‘Farm to cup’: New café brings specialty coffee, Italian pastries to Daytona area
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If you’ve recently attended a Tortugas game, you’ve probably caught yourself doing a double take at the torched marshmallow concoction gamegoers are proudly touting around the ball park. Perhaps the bacon-layered bites or cream-filled pastries have even anchored your gaze once or twice.
Suddenly, your focus is shifting, your curiosity seemingly turning to mouth-watering envy — what is it and where can I try it?
Beach Bros Coffee.
The farm to cup-style outdoor café opened shop earlier this month at a most unique Volusia County location, nestled within Daytona’s historic Jackie Robinson Ballpark.
The new café, owned by business partners Brian Shleifer and Paul Hartley, operates in partnership with the Daytona Tortugas, and is open during game days at the ballpark from the moment gates open until closing, serving specialty coffee, Italian-imported pastries and more to its local community of baseball and coffee enthusiasts, alike.
What to look for at Beach Bros Coffee
The charming outdoor café prides itself on serving ethically-sourced, freshly roasted Colombian coffee alongside a lengthy menu of perfectly pairing sweets, breakfast selections and more to be enjoyed in the stands.
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Beach Bros Coffee’s beverage menu ranges from 12- or 16-ounce drip coffee, cold brew and cappuccinos to espresso, Beachside Breezers — described as children's Italian soda — and a plethora of specialty lattes, including the Sea Breeze Latte — lavender and honey topped with sea salt; the Key Lime Pie Latte — Key lime pie topped with graham cracker crumbs; and the popular Seaside Bonfire Latte — marshmallow and mocha topped with towering toasted marshmallows.
In addition to whole milk and half and half, alternative milk options are also available, including oat and almond milk.
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The duo, persistently striving for unparalleled quality, tells me they offer 100% pure Colombian coffee, use a specialty Italian Simonelli espresso machine, and even go so far as to run their water through two separate filtration systems and a water softener before it makes its way to the machine.
“We’re farm to cup. The beans get imported, they come in raw form — we call them green beans — and we roast the beans ourselves,” Shleifer said. “We think that’s important for ultimate flavor and taste for our customers.”
The café also offers a modest breakfast menu containing tomato and pickled onion-layered avocado toast, as well as plain or everything bagel sandwiches stacked with “farm fresh egg,” American cheese and customers' choice of bacon, sausage or ham.
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The true food star, however, is the shop’s selection of Italian-imported pastries, most recently including tiramisu; and "tortino," pistachio-coated ricotta balls, as well as classic or chocolate drizzled cannolis; and krapfen — plain, hazelnut cream- or sweet ricotta cream-filled doughnuts.
“That ricotta cream (in the krapfen) is the same cream we use for our cannolis. It’s the best ricotta cream in all of Sicily, and we pipe them ourselves,” Shleifer said.
According to the duo, the café will continue to evolve its offerings with hopes of bringing in a new specialty item each week, like the pistachio cream — a recent hit, described as “Nutella on steroids, but healthier.”
Quality and consistency: Who are the Beach Bros?
Born from two like-minded friends whose creative vision and passion for quality seamlessly aligned, Beach Bros Coffee is the cozy, slice of caffeine heaven we all crave, striving to bring an unmatched variety of top-tier selections to the Daytona area.
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Shleifer, an Oregon native who comes from a dedicated family of longtime business owners, has embraced their very same entrepreneurial spirit, he says, currently maintaining his career as a financial planner while simultaneously running the coffee shop in the evenings.
“I’m really passionate about entrepreneurship and being a business owner,” he said, eager to inspire new and seasoned coffee drinkers alike, one cup at a time.
“I’m just a huge coffee drinker and connoisseur. I have been for many years, and I appreciate quality.”
Hartley, a like-minded go-getter who has run his family’s insurance agency since the late '90s, tells me he had original plans of one day opening and ice cream shop / café with his father, though the opportunity never quite aligned itself. After the now business partners met through Shleifer’s work, they quickly grew a friendship and soon realized an area common interest: coffee.
“Our ideas line up like nothing I’ve ever experienced,” Hartley said.
“For me, I wanted to create a specialty coffee experience, to where what comes from Brian and I is the best … (a place) where you feel like you’re part of something.”
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The impassioned, detail-oriented duo tells me there’s no cutting corners when it comes to creating that perfect cup of coffee, and it all begins with the ingredients.
“There’s so many different types of coffee, but what’s special about Colombian coffee is it’s really known to be the best coffee in the world,” Shleifer said. “One thing that makes coffee more unique is the geographic location that the coffee’s produced in.”
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Beach Bros' coffee beans are imported directly from two 170-acre and 90-acre, high-altitude family farms in Colombia, roughly 6,000 feet above sea level, the duo tells me.
“The altitude we’re at is considered one of the best in Colombia,” Hartley explained “which then, like Brian said, puts it as one of the best in the world — being high altitude, in that climate, in the proximity that it is to the coast. It produces the right amount of humidity and right temperature. It’s truly amazing.”
According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA)’s 100-point rating system, coffee must reach a score of 80 and higher to be categorized as a specialty coffee, based on a plethora of factors including growth climate, bean quality, and roasting processes, as noted by Third Wave Coffee.
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“(Between 80 and 82), you’re considered a specialty coffee, which then puts you from the bottom 90% of coffees to the top 10-12% of coffees,” Hartley said.
“All of our blends are rated 80 or 82 and higher," up to 90, including the cafe's regular blend, "which is unheard of.”
Looking ahead with Beach Bros Coffee
According to Shleifer, a veteran with a combined 21 years in military and law enforcement service, the café offers a 15% discount to active-duty military, veterans and first responders.
Moving forward, Beach Bros Coffee hopes to eventually go brick and mortar, expanding its specialty selections beyond the ball park. Customers can also find the shop’s freshly-roasted beans packed for purchase at the café.
"Like making a basic cake — you can make a cake from a box or you can make a cake from raw, organic ingredients from good origin. And that’s what we try to do with our coffee,” Shleifer said. "Somehow we are blessed and fortunate enough to have everything line up the way it is, and now we’re here.”
Beach Bros Coffee is located at 105 E. Orange Ave. in Daytona Beach and is open during Tortugas games. For information, call 503-278-1610 or visit beachbroscoffee.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Beach Bros Coffee shop opens at Daytona's Jackie Robinson Ballpark
