Lexington Coffee & Tea Company

I adore this place! Cozy, friendly, great selection, mmmm good.

To be fair, this place isn't without charm. But sadly you can't drink charm. Comfortable seating and a plentiful selection of coffee beans are strengths of this coffeehouse. Reminiscent of a college cafeteria with better interior design, I compare it to a ricecake -- trendy but no taste and no staying power. There is a nearby community college and that, I tell myself, must explain why the doors are still open. It is either that or the staff's warm hospitality. In a side note, there is a manager who freely and snidely denigrates her employees in the open (tacky). The store has two halves. One half is merchandise, the other side is the cafe. The first half is a store which magnets, coffee cups, greeting cards, pencils, journals, picture frames, coffee grinders, more coffee cups, plates, and probably even by now a full-scale Elvis. The brewed coffee is yucky. Cinnamon, hazelnut... all have a signature dirty aftertaste. Maybe a bird nesting in some of the merchandise died in the coffeepots. Specifically the daily coffees all suffer from this strange lingering flavor that I can't describe except maybe as vaguely metallic or plastic. It is not undrinkable, but it doesn't taste clean to me. Afterwards I feel like I need to brush my tongue. The expresso drinks are nothing special. Some of the fruit and espresso drinks are outsourced, which I find dishonest and off-putting. If it can't be made from scratch within the shop, I feel it shouldn't be presented alongside the other drinks (exceptions are sodas and bottled water and of course Tazo). Finally, the deli case items are mostly good but unreasonably priced. Not quite amusement park prices, but not justified for the quality. A small sweet thing is like four bucks and my carrot cake is too often freezer burned. Nothing pisses me off more deeply than freezer-burnt cakes. Overall, this place is a small step above a college cafeteria. Better coffee can be found, sadly, at Starbucks for better prices. For a quintessential local coffeehouse I recommend Common Grounds, which I'll review soon. There are probably better places than even Common Grounds, which I'll get to soon.

I think the coffee and espresso drinks here have an overwhelmingly chemical sort of flavor going on, or like tobacco, but in a bad way. The dirty (as Sam W so aptly put it) flavor is pretty aggressive. (This coming from a girl who drinks her morning coffee black and likes to nip on espresso in the afternoons and never gets sugar/syrup in a latte. I say this in case anyone wonders that perhaps I'm a whiny child who can't take a strong cuppa joe.)The gift shop area is definitely a great place to grab a last minute birthday present, stocking stuffer, etc, for the coffee/tea lover in your life. Lots of super cute knickknacks and girly stuff.

This is the worst coffee I've had in a long time. We bought a bag of whole beans from Good Foods Coop, and the beans were obviously very old and/or funky. They were so bad that we threw the entire bag away. We're addicted to coffee, so the fact that we tossed a while bag is really saying something. I have no idea how you can make coffee taste so terrible, but they managed to do it. I would rather drink Folgers. Or nothing. That's how much I hate this coffee. It's an insult to coffee lovers everywhere. Good grief.

With a nearby Starbucks (newcircle and nicholasville rds) this place just doesn't cut it. The merchandise is overpriced and the staff are grumbly. We used to go pretty often, but now it's just a place I go to buy oddball chocolate bars from time to time. Now that Joseph Beth has those, I'm likely not to show up again for a while. PS: Not a hotspot, according to the staff. Wha???? Hey, if you're into the frilly products they offer, then you'll love it. But the coffee is mediocre at best and the experience leaves me wishing I'd gone for another shop.

Like a bag of brown chalk. Absolutely awful.

I really enjoy the daily non flavored brew. They have newly renovated and added more seating. My only compliant is that throughout the week when they are roasting the AC cant keep it cool inside. almost unbearably hot in the shop.