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Speedboat Coffee out of Portland, Oregon has been serving up drinks in the southeast Foster/Powell neighborhood for sixteen years. After a location move last year, the cafe has settled into its new digs and the cafe is bustling. Hungry guests are treated to a full menu of food—including homemade baklava courtesy Speedboat Coffee founder Alex El-Khal’s mother. “My mother makes some pastries for the coffee shop, and her baklava is some of the best around town,” says El-Khal. “It’s hard to vouch for your mother’s baking without coming off as biased, but it is what it is. Bring me a better piece and I’ll shut up about it. Her baklava is made with walnuts rather than pistachios and the warm spice blend really complements many traditional coffee beverages.”
Traditional coffee beverages are fine and all, but don’t miss the cafe’s seasonal coffee offerings, including fan favorites like the HVAC, a spiced vanilla latte that pairs perfectly with baklava, and the Nilly Curtado, a play on a cortado (and one of our top ten favorite Grammy-winning Canadian singer/songwriters). These seasonal drinks have become so popular they’ve now featured players on the Speedboat menu, and a perfect focus for this latest edition of On The Menu, our feature series dedicated to delightful signature drinks.
We spoke with Alex El-Khal digitally to learn more.
What inspired the creation of these drinks?
The HVAC latte was created as a spiced seasonal special, but has stuck around for several years. If we had a signature beverage, this would be it! Following the lead of our Cardi B latte (Cardamom Vanilla), the Nilly Curtado is aptly named after Nelly Furtado.
Who created them?
We come together as a team to brainstorm, workshop and refine ideas that we have to create our specials. Usually things are 90% there when it’s brought to the table and just needs a little nudge in the right direction!
Are there any unique or locally sourced ingredients used in this drink?
Our vanilla is made locally here in Oregon and many of our specials are centered around using the vanilla as the cornerstone of our specialty beverages. Dilly Vanilly Vanilla is made especially for us, and can be found in a slightly altered form to be a syrup at Portland brunch spot The Mont for their French Toast and Monte Carlo sandwich.
How did you work to balance the flavors and create the perfect taste profile?
The whole idea behind the HVAC latte is not to go overboard with vanilla and cut the intensity with honey and cinnamon, so really from conception it was designed to be well balanced! We take pride in the quality of coffee we serve and none of our beverages are overly sweet.
What kind of coffee is used in these drinks?
We’ve had a long relationship with Coava out of Portland, nearly 10 years at this point! For espresso we always run single-origin, usually from Latin America. We find the general profile of nutty/chocolatey from the region makes a good basis for espresso based beverages, and the most pleasant when unadulterated.
Do these drinks work as both hot and iced? Did that influence the recipe?
It was designed as a hot beverage for the holidays originally, but I prefer my sweetened and milky beverages iced! I’ve always seen certain flavors as complimentary, this flavor profile being one of them. All our iced beverages are heavily iced, and there’s a sweet spot of dilution when some of the ice has melted that creates the balance that we’re looking for.
What are people saying about these latest signature drinks?
The Nilly Curtado is nice because people who like things barely sweet can get in on the ratio game that people who drink cortados are playing. The HVAC has held its own for several years now, I think its tenure speaks for itself.
Thank you!
On The Menu is a feature series dedicated to the best, most beautiful, delicious and thought-provoking original signature drinks on cafe menus worldwide. Presented in partnership with DONA Teas & Tisanes.
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