Juan Valdez Cafe

Delicious coffee, great place beautiful people

I’m not a really coffee drinker, but the aroma of their roasts are tantalizing. This cute little Colombian café brews, of course, Colombian coffee. The place itself is very warm and inviting. They created a very homey feel with a sofa in the entrance, fixtures with vases, and photos of men harvesting the coffee plants. They have Colombian pastries like pandebonos and arepas. They’re frozen and brought there so they’re cold. But they warm them up for you!

Came for a quick cup of coffee one evening. Unilocalers get a discount when they check in here!
The venue has window seating as well as a few tables. There is nice décor and a light ambiance here, and the cashier was friendly. Clean restrooms, too.
I ordered a chai and a petite apple pie and read the local newspaper that they had lying around. It’s a nice place to relax and hang out during a slow evening. The wifi password is on the receipt, so you can come here with your laptop to get your work done. They have a variety of different coffees here; unfortunately, I don’t know much about coffee (yet)
This was the first Juan Valdez that I’ve been; I didn’t know that it was a chain. I enjoyed my experience here and wouldn’t mind coming again.

I love Juan Valdez, it’s my favorite coffee. However I arrived some minutes after the advertised opening time (6 am) on a Wednesday and it hadn’t opened. I even went back to check again some minutes after and it was still closed. Disappointed!

This review was due for a long time. But after meeting with friends and discussing my experience at Juan Valdez I decided it was time for the world to know… (Pause for suspense) I take my coffee very seriously, to my friends that’s what I’m known for.
Being a coffee lover I wanted to experience for myself what all the buzz was about Juan Valdez.
When reading this keep in mind we were the only 4 people in the store.
I had looked at the website and wanted more information on the coffee and the flavor difference depending on region and brewing method. The first girl looks at me like I am an alien with 3 heads for asking such an insane question. So being in Miami I assume she doesn’t know English and decide to repeat myself in Spanish. That doesn’t help either so she walks away and goes to get another girl. She asks us what we want, I ask her to please explain and repeated myself for a 3^rd time. AND NOTHING! This girl had absolutely no motivation or interest about coffee. I finally pick tinto from santander and a caramel macchiato and my sister-​in-​law orders 2 caramel macchiatos. We are waiting for our order, mine comes out first and I hand the macchiato to my boyfriend. My sister-​in-​law gets 1 of her coffees and we are waiting for the second. When I point out that we are missing one she says «No, you already got all coffees. You have it to him» I tell her that it was 3 macchiatos. She keeps insisting we weren’t missing a coffee… Did this girl really think we are trying to get a $ 4 coffee for free??? Needless to say customer service was terrible… I will not set foot in a Juan Valdez coffee shop again. For chain coffee I’ll stick to Starbucks even if it’s not the best quality coffee.

Coffee was good but I wouldn’t say it was to die for… presentation was cute with the foam but the service could’ve been more attentive and friendly. Mayb I’ll be back if I’m in the mood

Came for the coffee, I checked in for the discount, but did not hand my phone to the barista in time. The coffee was great, though.

Worst service ever! And that’s saying a lot. A total of 18 minutes to get a medium regular cup of coffee. It would have been longer too if I didn’t say anything. My first time there is now my last time.

Excellent coffee and great atmosphere. The cashier was very polite and friendly. Will definitely return.

Checked in and got a 15% discount.
Very friendly staff. Best Latte Arequipe ever!
The music is lively and the view from the couch allows you to see everyone on the street.

Just stopped by since I’ve been to Colombia and loved the franchise. I was very disappointed with this place. They made we wait for 10 minutes just to take my order with no lines and the place very empty since it was a rainy Labor Day weekend. They need a better system or more personnel! Left and went to Whole foods instead

Nice place to stay and take a good snack w colombian coffee lol. i been in this one and i had a great experience.

This location is convenient for those that work in the area or visiting nearby. For quick meetings, I’ll say it’s very difficult to find street parking and neighboring garages will charge you $ 15 for 1 – 2 hours.
That being said, if you’re in the area and craving some Colombian coffee and bites, this is a good bet. No matter which JVC outpost I visit, I can’t seem to shake my addiction to machiattos with arequipe. This small sip is essentially a machiatto with arequipe (similar to dulce de leche) on the bottom and drizzled on top. Heaven. They have a lot of coffees to choose from so I am sure it’s worth branching out soon but oh so difficult.
I have also tried some bites here including the pan de bono and sweet arepa with cheese. Delicious!
Seating is aplenty with couches, tables and a hightop. Wifi is complimentary via the password on your receipt.
Overall, I do like to get some work done here, as long as I’m not driving!

