Perched above the U Street corridor (where much of DCโs coffee scene is nestled) is the northwest neighborhood Adams Morgan: a bastion for irreverent retail, food, and nightlife. In mid-April, AdMo welcomed Sweet Science Coffee, a cafe with a prominent focus on manually-brewed offerings.
Owner Sandra Wolter, who came to DC by way of hometown Berlin, Germany, has struck the right balance of Third Wave cool and Gemรผtlichkeit to suit this part of the city. The seating area is decked out with a blue crystal chandelier, light streams through big windows that overlook 18th Street, and โ80s Euro-pop pipes through the speakers. Wolter also loves Polaroids and keeps an instant camera behind the bar; photos of regulars dot one wall in the shop, next to a Yama cold brew tower. The overall effect is lighthearted and sweet.
Behind the bar, thoughโpure science. A La Marzocco GB5 and Curtis batch brewers allow for, as the menu calls it, โFast Fuelโ quick service, but the single-cup brewing devices are the stars of the show. A syphon, V60, French press, Chemex, and Karlsbad dripper are lined up front and center; the first things that catch your eye when you walk up to the register.
At first glance, the Karlsbad dripper looks like a tea pot. Wolter grinds a dose ofย Texas roasterย Cultivar‘sย Colombia La Esperanza on her EK 43 and adds water to the grounds in the dripper, watching for the right numbers on the Hario scale but also for that tiny, telltale stream of coffee in the upper chamber of the Karlsbad to know when itโs done. โBlack coffee is definitely my preference,โ Wolter tells me, mid-brew, โbut Iโm more interested in the connection; whatever Iโm serving,โ she motions to her wall menu, which is headed with the phrase โEnjoy Being Awakeโ.
โThe capitol โBโ is on purpose,โ she says. โYeah, youโre awake when you have coffee and caffeine, but youโre also enjoying who you are in an alert state. I have high respect for coffee and all the processes it went through to get in my cup, but ultimately itโs about sharing that. So Iโm interested in sharing the best tasting coffee possible.โ
A multi-roaster setup, including Ceremony, Intelligentsia, and Cultivar allows Wolter to pair the right coffee with each brewing deviceโa table menu and aromatic vials of each offering sit in front of the Squareย register stand to guide customers in their choices. The hand-lettered everythingโwalls, menus, labels, tagsโadds warmth to the precision of Sweet Scienceโs mise en place.
Though sheโs a DC newcomer and had a quiet, neighborhood-focused opening, Wolterโs no newcomer to coffee. Sheโs a third-generation coffee professional in her family; her grandfather (who was also a boxerโthe inspiration for the shopโs name) owned a roastery in Berlin where her parents also worked. A onceย journalist and newscaster, Wolter has returned to coffee. She is an SCAE-certified barista and has taught coffee brewing classes in Germany.
This small coffee shop,ย this coffee room, reallyโSweet Science shares a converted row house with gallery and design boutique Skynear Designsโis home base for Wolter to dream bigger. To forgeย more connections with the neighborhood and DCโs coffee community at large, teach brewing classes, and get back to writingโthis time, about her adventures in coffee and cafe ownership.
Dawn Shanks is an American coffee professional based in Washington DC. Read more Dawn Shanks on Sprudge.
All photos byย Danielle Joray for Sprudge.ย