Heine Brothers Coffee Louisville,Ky

While in town for the Derby last weekend, I decided it was my responsibility, no my DUTY to check out a coffee house while I was there. And the place to see seemed to be Heine Brothers Coffee. They are the 'Phoenix Coffee' of Louisville, Ky. They have 7 locations throughout the Louisville area so wherever you're at in your travels, there will be a Heine Brothers not too far away.



We stopped at the Heine Brothers Coffee on the way back to Ohio, at the location off Shelbyville Rd. It was raining like crazy so we were the only customers in the place, other than the older gentleman hunching over a pile of paperwork, typing furiously on his laptop. We were greeted upon walking through the door and immediately started to pour over the menu. I like asking the baristas for suggestions to see how good of a job they can do to engage their customers. It's about knowing what your customer wants without a huge conversation. I ended up ordering a honey cinnamon latte and chad had his usual Americano.

I noticed they were using a semi automatic espresso machine a La Marzocco, the same as they use in my coffee shop. While the semi automatics take some of the hands-on element away from the espresso pulling process, they are useful when there are a lot of drinks being made at the same time. I noticed that they had a drive thru, from the ever so familiar headset attached to the barista's head.



While we were waiting I asked about the Heine Brothers business. Apparently they only serve fair trade and organic coffees. These days, most coffee is organic but to hear it's fair trade is definitely a plus. They roast their own beans at one of their locations in the Crescent Hill neighborhood. For those of you that don't know, here is a little coffee 101. Fair Trade coffee basically means that the coffee farmers that you're buying from are being paid a fair wage and given good living conditions, health care and education. Gone is the day where you order your $5 latte, made with beans that were grown by a farmer that was getting pennies an hour and having to live in poor conditions. Long story short, it's quality of life.

After looking around on the Heine Brothers Coffee website I noticed what kind of organizations they are involved with. Organizations like Habitat for Humanity, they send some of their baristas to Guatemala back in 2009 to help out the community that grows their beans. They also work with Center for Women and Families, the relief in Haiti (raising over $4000) and Cooperative Coffees. They also promote small businesses, keeping everything local, which is always refreshing.


But back to the coffee...I have to mention this, I wouldn't be an unbiased blogger if I didn't...my milk was steamed horribly. She aerated the milk for 1 millisecond and then just set it on the shelf until the thermometer told her it was hot enough. First off, any real barista shouldn't have to use a thermometer, you can tell if milk is the right temp by the sound it makes and how the bottom if the milk pitcher feels. But maybe she was new... and her trainer sucked. My milk could have been a lot better. She explained to me that a lot of people say that the espresso they use is "too strong". Since there is no possible way it could be too strong I actually could have had another shot. I think there was only 2 in my large latte. Chad had 4 in his Americano which was good for him. But in the end I did enjoy my latte and chad commented that his americano was very good. Also worth noting, the young barista making our drinks had no shoes on. I thought maybe it was a southern thing?



The decor of the place was simple but tasteful. Nothing too outlandish, dark stained chairs and tables mixed with honey stained chairs and tables. There were 2 big chairs in the back (a standard coffee house "comfy" chair) and some smaller tables against the wall. The mixing station was cute, small colorful flower pots held the different types of sugar and everything was placed on what looked to be an antique type dresser.





Also there are paintings all over the walls. Some coffee paintings, some of other things. They were all by the same artist I think. I actually liked a few of the paintings but the price was pretty steep for me.





The shoeless barista seemed very helpful otherwise, wrapping up my ceramic mug and bringing it out to us (I am pretty sure she used a WHOLE newspaper). She answered all of our questions and encouraged us to come back next time we were in town. And you know? I think we will...