Four Barrel Coffee, San Francisco

In the morning the line-up for this little coffee shop is out the door. But it moves really fast and before you know it, you have a coffee in hand and a smile on your face.

Four Barrel is listed by “in-the-know” sources as San Francisco’s best coffee shop. Their beans are used by other high-end cafes. In my experience, the staff were funny and friendly, the hipster patrons were all using shiny, trendy MacBooks. It’s certainly the place to go if you want to feel like you are hip and part of the SF scene.

However, the coffee was rather… meh. I don’t think it was because of the quality of the bean or skill of the barista. These people really know what they are doing. But rather, they don’t use soy milk. So my option was almond milk, which tends to fall apart and taste grainy when heated.

I don’t particularly like the grainy taste… I prefer the creamy caramel taste of really good espresso mixed with nice soy (like Pacific). Still, my coffee was better than the average cup of Java and I’d be a regular if Four Barrel was a part of my daily path.