StellaNova Coffee:
StellaNova Coffee opened a new location on Oct. 15 in the heart of downtown OKC, so this past week, I visited their primary location on Western and 47th to experience the shop for myself.
The store was a little further away than I might normally drive to on a weekday, about 12 minutes away from campus. This area of town is an area I might more normally be in on a weekend (located conveniently by Trader Joe’s and The Wedge). Parking was wicked easy, despite the small lot and crowds of rush-hour traffic, and I noticed that StellaNova has a convenient drive-thru line! Perfect for coffee drinkers on the go.
The main area of the shop was filled with several four-seater tables and a bar that circled the outer edge of the store. My friend and I sat at the bar and were delighted by the usage of chairs at the bar, rather than traditional bar stools, which can be painful to sit in for more than a couple hours of studying. There were plenty of outlets around the entire store for those of us with weak computer batteries. In the back corner was an area with several booths and tables with a curtain around in. The curtains were open, and the area looked like an ideal place for a group to study (or to “chew the fat”) in peace. The Wi-Fi was mediocre, and I was able to connect my computer with a simple password on the secondary network called “StellaNova-Backup”.
I approached the counter and asked the barista what she recommended. This question caught her off guard, and she couldn’t give me an answer other than “Um…they’re all pretty good” (which was incredibly helpful). Having to go with my own gut, I ordered the green tea frappe, and my friend ordered the green tea iced latte. My frappe was $3.50, which I thought was a considerably reasonable price for a frozen beverage. Both drinks came out within five minutes. My drink was wonderfully creamy and relied more on milk and sugar than tea for flavor. However, my friend’s drink was not well-blended, and there were clumps of what looked like tea leaves at the bottom of her drink. We figured that this shop did not use matcha (which is a powdered green tea) but rather a lower grade, non-dissoluble green tea in their beverages.
While the location, seating and general environment of the shop was very good, the drinks were sub-par, and the staff was not very knowledgeable about their menu. If you’re looking for somewhere new to try and happen to be in this part of town, StellaNova would be a reasonable choice for a study location. Their menu choices and overall vibe strongly resembles Starbucks, with a traditional spread of lattes, frappes, coffees, and pastries. Overall, I would rate this coffee shop a 6/10.
If you know of a new local business in the area and would like me to review it, let me know in the comments!
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