Great to find a shop that has fresh roasted coffee! So good! Enjoyed the plant shop behind also. Thanks!
Best coffee in Ames, cold brew is always something special here and the staff is always friendly. Like a second home to me.
No sweetener for diabetics, I get it, they probably don't want to offer artificial products but a viable option would be Stevia which is a natural sweetener. It is all about being professional and customer accommodating and I just felt that they were a bit lacking in that regard. Or so it seems to me.
My wife and I were in town on business and looking for a good cup of coffee. Morning Bell looked inviting so we decided to try it. Everything is done by hand and the beans are from Peru or Tanzania or wherever. We ordered cafe au lait and let the barista picked the blend. My wife got some banana bread and I tried the baklava. No napkins, no flatware. When asked, the barista provided us one fork. No sweetener, etc. on the counter. I asked for sweetener and the woman actually looked a little insulted but handed me a glass sugar server filled with turbinado sugar and one spoon. So, we drank our adulterated coffee, which was very good, and shared a fork with our baked goods, which were also very good. Now I'm not an uncultured lout; I know food and beverages. I have been involved with food and wine for over twenty years and I know about coffee, how to prepare it, etc. But sometimes you just want a cup of coffee. A quick comment on atmosphere. Ames is a college town. Ames has no mask mandate. All the hipster kids were wearing masks. We visited businesses all over Ames and we only saw masks in Morning Bell and a few other places along the strip there on Main Street. So if you are into the Rite of Coffee, love sitting amongst blue-haired mask-wearing liberal college kids and don't have a problem eating with your fingers and wiping your hands on your pants, this is probably a good choice for you. For me, not so much. But the coffee was really good.
The coffee is delicious and doesn't break the bank. Morning Bell roasts their own beans and has a variety for you to choose from! They display local artists on the wall, and it rotates every month.
I asked for a darker roast and both pounds of beans I bought were darn near yellow. Some of the worst coffee I’ve tasted unfortunately.
Good roasts and atmosphere. Good covid precautions. Would return. However, a small critique is that the steamed milk is overly aerated to be microfoam for espresso beverages, as there is no smooth transition from milk to coffee and appears more like a separate entity lopped on. The abrupt transition is especially apparent if a shot happens to be over- or under-extracted.I would stick with pour overs or espresso drinks with greater proportion of steamed milk to coffee ratio to decrease the experience of abrupt taste and textural change, especially if a shot comes out slightly over- or under-extracted.
My go to coffee place in Ames. Love the coffee. Love the atmosphere . The owner when they first opened up found my wallet and held onto it until I was able to get it. Been won over since then .
Morning Bell is such a lovely space for delicious coffee, and wonderful people. I am always impressed by the talent and variety of the art by community artists that they feature on their walls. It is always worth taking the time to park (or walk/bike up) to their space. What they lack in drive thru, they more than make up in personal service, and passion for the craft.
Excellent roasts! The syrup flavors aren't too heavy/sweet while keeping great flavor.