Bold Bean Coffee Roasters

869 Stockton Street, Jacksonville, FL 32204

Jacksonville has a robust culture of independent coffeehouses housed in historically charming, vintage strip centers that are surrounded by and sprinkled among residential neighborhoods. Bold Bean Coffee Roasters is one such example that serves up good coffee.

Coffee:

My coffee was brewed with their Sweet Spot house blend, a mix of Columbian and Guatemalan beans providing a rich flavor profile of cocoa and raisin. It blended well with the whole milk in my cortado and was good enough as a drip that I bought a bag of beans on my way out which proved to be a good decision. They make their Cortado as a 5 oz beverage, which is a one ounce deviation from the norm resulting from what I believe is an overpour of milk. Come on you say, one ounce? Take a chill pill. I beg to differ. Admittedly, I have become a bit of a Cortado snob, but this little gem of a beverage deserves perfection. I’ve learned that while its a simple drink and easy to make, its also easy to screw up. Bold Bean did everything else very well, they just put in an extra ounce (50% too much) milk. It was good, but could have been better. A sentence from their website displays their thoughtfulness and commitment to their craft: “We felt that a full-emersion brew using a longer brew time and coarse grind setting would really let some of the delicate floral notes shine through. So that’s what we did and we were correct.”

Barista:

Bold Bean uses a Slayer espresso machine which I associate with good experience as, in my experience, it generally correlates a store that treats the breakfast beverage as a craft. They are more finicky, but they allow for more artistic freedom. So, you have to prize the freedom to put up with a little more work. I asked the barista what he thought of it. He told me found the steam wand to be a bit heavy (overpowering) for his liking but otherwise, he liked it a lot because it allows you to really dial things in. Then he told me that when they bought it they also got repair lessons, which he described as a good thing. I asked if that was because it needs a lot of maintenance, or because its worth it. He said, “both”, and smiled. He agreed with me that a Cortado is normally a 4oz beverage.

Vibe:

They were featuring a local watercolor artist and had a QR code on the walls that identified the price and story behind each painting. They also advertised technique classes that the artist puts on. Seating and tables were metal, on concrete floors. While not a destination coffee shop, I thought it was a very nice neighborhood store and they served good coffee. Merch was fine, and I was tempted to leave with an insulated, bold bean coffee mug with a comely shape. Bathroom was perfectly adequate.