Anyone looking for a decidedly dark latte to wash down their black pasta and pizza or goth ice cream can get their fix at New York City's Round K coffee shop.
According to Food & Wine, the café's owner, Ockhyeon Byeon, developed the matte black latte with the intention of skipping out on the ingredient du jour that's making food black: activated charcoal. Instead, the matte black latte gets its dark-as-night hue from organic coconut ash.
Byeon modelled Round K after traditional Korean coffee spots called dabang. But caffeine fiends probably won't find this inky black latte in Seoul. In fact, you won't find the unique blended beverage anywhere else, since Byeon insists that his dairy-free creation is unique to Round K.
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To craft the matte black latte, Byeon combines espresso (because it's a latte, not a potion coming from a fairy-tale villain), the aforementioned coconut ash, 98% Dutch processed cacao — that's really dark chocolate — and almond milk. After a blitz in a blender, it comes out looking like a goth milkshake, no trendy activated charcoal in sight. It's not the steaming-hot cup of Joe you'd expect to get when ordering black coffee, which is actually a deep brown if you think about it. Instead, the matte black latte is literally a glass of black coffee.
For anyone already over the idea of all-black food, but you the idea of a unique latte is piquing your interest, Round K has other out-of-the-box options, too. The menu includes a wasabi latte, which is a hot beverage in regards to both temperature and spice, and an egg cappuccino. That particular potable takes the usual cappuccino and blends in an egg for a super-rich drink that gets topped with whipped cream.
Maybe one of those two coffee options will satisfy anyone stuck between blackhearted goths and Technicolor unicorns?
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