Jake’s Coffee Box

I love a quirky business and if I’m needing a takeaway coffee this is where I go. Bravely located next to Starbucks, jakes coffee box serves the usual coffees plus some savoury and sweet food. I’ve not eaten much from there apart from one lovely cookie, but their sign advertises mouthwatering food all the time.
The coffee machine and other equipment. is fitted into an old phone box, although some of the rest does spill into the street a bit– phone boxes are somewhat limited in size after all!
You can get a loyalty card here, and I also really like the ‘buy a coffee for a homeless person’ feature. You give extra and they’ll provide coffee foc to anyone living on the streets.
And I always like to meet a business owner and Jake himself is usually there.
Cool little place.

I so wanted to like this curious place. I’d watched things develop and really thought it was an initiative that deserved success. Located right next to a large Starbucks well you have to admire the owners balls for opening up there!
I was looking forward to a visit but just never seemed to be over towards that location when I had time to stop. Anyway, I stopped by en route home after walking to the Coop Bank to deposit a ‘cheque’. Yes, seems some folks still use ‘em and so I had to pop down there to pay it in!
The first thing you notice is the large 5* food hygiene sticker which is hilarious given the place is barely a metre square inside. But it’s reassuring and bodes well. There’s a small table with chocolate, cake squares, syrups and such. I asked for a flat white, which is my usual tipple. He asked if I wanted the paper cup filling up … oh dear I thought, no I want it as a standard size.
Anyway, I took the drink and a small £1.20 local ‘independent chocolate bar’ and sat. The coffee was £2.30 so very close to standard pricing (£2.40−60 in Birmingham). I pretty much scalded my top lip. The coffee was so hot. It had a slight back of the throat antiseptic edge to it and zero flavour. Seemed like old or cheap beans. Not the worst I’ve had in Brum but to me anyway was pretty much undrinkable. I left half of it.
So a great idea, a nice enough man serving, but both milk preparation and coffee extraction left much to be desired. I wanted to score higher, but I have to be honest and say that on this occasion it just wasn’t good enough.