The day before, the barista at Steady State recommended this coffee place in Sorrento Valley...
Bert sure doesn't miss this commute. He drove this commute for eleven years. Now he works much closer to home and doesn't have to deal with shitty traffic. The freeways in these photos are clear but normally during the early morning hours and anytime after 2 pm, it's pretty crappy. Googlemaps wanted us to take the 56 East/bypass. This was a first for us...driving on a road we'd seen under construction for the longest time.
Global Coffee Trading is not a coffee shop per se. It's a trading company with an actual coffee bar plus a tasting room. It's located in an office park and when we tried to open the door, found that it was locked. Their website listed them as open from 7 am; it was already 9. As we were walking back to our car, someone opened the door and said we could come in!
It turns out that they were closed for the holidays. We did not see that sign (it was actually on their other door on the other side of the building). Despite them being closed, it was really nice of them to even let us in and offer to make us drinks. We met Ed (one of their accountants), Alice (a certified Q grader) and Pablo (another employee as well as a former barista at Cafe Virtuoso).
They were still decorated for the holidays so it was quite festive in here. Edward showed Bert the testing room (I think that's what it was called) where they store beans from other countries. They test it out to see if the beans are worth distributing.
My cortado (the beans used were from Modern Times, a brewery in the Midway District which also houses a cafe).
Looks good and yes, it was also excellent in terms of taste. Very smooth, not too bitter and with a lovely layered top (real milk!). Bert's drink of choice this morning was a macchiato (also with real milk; they had no subs but we weren't complaining). He enjoyed the rich flavor.
We were floored that they went out of their way to invite us in and offer to make us drinks. They were all so very friendly and welcoming and interested in how we found out about them.
(above image was taken inside and reversed)
What was even more amazing was that they did not charge us for the drinks; we did ask to pay but they said it was on the house (we left a tip mind you). Alice later came by before we left to give us one of their gift boxes that they normally give to their corporate clients - inside, a pound of their holiday blend plus several chocolate bars with Peruvian coffee beans. Nice!
I tried one of the bars and they were really great. It would have tasted better while drinking coffee with it so I'll have to save them for another such time.
This is the business park it's located, Sorrento Creative Center.
Article:
"Global Coffee Trading launches in San Diego with importing, roaster sharing and retail" Daily Coffee News, April 5, 2016
"Global Coffee models the craft brewing scene"SD Reader, April 14, 2016
Global Coffee Trading
11585 Sorrento Valley Rd., Ste 108
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 751-7610
www.globalcoffeetrading.com/fb page + reviews from you know where
The folks who work nearby are lucky to have not just Global but also nearby Zumbar and the new Copa Vida, which would be our next destination.
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