The coffee is actually good. Believe me. And I love the décor of the place. Plenty of seating.
The service… does not do justice to the coffee. It’s beyond inefficient and slow. My bf and I decided to check out this place after passing by several Juan Valdez cafes. We’ve been to other specialty coffee shops and have tried different styles of brewed coffee — cold drip, french press, clever etc.
We ordered a cappuccino and a santander kyoto-​style. Seemed simple enough. It was painstaking watching the middle-​aged woman put in our order. It took 15 minutes for us to get our order. By this time, there was a long crowd of people waiting to put in their order, and most of the customers in this place are just waiting for their coffee. Expect at least 10 minutes after placing an order (which itself takes about 5 min for the barrista to ring up your order).
When we finally got our order, instead of a cappuccino we received an iced drink (i’m guessing this was our kyoto-​style coffee) and a regular coffee. When returning to the baristas, we were told that the regular coffee was the Santander. When we looked at our receipt, we even saw that we were charged not only for the cappuccino (which we did not receive), but also a «Kyoto», AND Santander.
When we stated that we did not get the correct order, and that we were charged for an extra drink, the middle-​aged barrista appeared to think that «KYOTO» was a type of coffee rather than a way a coffee is prepared. She kept stating that Santander and Kyoto were 2 separate drinks. We stared in disbelief as even the menu for the «Perfect Cup» behind her stated clearly «CHOOSE ONE TYPE OF COFFEE (Santander, Antioquia) AND ONE METHOD OF BREWING (COLD/​HOT, KYOTO, SIPHON).» Even the other customers who were waiting for their drinks understood that what we had ordered — a Santander prepared Kyoto-​style and that KYOTO IS NOT AN ACTUAL COFFEE ITSELF.
The employee was making a fool of herself by arguing against us as well as in front of other customers. We just decided to just take the two incorrect drinks, but wanted a refund for the cappuccino which we were never given. A third employee, who was their trainer, couldn’t even do the refund, and ended up taking $ 3 out of the tip jar and handing it to us.
I’ve got to say, the management should really look into who they hire and how well they are trained regarding not only the methods of brewing coffee, but also efficiency of taking orders and customer service. I don’t see this place lasting very long with the slowness and lack of knowledge in its baristas.
On the other hand, I am willing to buy their coffee beans, just not from this place, but online.

Colombian coffee at Juan Valdez café is so
Yummy I came here 3 days in a row
The Latte was made to perfection, the little Barista «Eduardo» was friendly & knew his stuff ! It was nice that he remembered us
There was soft Latin music playing which was very fitting for the café. Lots of seating options.
Very clean & lots of little snacks to choose from.
Now the best part was the cold drip coffee that they offer. I guess it takes 4−6hrs just to make the perfect batch. It was priced right
$ 3.50 for a cup, and my latte was only $ 3.65 for a 16oz
Must try’s = Kyoto cold drip coffee, and the amazing Nutella Croissant

Great coffee but poor atmosphere, no music? And stadium lighting for a coffee shop? Those take away the star to make it four: (

Pretty good coffee. However, they should train some of their baristas better. Hot coffee doesn’t go on ice. Having never worked in a coffee shop before, I shouldn’t be the one explaining this concept…

I heard of Juan Valdez’s cupping session via Unilocal events, and as I have never been to a cupping, I immediately signed up.
Walking in, I find the place very comfortable, with tables and couches, and besides coffee there is a small juice and food counter. There are arepas, mini bagels, and other light food.
I thought cupping is similar to wine tasting, which is basically the same as wine drinking, except that you exaggerate the swirling and sniffing a bit and that you may opt to spit the wine instead of drinking it. Not so. Cupping is very different from just drinking your cup of joe.
We sat down in front of a row of three cups, each with ground coffee from different regions in Colombia. (
) The first step is to lift the lid off and sniff the fragrance. Shake the cup a bit, bring it up to your nose and sniff (
).
Next hot water is added to the cups. Using a spoon to stir and push away the foam, we inhale again to evaluate the aroma. While we often use the words aroma and fragrance interchangeably, in coffee lingo, fragrance refers to what you get from the dry ground, and aroma is when water is added to the coffee.
Finally you use the spoon to take a sip of the coffee. Needless to say, no milk or sugar allowed.
The presenter, Eduardo, really knows about the coffee. He had won some barista competitions and now is a trainer for Juan Valdez. He showed us a map of Colombia, told us how their coffees are all single origin and how the terroir affects the flavor. He also showed us the various gadgets used to brew coffee. You can order your cup of coffee by selecting the beans and the brewing method, like other upscale coffee shops. As we finished our cupping, he brought out some Colombian snacks so we can «get the full Colombian experience.» To my surprise we also received a goodie bag!
It was an awesome learning experience. I felt lucky I got to try this for free via Unilocal.In the future they will host more cupping sessions at $ 16 per person. Which is not a bad deal at all as you do go home with a big bag of coffee and coffee candy (presuming they do not change the format.)

Keep the new coffeeshops in downtown opening!
The latest Juan Valdez is only blocks from another new one, but not complaining whatsoever and very happy that they are here. Nice selection of coffees and baked goods.
Happy that this establishment has weekend hours (ahem yes I’m looking at you Stoupsys) and there are many locals to serve living in the downtown area.
Welcome to the neighborhood!