The cafe was an interesting new restaurant for the town of Amherst, which already contains Rao's Coffee, Bart's Ice Cream (with an espresso bar), The Black Sheep Deli and Cafe, and a Starbuck's coffee store. Why would the small town of Amherst need yet another coffee shop? Amherst Coffee proved exactly why.

Amherst Coffee brews espresso European-style, and the barristas are craftsmen and craftswomen. At Amherst Coffee, a small latte contains roughly six ounces of milk or soymilk, and two ounces of espresso. The espresso is perfect--rich and slightly bitter, with a thick crema on top, a testimony to the quality of the espresso machines Amherst Coffee uses, as well as the skill used by the barristas. In addition, when this author orders a soy latte, the soymilk is frothed perfectly. Unlike other coffee shops, Amherst Coffee employees and owners know how to froth soymilk, a difficult task. The result is a thick, creamy, tightly-bubbled latte with the virtuoso's "leaf" pattern, blending espresso and froth into a work of art. At $2.50 for a regular latte, and $3.00 for a soy latte, the price is fairly standard for coffee shops, although the serving size is smaller. In this case, size does not matter; it's all about technique, and the barristas have mastered their craft.

Amherst Coffee's menu includes a wide array of pastries, including cherry scones, fig scones, croissants, spinach and feta cheese croissants, standard cookies such as chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal, and assorted smoothies, waters, along with the oddly distinctive water buffalo yogurt!