![\"Brown](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-orlando-new-newish-coffee-shops-08.jpg\")
Brown sugar shaken espresso, iced, and its hot alter-ego, the brown sugar latte at Qreate Coffee. (Photo Courtesy Quay Hu\/@AroundQ)<\/p>\nI went to meet a friend and colleague recently at a cool, new local coffee shop.<\/p>\n
She was parked in the back of the place when I arrived, ensconced amid thrifty furniture. I put my stuff down and was about to go order when she held up her drink, a mystery wrapped in a nondescript recycled paper cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got this beet thing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really good!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBeet coffee?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
I actually like beets. And in a Forrest Gumpian way (roasted beets, beet salad, beet juice, beet kombucha, borscht \u2026).<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s coffee in it,\u201d she said. \u201cTry it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I did. And it was nice. Warm, creamy, a hit of ginger. But sweet.<\/p>\n
Brown sugar shaken espresso, iced, and its hot alter-ego, the brown sugar latte at Qreate Coffee. (Photo Courtesy Quay Hu\/@AroundQ)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good,\u201d I said. \u201cBut it\u2019s definitely got sugar.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHoney,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Potato, po-tah-to. I didn\u2019t say it, but I thought it.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want dessert for breakfast.<\/p>\n
The practice of the 7 a.m. frappuccino perplexes me, but the more I visit coffee shops the more in the minority I feel.<\/p>\n
![\"Lineage](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-East-End-Tenth-Anniversary-01-1.jpg\")
Lineage Coffee Roasting inside the East End Market. (Willie J. Allen Jr.\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
Qreate Coffee + Studio<\/a> owner\/founder Quay Hu assures me that I am not, but even so, both his locations \u2014 in Mills 50 and Creative Village \u2014 sell more \u201ccraft coffee beverages\u201d than the stuff I drink.<\/p>\n In fact, Qreate doesn\u2019t even do \u201cdrip\u201d coffee anymore.<\/p>\n Tops for grab-and-go situations and large gatherings, \u201cdrip\u201d is the present-day term for what you\u2019d simply order as \u201ccoffee\u201d in a Waffle House or self-pour from an urn at a Wawa.<\/p>\n They don\u2019t even do \u201cpour-overs,\u201d which is the fancier version of drip, where the barista brews a single cup by hand.<\/p>\n Joe Burbank \/ Orlando Sentinel<\/p>\n Pour-over coffee at Lineage Coffee Roasting in the Mills 50 district. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what you\u2019re looking for if you want to taste the bean and how its roasted, with no sugar unless you add it yourself,\u201d Hu explains.<\/p>\n Back when Qreate first opened it had six or seven single-origin coffees for pour-overs.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it just wasn\u2019t popular. We were making maybe 10 a month.\u201d<\/p>\n At Qreate the closest thing to plain, old coffee is an Americano, made by pouring hot water into one or two shots of espresso. In some places you fix it yourself, but at Qreate it\u2019s full service. They\u2019ll add the milk and\/or sugar to order.<\/p>\n There\u2019s even something called an Aerocano, which takes the Americano next-level by steaming it.<\/p>\n Ask Amy Drew: These are a few of my favorite things<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis adds air into the mixture and it gets smoother and creamier and a little bit thicker,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 10:29 p.m. as I type this and I didn\u2019t get a lot of sleep last night. It sounds like heaven.<\/p>\n Not too many places do pour-overs, says Hu, noting that downtown\u2019s Deeply Cafe and Bottle Shop<\/a>, a venue he cites as one of his favorites (and one with a nicely curated natural wine selection) among those that do.