A review of Young Blood Coffee

Since coming to college my caffeine intake has skyrocketed. I practically run off of various coffee drinks and since becoming a barista I have also become quite the coffee snob. Gone are the days of me going through the Starbucks drive thru, in place of a much more sophisticated taste. 

If you are anything like me, or hopefully are willing to change your ways, you have realized that the big coffee corporations just do not cut it when it comes to quality. In a quest to find quality coffee shops I have decided to take to the streets of Fargo. 

Over the next few weeks I will be examining local coffee shops and reviewing them based on taste, quality and atmosphere.

Drinks

I started out with an espresso. Being a barista has made me quite accustomed to the tastes of a good and bad espresso shot. Now even good espresso shots do not particularly taste good to most people, but I can only describe a bad espresso shot as tasting the way cigarettes smell.

I am not an expert on espresso by any means but I do know that the size of the ground beans and the rate of which the water comes through the grounds has a lot to do with the taste of the final product, an espresso shot. 

Young Blood plated my espresso shot beautifully in a small cup on a small plate, with an even smaller spoon. The espresso shot was pulled beautifully and had the perfect amount of the sweet crema on top. The espresso shot had the perfect amount of acidicness that still allowed for the notes of the beans to come through, which tasted rather fruity to me.

Overall, I would rate the quality and taste of their espresso at a 4/5. It was drinkable and had a sweetness to the taste but it was not like I could not put it down. It was simply a quality espresso shot. 

The next two drinks I tried were a hot almond milk chai tea latte and an iced vanilla latte. I do not recommend Young Blood to those who have a sweet tooth, but if you appreciate tasting the individual ingredients that make up the drinks, like me, you will love the drinks. 

My chai tea consisted of the perfect sweetness that balanced out and accentuated the taste of the chai. My favorite thing about Young Blood as a whole was how perfectly the barista steamed the milk in my latte. Almond milk is not an easy liquid to steam properly and the barista was able to get the smoothest consistency and a great amount of foam to top my chai. 

The iced latte was fairly standard however I preferred the sweetness level much more than the typical lattes from big corporations. Again, it was a level of sweetness that allowed you to taste and accentuated the espresso, instead of masking it with sugar.

I would rate the drinks 3/5. I think the average person would prefer something a little sweeter but if you are a coffee snob like me you could add a point to that rating. 

Food

I was disappointed with the shop’s selection of food. They really only had donuts and caramel rolls, although I am not sure if that selection ever changes. I would have loved to get something a little more savory as a sweet dessert can sometimes be too much with anything other than a brewed coffee.

I got a caramel roll, which do not get it confused, it was amazing, but again I would have preferred something else. The caramel roll was dense and covered in ooey, gooey caramel, you really can not go wrong with a caramel roll. 

I would rate the food a 2/5. Again, you can not go wrong with a caramel roll but considering the guy next to me used uber eats to get a breakfast sandwich from somewhere else, I do not think I am the only one sad with the food menu. 

Overall and Atmosphere

Young Blood is definitely a young person’s coffee shop. The shop features modern decor, including funky wallpaper and lots of greenery that meets the minimalist furniture perfectly.  

I love that they serve in-house drinks in mugs and glasses, which makes the experience more homey. The baristas were sweet and fast to make the drinks and genuinely seemed to enjoy their jobs. 

My overall impression of Young Blood was that it was a very hip place to go and I could see college students going for the perfect photo opportunity but I would not see myself going to sit down and study. The decor, being modern, feels cold and if I were to spend hours working on homework or reading I would personally prefer something a little more inviting. 

I would rate Young Blood a 3/5 overall. I would say the shop is above average in drink quality but improvement could be made on food items and I would have liked the atmosphere more if there were a comfy chair I could see myself coming back to to study in the future.