Sugar Rush: Loaf Cakes and Cookies at Blue Bottle Coffee

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

The salt factor of the cookies at Blue Bottle Coffee are high enough to rival that of Momofuku's. And they are splendid. A Double Chocolate Cookie ($2.25) tangles salt-laced dark chocolate bites with melting pockets of Madagascar chocolate from Mast Brothers just down the block. It was good enough at room temperature that I got giddy just thinking how incredible it would be warm. A few minutes in the toaster oven did wonders—if it also created a chocolatey mess. Snickerdoodles ($1.50) are more sophisticated, not a cookie many would love at first bite, but one that slowly earns your favor; it's strong in saffron and barely sweet, with the fragrant note of Tahitian vanilla.

The loaf cakes here are not to be missed either. Gingerbread loaf ($2) instantly gets bonus points for cheeky creativity; it's flavored with frankincense, myhrr, and Blue Bottle's own New Orleans iced coffee. (Now that's something we don't see too often.) The surface is sticky and soft, the gingerbread taste darkly rich, almost haunting. Coffee comes out more strongly in scent than in flavor.

The Arborio Rice Cake ($3) is a favorite brought over from the original San Francisco location. The surface is soft, with a nutty skin layer that you can peel off. Underneath lies a very soft cake with a texture that could pass for bread pudding, dotted in arborio rice, cooked so that it retains just a bit of a bite and coupled with chopped almonds. A dose of McKenzie Rye Whiskey gives it an extra kick—driving me crazy as I tried to figure out just what it was.

Blue Bottle Coffee

160 Berry Street, Brooklyn New York 11211 (map) 718-387-4160
bluebottlecoffee.net

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