<\/p>\n So, too, does Lineage Coffee Roasting<\/a>, in many of the city\u2019s caffeindish minds, the O.G. of local coffee roasting \u2014 which quite a few shops around town do these days.<\/p>\n Lineage debuted inside East End Market in 2013 and although it has grown into three locations \u2014 adding shops in Mills 50 and at the University of Central Florida \u2014 and supplies wholesale product to many of the city\u2019s culinary heavy hitters (the Lineage-based coffee service at The Foreigner<\/a> remains one of the best cups I have ever had outside of my own kitchen), it still offers both drip and pour-overs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat people want when they go to cafes has shifted, but Lineage has bucked against that trend a little bit in that we try to remain pretty coffee pure,\u201d says founder Jarrett Johnson.<\/p>\n Lineage even balks on the current trend of co-fermenting (where freeze-dried berries and other things are comingled with beans in washing tanks, imparting wildly fruity notes) \u201cbecause we are cocky purists, essentially,\u201d Jarrett jokes.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my eyes \u2026 it\u2019s no different in my mind than adding strawberry syrup to the coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019ve always done seasonal coffee beverages with housemade syrups, he says, \u201cbut I\u2019m seeing more people now coming in wanting almost a cocktail-like coffee experience versus just a pour-over black.\u201d<\/p>\n Hu agrees.<\/p>\n \u201cCafes are in many cases like craft cocktail bars now and it\u2019s been trending that way for a long time,\u201d he says. \u201cSeasonal flavors \u2026 and in our case, because we\u2019re an Asian-influenced coffee shop, we find a lot of inspiration in boba and tea shops.\u201d<\/p>\n The brown-sugar shaken espresso, one of Qreate\u2019s most popular flavors for quite some time, was inspired by the brown sugar boba flavor.<\/p>\n I only heard of it about a week or so ago, when into my inbox came a study\u00a0 by Coffeeness<\/a>, which analyzed Google Trends search interest to uncover the most popular festive drinks across the U.S., which cited it as \u201cFlorida\u2019s favorite holiday beverage.\u201d<\/p>\n I asked readers and followers on Facebook where I could find one. It took maybe 30 seconds for someone to say \u201cStarbucks.\u201d And a minute later, \u201cDunkin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n I am clearly not the specialty beverage demographic. But it is large. And largely young. And though it\u2019s been widely reported that Gen Z drinks far less alcohol than those previous, it loves its tea and boba and coffee beverages \u2014 in some places hybrids of all three \u2014 quite fiercely.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crazy what social media has done for coffee houses,\u201d says Michael Quigley, owner of Quigley Coffee Company<\/a> up in Sanford. \u201cNow you have Instagram matcha girls running around finding all the matcha places, I mean places that are just for matcha.\u201d<\/p>\n Hu says social media are trend drivers for sure and it\u2019s mostly about aesthetics.<\/p>\n \u201cCold drinks look prettier,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can do cool stuff with them and garnish them really nicely. The younger people see it on TikTok and they want it.\u201d<\/p>\n Quigley does it all, including drip and pour-overs, but also green coffee extract energy drinks with fruit and herbs, and a drink called the Koda Brew, a brown butter cold brew with pistachio cold foam. Both are pretty sweet.<\/p>\n The affogato: a cool, caffeinated celebration of espresso<\/a><\/p>\n Cold foam is a hot new trend. Well, it\u2019s cold, but you know what I mean.<\/p>\n I love the sound of so many of the coffee beverages, but for me, they hit best late night, in place of dessert. One exception, an iced, beautifully layered concoction from Haan Coffee<\/a> in Mills 50 melded espresso with elderflower tonic. Garnished with a dehydrated lemon wheel, it was herbaceous. Cocktail-like. Refreshing.