The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

favorite chai! great drinks and several great GLUTEN FREE snack selections, including scones and muffins! yayyyyayayay for the coffee bean and TEA leaf!

I’ve worked in the retail/​service industry for a really, really long time and as such, I have an inordinate amount of patience.
However.
I’ve been here twice, and this has happened twice. It took almost fifteen minutes for the server (s?) to make a parfait. (I add a questionable plural because I noticed two people handling the requested ingredients but only one person actually putting it together.) There was no real queue; the customer previous to me ordered an iced coffee and got it about 45 seconds after ordering. It was not busy, they were not short-​staffed. I didn’t express my frustration at them because though merited, there was no actual gain but 10 seconds of petty superiority.
In addition, the pricing for food is a little nuts. I’m allergic to coffee so I don’t bother looking at pricing or options for it. But for a pre-​packaged Sabra pretzel/​hummus bowl and a parfait with no extra trimmings I spent $ 8. The parfait I get, a little, because it’s not pre-​made. The ingredients however are cheap and not organic (not that I need them to be, but remember we’re trying to justify price here). But $ 4 for a dollop of hummus is absurd.
So go ahead, order coffee. But unless you like thrown together parts served at a glacial pace, skip the food.

It is always a quite place to study with a cup of warm coffee mocha in the morning.

I like this place because of the options available on teas. It is true that it is a place missing space to sit down and relax. However, if you are taking your drink to go, you cannot be disappointed by selecting pretty much any of the teas available.

I woke up in a haze and needed some coffee so, headed down the street and happened upon this place!
We were greeted by a very pleasant young lady and I told her I needed something strong, hot, espresso oh and did I mention strong? She recommened the Espresso Macchiato! We ordered and then went to the pick up here waiting area.
The place was scattered with people working intently on their laptops and sipping on their beverages! We quickly received our drinks and proceeded to leave.
My only complaint is that my coffee was so hot that I had to wait a good half hour before I could drink it. I always order mine without cream and sugar and I have to say the taste of the coffee was really good compared to the bitter taste of the other well known brands. The prices were reasonable too which you don’t get at many of the trendy corporate spots.
I have been here twice now and I really dig this place! They even have some cute outdoor patio seating on the front side of the building.

When I first encountered this place — I would have given it zero stars.
The place is microscopic.
There were no sockets.
Coffee was just ok.
Another Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (not the North Lamar Branch) had served me a latte with rotten milk.
Hell hath no fury like this reviewer served rotten milk in a coffee …
and it is not that hard to check an expiration date before you pour the milk.
So I shunned this place for about ten years.
*
Fluke circumstances brought me back and I can now say the place is on my acceptable list.
It is still microscopic. (Tables are about the size of sugar cubes on a stick — and there are very few of them).
So don’t count on being able to work there —
and certainly not on two people being able to work there.
They now HAVE sockets — lots of them.
(actually, the sockets are bigger than the tables).
So if you can find a table you can plug in and work all day.
And the coffee commands some respect.
Still being wary of the milk issue — I ordered a straight up latte —
and got a nice muddy cup with a good Turkish coffee grounds flavor —
which makes an eminently satisfactory cup of espresso.
(Sorry if these words aren’t on the coffee tasters flavor chart,
but use your imagination.)
So I would drink their coffee happily.
If you are grabbing and going you can do worse.

Coffee bean reigns supreme over Starbucks any day! No bitter coffee here, and they have all the flavors you crave. My two favorites are the no sugar added vanilla latte (iced or hot) and the ice blended no sugar added vanilla with whipped cream on top. Glorious! If you are a tea person you will jump with glee at their loose leaf options and they do the chai lattes as well. Free wifi is the cherry on top of the sundae.

