Restaurant Review: Credo Coffee
CREDO COFFEE 10134 104th Street ~ credocoffee.ca Instagram: @credocoffee ~ Twitter: @CredoCoffee Co-Diner: Tim Golem
While no one was paying attention, Edmonton has quietly become a huge roasting city when it comes to coffee beans. It started sometime in the 2010s and has continued to snowball ever since. I can confirm that Edmonton is making a mark on the coffee scene in Canada because I have often visited trendy cafes in other cities (Vancouver, Toronto) and spotted bags of Edmonton-roasted beans for sale. One of the more popular cafes in the city is Credo and they've been around for quite a long time now. VUE Weekly voted them #1 Best Coffee Shop 2018 and Avenue Magazine named them Best Cafe 2019. With three locations in Edmonton, I decided to stop in and visit their original spot Downtown. The slogan at Credo is "coffee to believe in" and I think that this stems from their great respect for the process; from growers, to sourcers, to importers, to roasters. Credo does not roast their own beans, however they strive to deliver a wonderfully enhanced customer experience at their cafes. The Downtown shop is on 104th, which is one of the most hip little sections of the core. Entering the shop, the space feels airy with a high ceiling and very much like what you would expect from a fairly cool downtown cafe. I was a bit thrown off by all of the strange sports photography all over the walls (it felt pretty disconnected from the overall experience to me) although perhaps they rotate the art on display? I mean, it is hockey season and the arena is just up the street, so I suppose that I "get it" in that sense. I approached the counter and was served by a friendly staff member who was helpful and happy to answer my questions. The coffee menu features all of the usual suspects and not much in the way of surprises. However, I noticed their seasonal feature, a Spiced Honey Latte ($6.00 for regular) and decided that this would be my beverage of choice.
I love Credo's logo of latte art on a dark brown background and I especially love that they'll hand you a coffee that looks exactly the same. However, the coffee itself was unfortunately a bit underwhelming for me. Maybe I'm not enough of an "adult" when it comes to coffee but this one was too strong and bitter for my taste. I was really looking forward to an interesting honey-spiced flavour but could hardly detect anything that stood out. I really want to enjoy Credo's coffee but something about it is just lacking for me. Credo also offers some food items and these range from wraps and bagels to baking that has been made in-house. I'd heard that the Cheddar Cornmeal Muffin ($3.00) was extra special and must be tasted.
Golden yellow with a slight caramelization around the edges, I was excited to dig into these bad boys! Imagine a really soft and delightful cornbread and you'll be on the right track to picturing what these taste like. They're a bit crumbly like cornbread and I loved the actual bits or corn kernel throughout. But the thing that surprised me the most was the spice! These muffins pack a pretty hefty kick! However, the heat is well balanced by the sweetness from the corn. The one ingredient that I found to be a bit lost was the cheddar. I couldn't really taste it and for some reason I imagined a cheesier (gooier?) inside to the muffin, which was not the case. Lastly, I'd also heard that they make a pretty delicious Cookie ($2.25), specifically the chocolate chip, oatmeal and sunflower seed one. (Yes, that's all one cookie.)
There was certainly nothing not to love about this. I loved the perfect oatmeal flavour and the way that it played with the chocolate. The sunflower seeds added an extra earthiness. The cookie was soft, chewy, full of texture, and an overall delight. I really wanted to be blown away by Credo but unfortunately I was not. I'm not quite sure if it's me and my lacking expertise with coffee... But I do know that there are other cafes in the city who's coffee I enjoy a lot more (especially at this price point). The atmosphere is generally lovely at Credo and it's a perfect place to have a relaxing seat. The food was half decent as well. Cafes can also be pretty subjective and it's certainly not a one-size-fits-all situation. Credo most definitely has its own die-hards and for this reason I would absolutely give them a try for yourself to see where you land.
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