Rise Coffee Co. & Nye's Cream Sandwiches, 1534 State Street

When the 9-to-5 rooster crows on weekdays, thousands in the Sarasota region migrate to their favorite coffee shop. The hardiest among us take their coffee black as night while connoisseurs order up a dizzying and ever-changing array of coffee and milk blends. Lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos and cortados are all part of an attempt to cut the acidity and bitterness of brewed coffee, and when flavored syrups like vanilla, chocolate or caramel are added, these drinks start to tread dangerously into dessert territory—a 16-ounce flavored latte from Starbucks packs 250 calories, of which nearly 60% are carbs from sugar.

If some have managed to accept those heavy flavored drinks as a suitable breakfast food, would it really be that much of a stretch to include the affogato? Ice cream is mostly milk, sugar and added flavors, after all, so the essential difference between a flavored latte and an affogato is the state of matter the milk and sugar assume. At Rise Coffee Co. & Nye’s Cream Sandwiches, any hang-ups about having ice cream for breakfast are challenged further by the extraordinarily high quality of their ice cream, the activist mission of the business and the use of darn good beans in their java.

Their affogato comes with one heaping scoop of ice cream and two shots of espresso. The one pictured features Rise & Nye’s chocolate toffee ice cream. The coffee and ice cream form a perfect pair, with the creaminess and sweetness of the scoop perfectly offsetting the bitter notes of the coffee, while the earthiness of the toffee and coffee complement each other nicely. Perhaps during chilly days, a hot flavored latte makes more sense, but I posit that in the summer months, an affogato’s merits outweigh an iced latte on account of the ice in a latte watering down the drink as it melts. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.

Rise Coffee Co. & Nye's Cream Sandwiches, 1534 State Street

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