Trident Coffee

There's a new coffee place in IB...

It's about time too...

So we waited patiently at the light at Palm Ave and 13th...

where we crossed into Bikeway Village which houses a now open bike shop as well as Trident Coffee (now in it's sixth week of existence). In the forthcoming year, Coronado Brewing Company will also open a restaurant and brewery, which will be great for the local residents as well as cyclists pedaling through from the bay to Coronado.  Imperial Beach's Bikeway Village is the halfway point between those stops. We had visited the complex earlier this year and were also curious to see its development.

See the lone guy near the fence?

It turned out to be our friend One. In fact, we had just mentioned him before crossing the intersecion while passing Cilantro, a local Mexican restaurant which is one of One's favorites.  So it was a pleasant surprise for us to see him here.  He lives nearby and Trident is one of his favorite coffee shops. He was enjoying a cup of their "Son of a Sailor" cold brew.

The space is airy and open with limited seating near the walls and standup seating at the communaltable. The color scheme is crisp white and blue.

Outside, there were two cornhole boards outside.  Seems like this  is a popular thing now.  We saw the same thing over at Communal Coffee and also at The Crafty Butchers (post is forthcoming).

One's "Son of a Sailor" cold brew, which is one of his favorite taps along with Stoic and Trident.

Note that Trident ONLY offers cold brew. They can serve drinks hot with a steaming wand but it was broken the day of our visit.

The gals at the counter were super nice. They offered 12 and 20 oz cup sizes or a sampler flight of 4 for $4. We opted to get two flights of four. TC tried a sample of their cascara tea and a kombucha with coffee; we weren't even charged for hers, which was nice. She thought the cascara tea was too strong for her. She had tried Cascara before at Blue Bottle and thought to give it another chance. Same thing. No like.  As for the kombucha with coffee, she thought it was awful but Bert finished it off for her.


There are twelve taps of their cold brews  ranging from the type of roast (medium, dark), plus tea/kombucha; each has a nautical themed name.


Trident also offered their own merchandise (shirts, mugs, etc) plus bags of their roasts. They were currently out of their canned cold brew, which was a bummer because I wanted to get one. Next time, I say!

Earlier, the seats near the tables were occupied so we had to stand at the table in the middle.

These were my four for my flight - Stoic, Ambrotos, El Capitan and Freedom of the Seas.

Stoic had coconut milk (I didn't like the roast flavor) while Ambrotos has MCT oil which gave it a very smooth and silky feel and taste. This was their best seller according to one of the owners, Eric Johnson.  El Capitan was a seasonal roast which had a faint peppermint flavor. The last one smelled really good, the Freedom of the Seas; this was coffee that was stored in a rum barrel. There was no alcohol in that coffee but it sure had the rum aroma

TC's Starboard Home - passionfruit hibiscus tea with rose hips and cascara.

My flight once again...

Plus Bert's (one was missing):

He had Son of a Sailor, Trident, Weather the Storm and Stoic BOnd.  TC's Maelstrom was the kombucha with coffee.  Of his four coffees, I didn't really like any of them. The Stoic tasted kind of "dirty". I don't know how else to describe it.  The Son of a Sailor had a faint taste of orange and cinnamon. He really liked the Trident because it had a roasty chocolate flavor to it.


So much coffee!

We had a nice chat with Eric and were glad to support a local business especially one that honored the city's Navy roots (Eric himself served eight years in the US Navy). My father and Bert's served in the navy as well so it was fitting to patronize this store.

Alright, alright...not quite a "trident", but I guess Jason Momoa version of Aquaman's "quindent" will do!  Bert is looking forward to the "Justice League" movie, like all of the other fanboys.


Articles:
"Coffee tasted good in a can from Trident Coffee" Spotter Up, October 27, 2017
"Trident Coffee serves the boost you need" Eagle & Times, October 20, 2017 (*note - the article incorrectly names 'cascara' as 'cascada'; cascara, Spanish for "husk" is derived from the skin of the coffee cherry and made into tea)
"First businesses at Bikeway Village to open in April" SD Union Tribune, March 1, 2017

Here's a recent video link where you can see the taps and the wand steamer in action:
"New coffee roaster specializes in cold brew" Fox5San Diego, October 24, 2017

Trident Coffee
536 13th St.
Imperial Beach, CA 91932
(619) 246-9316

tridentcoffee.com/fb page + the scane 11 reviews (at this time of writing) from you know where

We are looking forward to going through the rest of their flavors next weekend. That's the great thing about flights. You can sample a lot of different flavors without committing to just one. If you like one later, then you can go for it next time (in my case, the Ambrotos!).  The co-owner stated that they would also do seasonal flavors, so that is something we'll also look forward to...