TECO Tea & Coffee Bar (Fremont, CA) – A couple of weeks ago, TECO started following me on Instagram. Whenever a restaurant/eatery finds me, I make sure to check out their page too – and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they’re in Fremont! There’s ANOTHER cute coffee shop now in the area! Where was all of this 8-10 years ago when I needed a nice spot to study?
I met up with a couple of my friends since they’re the ones I usually explore coffee shops with! We’re definitely not coffee aficionados but we enjoy a tasty cup and coffee shop aesthetics. I was especially excited to come in since I saw pictures of their waffle shots! I was ready to order all the things once I walked in. I loved this chalk mural that’s next to the ordering station.
There are a lot of smaller tables and a large counter top in the middle, along with one long table towards the back. I was a little surprised to see the smaller tables taken, considering it was 1 PM on a weekday, but glad to see people are frequenting the place. We headed to the table in the back and I placed my order. Since it was for here, all of your food and drinks get delivered to your table – which was really nice! And I avoid that awkward walk to my table with my coffee cup filled to the brim lol.
Because I ordered a cake AND a waffle shot, I kept to a regular latte. I’m glad I did because I was consuming a lot of sweet things anyway. The coffee was good and I didn’t have to add two much sugar (2 packets did the trick, which is less than what I usually put), so that was nice. I will say that I don’t think the coffee was spectacular, however – especially considering Philz is within walking distance of this plaza (there’s also Peet’s but I never liked Peet’s tbh).
I ordered the heart cake, which I had assumed was a red velvet cake just from appearance, but it’s a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse inside. I really liked this cake – it was smooth, chocolatey, and not cloyingly sweet. I always enjoy the differing textures of cake and mousse all in one bite. It’s also a really pretty dessert – all of their pastries and tarts are! I’m not sure if they make them in house, but if they do, that’s even more amazing.
My friend ordered the Mango Key Lime cake, which was just okay. The outer texture felt a little plastic-y to her, and I did think it tasted a little off, but didn’t have has negative of a reaction to it. It tasted more like guava to me than mango and key lime though. This one didn’t get eaten as much as the heart cake did. But that doesn’t necessarily mean this was bad, it may just have been us.
She also ordered an affogato, which is a scoop of ice cream with a shot of espresso poured on top. She really enjoyed it since she ate the whole thing! I didn’t try Teco’s but I’ve had affogato in the past and it’s such a nice dish.
And finally, the waffle shot. You can opt to get it with dark chocolate or espresso, and since I ordered a cup of coffee anyway, I got it with dark chocolate and a chocolate waffle shot. The waffle cone also comes in s’mores and cookies and cream. This was a lot of fun! In the future, I would probably get it with an espresso shot instead, since it would balance out the sweetness better. The hot chocolate was very sweet, but it was fun eating it. I like that they give you a little biscuit to dip into both the shots and their coffees as well.
Overall, TECO is a super cute place. I do think it’s more about their pastries and their boba drinks (which none of us tried) rather than the coffee itself. This is a nice place to meet up and study together – and I’m glad that Fremont is getting a few new hangout spots!
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