Huh?!

Some of these are frequently asked questions we get at the shops. Some we just made up. All should prove interesting, so read away!

I use the same coffee as you do at my house; why does it never taste as good as it does at Coffeetopia?

Because we make our coffee with LOVE? No, really. There ARE some good explanations and tips which can help with your at-home coffee preparation. The first tip is to grind your coffee right before you make it; ground coffee will stale much faster than whole bean coffee. I would also recommend that if you want a great brewed cup of coffee at home, go out and get yourself an electric coffee MILL. This would be a grinder which grinds the coffee uniformly using sharpened steel grinding discs instead of the consistently poor "burr" or whirring-type grinder. But I digress.

Use really hot water. Thats it. How much coffee to use is personal preference, as is the grind to a certain degree. The biggest obstacle to great coffee at-home are Mr. Coffee-type brewers that don't make the water hot enough. Should be around 190F. Try a Melitta filter and a kettle of boiling water--you'll be in coffee heaven!

Do you always take so long to answer simple questions?

Yes.

Do you have live music at Coffeetopia?

No. We take the opinion that a majority of our customers are using Coffeetopia as a place to meet, read, study and hang out. That doesn't mean that folks wouldn't respond to having live music at the cafes, but given the small size of both locations we feel that we'd be forcing music onto folks who really didn't want it. If the cafes were a bit larger I'd feel feel more open to music, and I guess anything is possible in the future, but we don't really lean that way.

Can I bring my laptop computer to Coffeetopia and jack in?

No. We are able to administer and maintain our broadband LANs quite well, but we are simply not set up to offer data jacks for outside access. We DO offer wireless access for those folks who have a 811.1a/b/g wireless card or capability, and this is FREE! Go buy a wireless card!

What's Mocha whip?

We have, since 1994, offered our customers a choice between Vanilla Whipped Cream and Mocha Whipped cream for those drinks which normally GET whipped cream. Mocha whip is extra-rich whipping cream blended with fresh espresso and our custom blended sweetened cocoa. Try it! You can get the plain stuff anywhere...

Why do I need to give my driver's licence or other picture ID to use the computers?

We require that customers leave a picture ID when checking out a computer at Coffeetopia; we log our users to provide some liability for Coffeetopia vis-à-vis all the outgoing internet traffic. We have had a handful of instances where mis-use by some individuals (spamming, hate-mail, etc.) has compromised our internet account, and logging users helps protect us. We DO NOT share any logged info (without a court order) and the records are destroyed after a period of time.

Could you stay open later than 6:00 pm?

Sure! However, we've tried it before at both locations; 6:00 pm works for us.

Could you open at 5:00 am or 5:30 am instead of 6 am?

No. We run two full shifts as it is right now; 6 am is good.

How do I get my art shown at either of the Coffeetopias?

Call and set up an appointment with the manager of either Coffeetopia. They'll meet with you and check out your proposal. After that, it's just a matter of scheduling up a time. We run shows for six weeks at a time, and usually book out six to twelve months in advance.

Where do you get your coffees? Do you roast?

We don't roast coffees at Coffeetopia. We've found what we feel are the BEST examples of coffee roasting available to us. For our brewed coffees, we proudly serve coffees from the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company. I grew up drinking their coffees, and I really like their consistency and quality. For our espresso, we use coffee from Estate Coffee in Monterey.