This is the first Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf I’ve ever been to. I decided to go only because it was close to my new job and Starbucks was further away. The staff is always friendly and there’s never a long line when I go in.
They have a nice selection of coffee and tea. The house coffee is different daily and you can choose which kind of roast you want. They always remember to ask if you need room for creamer (which Starbucks rarely does).
This location carries 4 or 5 different Tacodeli tacos daily! Talk about convenient! They also have an oatmeal bar which I haven’t tried yet.
I really like this location and recommend it!

«Who designed this parking lot? It’s rather awkward.»
This Coffee Bean and Tea leaf has some very friendly employees that are always glad to help. Yummy muffins, scones, and bagels. oh my! The blended drinks are a little sweet for my taste. The lattes are great, especially the winter flavors. I like to ask them to put half the powder to make the drink a little less sweet.
That’s the difference in Starbucks and Coffee Bean, CB uses powders instead of syrups. Except the caramel sauce and fresh pumpkin for fall.
This location has a terrible parking lot. Really awkward to get out of and not enough parking. The parking spaces they do have are extremely small. Small as in they were made with smart cars or fiats in mind.
Fellow them on Facebook so you can find out about $ 1 drink days. They tend to do it before new season drinks.

I’m a filthy coffee snob and I’ve come to terms with it.
The idea of setting foot inside of Starbucks turns my stomach – if that’s your steez, more power too ya, but I have had absolutely miserable experiences with their coffee. Now, I’ll admit that there is basically only one thing that I order at any coffee shop (dark roast black coffee) and so that’s the only judgement I can pass. I don’t drink the blended smoothie drinks, so I can’t speak to their quality anywhere in town.
Now that I’ve got that out of the way: I’ve been to CB&TL many, many times over the course of years and I’m never disappointed. They don’t knock my socks off, but it’s decent coffee. I’m ridiculously picky with coffee, because, honestly, I expect a cup of coffee just as good or better than what I can brew at home, otherwise I’m not shelling out the money. I’m not from the North Lamar area, and so when the time came to find a cup of coffee, I chose one of my standards.
If you enjoy the ‘Bucks, you’ll enjoy CB&TL. The atmosphere is very similar (and in recent years I’ve noticed even less of a divergence between the two companies – I can’t stand Starbucks, but it’s obviously very profitable).
The other positive of this joint is the fact that I’m sitting in here at the height of finals week writing this review and I had no trouble finding a place to sit, which is much more than I could ever say about any other coffee shop in town.
Also, aside from all of this, I’ve only had fantastically positive experiences with all the employees here. It’s nice to not have to deal with the obnoxious coffee shop snobbery that seems to have become the norm everywhere in Austin west of 35 and north of the river. There’s a reason I don’t come up here very much: P

This was my first CB&TL experience. I’ve wanted to try this place for years, but never lived near one. I was not disappointed. My half sweet iced mocha was DELISH (much better than Starbucks), and the shop is cute. My mom got a tea and she raved about it, and this woman is insanely picky about tea (and the mug she drinks it out of).
I’d definitely seek out if CB&TL if I were in their vicinity, especially, if I were chosing between that and the ‘bucks. I don’t mind SB, but Coffee Bean drinks have superior flavor in my incredibly humble opinion.

Store is nice. Friendly service. He seemed hesitant so I am not surprised my Mocha is just plain yuck! It is like a sweet water with a bad aftertaste. He must be new. Tried to drive back to get it remade but there werent any parking spaces. Very small parking lot.

A large steaming Winter Dream Tea Latte prepared by a friendly, efficient barista will always put a smile on my face. I’ve noticed the surroundings at this location are a bit more spacious than most Starbucks if you like to sit and sip. In fact, the coffee and tea are better than Starbucks, but maybe that goes without saying.
Once during the holidays when they were not very busy, the barista demo’d their $ 59.00 frother for me. It seemed very easy to use and whips up a huge pitcher of foam but if I purchased it, I’d have to use it which means: get it out, put it together, pour in the milk, add the vanilla powder, clean it and then put it up. Ahhh… I’d much rather stop in and let them do all the work.
Last time I was here, the sweet barista introduced me to a Cherry Walnut Crunch Thunderbird Energetica energy bar. Sweet Lord! Where has this gluten free treat been hiding? They are locally made and chocked full of fruit, nuts and spices and go great with a chai latte.