<\/p>\n But that morning after tasting \u201cthe beet thing,\u201d and spying several cold foam options and a seasonal somethingorother with gingerbread in the name, I was about to seize up at the counter. Until I saw two words on the menu board that soothed me:<\/p>\n DRIP $3.50<\/p>\n Sold.<\/p>\n Christmas Coffee Curious?<\/p>\n \u2018Tis the season for catching up with friends we\u2019ve missed throughout our busy year. The holidays are a time to slow down and meet up \u2014 often for coffee. Dozens of places have opened in recent years around the metro. I\u2019ve hit a few, missed more. Every time I catch up another couple open. Below: A roster of some old, newish and new cafes. Whether you\u2019re looking for cold brew or cappuccino, flat white or cold foam, or fancifully named crafty concoctions, you\u2019ll find just about all at any of the below.<\/p>\n For the craft coffee curious \u2026<\/p>\n \u00c1guila Coffee: 1215 N. Orange Avenue in Orlando; aguilacoffee.square.site<\/a><\/p>\n Blackbird Comics & Coffeehouse: 500 E, Horatio Avenue in Maitland, 321-316-4296; theblackbirdroost.com<\/a><\/p>\n Deeply Cafe and Bottle Shop: (located inside CIBER) 11 N. Magnolia Avenue in Orlando, deeplycafeandbottleshop.com<\/a><\/p>\n Dr. Drips Coffee Lounge: 1618 N. Orange Avenue in Orlando; instagram.com\/dr.drip.coffee<\/a><\/p>\n Easy Luck Coffee & Bodega: 2425 E. South Street in Orlando; easyluckorlando.com<\/a><\/p>\n Framework Craft Coffee House: 1201 N. Mills Avenue in Orlando; frameworkcoffeehouse.com<\/a><\/p>\n Haan Coffee: 1235 E. Colonial Drive in Orlando, 407-906-5119; haancoffee.com<\/a><\/p>\n Haraz Coffee House: 1737 N. Alafaya Trail in Orlando, 407-203-5002 and (soft-open as of last week) 1561 Lee Road in Winter Park; harazcoffeehouse.com<\/a><\/p>\n Lineage Coffee Roasting (located inside East End Market): 3201 Corrine Drive in Orlando, 321-236-3316; lineageroasting.com<\/a><\/p>\n Mariam Coffee: 361 N. Rosalind Avenue in Orlando, 407-270-4613; mariamcoffee.com<\/a><\/p>\n Qreate Coffee + Studio: 1212 Woodward Street in Orlando, 407-601-1796 and 591 Chatham Avenue in Orlando, 407-286-4481; qreatecoffee.com<\/a><\/p>\n Quigley\u2019s Coffee Company: 1730 Rinehart Road in Sanford,407-687-1915; quigleycoffeeco.com<\/a><\/p>\n Rosso Coffee Bar: 840 E, State Rd 434 in Longwood, 407-687-8128; rossocb.com<\/a><\/p>\n Stemma Craft Coffee: 328 N. Orange Avenue in Orlando, 407-440-3018; 407-440-3018; stemmacraftcoffee.com<\/a><\/p>\n Zayn & Co.: (trailer parks at Digress Wine) 1215 Edgewater Drive in Orlando, 407-333-0543; instagram.com\/zayn.and.co<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t![\"Pour-over](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DY6EO6XLAJAAFJULM4MZSZNX5I.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Downtown](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-orlando-new-newish-coffee-shops-02-rotated.jpg\")
Downtown the mother-daughter-owned Stemma Craft Coffee pairs its warm vibe with beautiful coffee sourced from their family hacienda in Nicaragua. (Amy Drew Thompson\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n![\"Brown](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-orlando-new-newish-coffee-shops-07.jpg\")
Brown sugar shaken espresso, iced, at Qreate Coffee’s Creative Village Location. (Photo courtesy Quay Hu\/@AroundQ)<\/p>\n![\"Aromatic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-orlando-new-newish-coffee-shops-06.jpg\")
Aromatic Mufawar and Saudi-style coffees alongside za’atar bread and savory pastry at Haraz Coffee House in East Orlando. (Photo courtesy Lisa Wilk\/TasteCookSip.com)<\/p>\n![\"Avo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-orlando-new-newish-coffee-shops-05.jpg\")
Avo toast, pickled onions and a beverage at Easy Luck Coffee & Bodega. (Photo courtesy Lisa Wilk\/TasteCookSip.com)<\/p>\n![\"Quite](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-orlando-new-newish-coffee-shops-01.jpg\")
Quite possibly my favorite-ever “craft coffee beverage,” Haan’s refreshing Endless Summer drinks like an herbaceous cocktail, a beautifully layered refresher of espresso and elderflower tonic. (Amy Drew Thompson\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n