I'm beginning to notice there are a lot of cafes named "Crema." This West Side coffee shop, Cafe Crema, in Charleston is my third.


Though, I do appreciate this one's story. It was opened by a mother-daughter duo, wherein the daughter struggled with the decision to stay or leave the state -- ultimately deciding to stay to help her father who isn't in the best of health.

The cafe serves espresso drinks, pour-over coffee, teas, fruit smoothies, shakes, as well as waffles, grits, oatmeal, sandwiches, soups, salads and some desserts.

Cafe Crema, named after the brownish foam on top of a well-made, freshly pulled espresso, features a high-tech Nuova Simonelli Italian espresso machine. But the cafe also offers low-tech, high-taste coffee options not found in many coffeeshops. 

These include “pour-over coffee,” which makes use of the Chemex coffeemaker invented in 1941 by Peter Schlumbohm. Made from borosilicate glass and fastened with a wood collar and tie, the hourglass shaped device — whose design elegance earned it a place in New York’s Corning Museum of Glass — brews coffee through a filter without imparting any flavors of its own but for the coffee. 

“It has a very smooth taste and texture,” said Abdalla, who serves pour-over coffee in two caffeinated versions, Ethiopian Jimma Agaro and Wayfarer Blend, and a Tired Goat decaf blend. “It’s used in a lot of the more independent coffee shops.” (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

The one drink that stood out to me the most was the frappuccino because most coffee shops stick to more traditional drinks - americano, latte, etc. Frappuccino is actually a trademarked Starbucks drink, but many have taken the coffee+milkshake concept and made it their own. It is essentially a coffee base, blended with ice, this one added salted caramel syrup and was topped with whipped cream.

Frappuccino is a trademarked brand of the Starbucks Corporation for a line of blended coffee beverages that are served cold. It consists of coffee or other base ingredient (e.g. strawberries, bananas, cream), blended with ice and other various ingredients, usually topped with whipped cream and sauces. Frappuccinos are also sold as bottled coffee beverages in stores and from vending machines.

Frappuccino is a portmanteau of "frappe", the New England name for a milkshake with ice cream, and cappuccino, an espresso coffee with frothed milk. The word was coined and trademarked in Boston, Massachusetts. In the Boston area, a "frappe" (pronounced "frap" and spelled without the accent) is a thick milkshake with ice cream,[2] derived from the French word frappé. 

The recipe is a fusion of various cold beverages, including the coffee frap (similar to iced coffee) and the frappe (blended ice cream, syrup, and milk), with the Italian cappuccino. 

In response to the success of the Frappuccino, several of Starbucks' competitors have developed similar drinks with similar-sounding names: Cinnabon's Mochalatta and Caramelatta (1998); Coffee Break; Gloria Jean's Chillers.

So, it's a pretty basic white girl drink, so of course I ordered it. The woman behind the counter seemed a bit overwhelmed with how busy the cafe was, but after a few minutes, she had my order ready. One - this is very tasty. Two - that's because it's very sweet. I wasn't expecting a coffee drink to be so sweet, or maybe I've gotten used to not drinking super sweet coffee -- but it's tasty! I think I could've eased up on some of the sugar and replaced with some espresso, but I'm sure this would be well-received by many non-coffee-drinkers.

Overall, though, it's good. I didn't see anything on the breakfast menu that I was overly excited about, so I opted for just the coffee this time. Not bad, not bad.













Grade: B