Tastecasting Review: R&R Coffee Cafe

This past weekend was the first tasting for the Colorado Springs Tastecasting team!  (In brief, Tastecasting is “word of mouth marketing”.  A team of social media savvy people are invited to a complimentary tasting in exchange for publicity via a variety of social media networks.)   We had the opportunity to taste a slice of life at R&R Coffee Cafe on Black Forest Road, just a couple of minutes north of Woodmen.

I’d never been to R&R before, though I’d had the opportunity to meet Ryan, one of the partners, and his wife at a Colorado Springs Tweetup recently.  I was super excited about the tasting, since I’ve seen lots of pics of the delicious food and drinks via R&R’s Twitter feed.

The Tastecasting team was served a beverage of our choice and a sampler platter of their menu’s best in breakfast and lunch dishes.  And it was yummy.

Click below to read the rest of the review!

We’ve been to quite a few coffee houses around town, but not many of them do latte art like R&R.  I mean, seriously – how could you really drink the coffee and risk messing up the gorgeous art?!  But, we all did, and it was delicious.  I have to tell you that their menu board is huge.  Honestly, sometimes I go into Starbucks and am just a little bit let down by the lack of imaginative or new drinks.

But, R&R has four, yes, four different pumpkin beverages – three varieties of pumpkin coffee and one variety of pumpkin chai or some sort that they claim to sell like hotcakes!  I’m not even a pumpkin fan myself, but I have so many friends that rave about Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice when it comes around that I know it must be popular.  And R&R has four different ones to choose from!  Here’s their menu.

I had the Raspberry Truffle Dark Chocolate Mocha Latte or something like that.  All I know is that there were the words raspberry and truffle or something in there and it had me hooked.  It was super yummy iced.  So, their beverages?  Awesome.  I could actually order something new every time I go in, there’s an awesome selection.

Oh yeah, and I’m not the coffee expert in our family – Jeremy is, but he tells me it was very good.  They roast their own, which is a huge plus.  You could seriously smell the coffee when you walked up, which was awesome.

OK, anyway.  They serve food, too!  You should watch the video of Ryan describing the menu.  When I think coffee shop food, I think day-old, dried-out, microwaved food.  Not here.  They make everything from scratch – seriously!  We interrogated Chef and found out that the only thing that they served us that was not made from scratch was the tortillas for the quesadilla and the salsa that was served on the side.

The cinnamon rolls, foccaccia bread and red peppers spread for the roast beef sandwich, bread for the French toast, chicken in the quesadilla, the cheddar biscuits and sausage gracy – all made from scratch.  You could totally tell, too – it was all fresh and homemade tasting.  I honestly don’t even like eating out at most chain restaurants because I know most of their meals come straight off the Sysco truck, but not here.

R&R has live music on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11 AM, and on Friday nights they serve dinner – last Friday, you could choose from Chicken Alfredo or Gnocchi.  They were discussing what’s coming up in the next few weeks while we were there, and there was talk of Fried Chicken and a Cajun Meatloaf.  I hear they make some awesome BBQ ribs, too.

Ryan doing latte art

R&R Coffee Cafe is located at 11425 Black Forest Road.  They’re about 6 minutes from the Powers and Woodmen interchange.  Not that far at all, and it’s a beautiful drive into the Forest!  It’s probably the closest independent coffee shop to a lot of people in Northeast Colorado Springs.  Here’s more pictures.

If you go, tell them you heard about them from Springs Bargains and the Tastcasting team!  I receive nothing for it, but I’m sure they would enjoy hearing that the Tastecasting was effective.

Interested in joining the Colorado Springs Tastecasting Team?  Go here.  The only requirement is that you have to have an audience of 250 or more via social media (ie, 250+ Facebook friends, Twitter followers, blog readers, etc).

Disclosure: I and the other Tastecasting members received a free drink and sampler platter in exchange for this unbiased review.