Pros:
* Like most of these places, coffee is quite a bit better than StarBucks, but not as good as Houndstooth down the road
* Service was very good, in this regard better than Houndstooth
* Very beautiful lighting and overall design
Cons:
* Place is small — that’s obviously not the fault of the owners, but I probably wouldn’t come here to get work done
* Big, distracting TV. Other Coffee Bean places have one too, but as the place is pretty small, this one just dominates the place. I’ll say it again: lose the TV
Recommendation:
* Dark chocolate + soy milk
* As other reviewers pointed out, parking during peak hours is insane

I used to love this place like a year ago, but as it continues to spread new stores all over Austin like some caffeinated plague, this chain has gone beyond downhill; it is completely under the hill at this point.
Let me start by saying I believe that the staff is misunderstood; they are not «slow». Perhaps most people don’t realize that the baristas at CBTL have to hand-​whisk the flavored espresso beverages in order to mix in the powder properly into the espresso (as CBTL uses powders rather than syrups, thus allowing them to offer non-​fat milk as the default for flavored drinks, since the powders contain a tiny bit of dehydrated milk already). So people who complain about it taking a bit longer need to understand that these are actually, literally «hand-​crafted» drinks. Besides, what do people expect their waiting time to be when they walk through the door and there’s a line snaking up to the front register?
Pros:
1) The teas are great, especially as lattes. But beware if you order one of these, as they are always scorching hot.
2) Though they are a chain obviously attempting to compete with Starbucks, the owners at least have the presence of mind to allow the employees freedom to show their tattoos and piercings. It’s Austin, so I guess they’re trying to be «weird» here.
3) They contribute to several notable charities (Helping Hands, Austin Humane Society, Blue Dog Rescue, Heart Help, and I think they ran a campaign over the summer in support of the troops overseas).
Cons:
1) Sometimes the coffee tastes burnt and/​or cold.
2) Timers always seem to be going off. I have witnessed a barista actually throw one down on the counter just to make it shut off. The owners don’t seem to have a realistic gauge of how to create a warm, friendly environment when it is impossible to do so when they seem unwilling to make things a little easier on their worker bees.
3) Horrible parking.
4) They seem to have an unusually high turn-​over. Every time I’ve been here, it’s completely different baristas behind the counter. They try to boast a «personal» relationship with their customers, but it’s impossible to accomplish this when every time you get to know a barista’s name (and vice versa), they’ve moved on within a month.
5) I don’t know who in upper management decided it would be a good idea to ask customers’ names (I mean, I would certainly be a bit embarrassed if the whole shop knew I had ordered a 32 oz. caramel frap with whip). Sometimes the barista at the bar will just shout out people’s names, which is a little better, but it almost feels like roll call when there’s a line of 10 people waiting (and plus the baristas seem so frazzled at times, I wonder if they are given decent breaks and pay).
5) The décor and music are bland as rice cakes, so I couldn’t possibly comment on the ambiance, as CBTL seems to lack any.
6) Their retail products (thermal mugs, that is to say) are beyond flimsy (I have several friends who have purchased these and had to return them within the week because the lid fell apart).
7) They use flash-​frozen fruit in their parfaits. Believe me, I went in early one day and saw a dude behind the counter trying to spoon frozen blueberries into a tupperware. If you want fresh fruit, your only option here is a banana (and they look bruised and sad even so).
The solution seems simple to me: have more people on the floor, not just two obviously over-​worked and underpaid baristas expected to handle the register, toast bagels, prepare steel-​cut oatmeals and parfaits, heat up pastries, make sure there’s always enough coffee and creamers available, and, oh yeah, make lattes? Sometimes a manager-​esque woman will emerge from the back to «help», but she seems like such an unhappy, grumpy person you almost feel bad asking her to take your order and waste her seemingly precious time.
My advice is to skip this place entirely, but if you have no other choice, try to tip the poor baristas who are blatantly mistreated, at least from a customer’s perspective.

I love going to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf because it does remind me of home. Every once in a while I crave their ice blended drinks. I personally get the vanilla ice blended and it hits the spot. I have say it’s pretty small and doesn’t have much indoor seating. But the service was great and they actually have good pastries and products that are locally made. I know that I wasn’t too kind to the other location in North Lamar but I prefer this location. Parking can be tricky since their parking lot has only 10 spaces and then you have to look for parking on the street or maybe park in the parking lot under those condos next door.
I’ll be honest with you that I rather go to this coffee chain than Starbucks anytime.

I went to this coffee shop three times. The first time I explained to the staff member that I could not have dairy products. She spoke with her coworker who recommended the white chocolate expresso. I was a little put off because chocolate usually has milk in it, but I double checked with her and she assured me that there was NO dairy. So I was super excited because it was yummy. The third time I went back to order the same thing the manager was there and told me that everything on their menu had dairy in it… including the white chocolate that I was Promised to be Dairy free. I was really angry. I’m on a dairy free/​gluten free diet for my Health and I do not like being sabotaged.
How hard is it to check the ingredient list on the food you are serving people. Especially when it is important to their health. The staff needs major educating on food allergies and intolerance’s.

Yeah, like other reviewers have said… the seating is terribly lacking and cramped. They have a «heathy-​ish» pastry that was alright. It’s a whole grain reduced-​fat blueberry loaf. There was a nice setup for spicing up your drink. I just got a large coffee, but they offer a variety of powders and sweeteners (light agave syrup, hazelnut powder, vanilla powder, cayenne pepper powder… not too sure about that last one).
The staff is nice, but they definitely push the dollar donation for the charity they are sponsoring that month. I was sitting near the register reading for a while and heard the shpeel too many times to remember for why you should donate to the Austin Musicians Foundation or something. If you donate, you get 10% off your purchases for the month, so I guess that’s cool. Oh, and the restrooms and store in general were clean. Parking and pulling into the lot can be a little cra-​zay because it is such a busy intersection.

This is a great place to get coffee! Their environment is welcoming and their drinks/​food are incredible! If you’re a plain coffee drinker, they always have a light roast and dark roast, along with several different powders to add in to make it your own. If you’re up for a more of a taste, try any of their lattes… they’re all magical! My choice: hazelnut latte (very good taste and not too sweet-​tasting) or a no-​sugar-​added vanilla late… this one tastes like a regular vanilla latte only it has MUCH less sugar. This place blows all other coffee chains out of the water for drinks. Their teas are great as well, plain or made into a latte… just watch the nutrition factor with the non-​plain drinks overall… grab their nutrition guide in case you are watching those calories!
Food-​wise, they’re pretty good as well. Their plain bagel with cream cheese, toasted, is my favorite… I don’t know what it is about these bagels, but they are amazingly addicting. Their sandwiches are good as well. I have yet to try the pastries.
As for the staff, they’re mostly awesome! Sometimes a few of them can be a little less timely with orders, and there is one employee that seems like she doesn’t get it and doesn’t want to be there. Minues these few and far in between experiences, it’s a great place. The staff is friendly and conscious to keeping everything, including the restrooms, clean.
AND…they have FREE wi-​fi!!! :) You can’t beat it! I would recommend this to anyone for your daily coffee/​tea fix. :)

I might be the only one, but I like the new Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I think their iced coffee is good, and it’s another alternative to Starbuck’s (CBTL coffee tastes better in my opinion). I like local places too, but this is quick and on my way to work.
They are a little slow, though. It might be because they just opened and need to get their stuff down. I haven’t tried anything fancy yet, just iced coffee. But I like all the flavors and spices you can mix in if you’d like.
With free wi-​fi, I’m sure they’ll be a popular location.