Working from a Coffee Shop: CLO Coffee in North Edison, NJ

June 25, 2021 newjerseyisntboring

“In a World Where You Can Be Anything, Be Kind”. That’s the motto of CLO Coffee, a popular coffee shop that has locations in North Edison and Jersey City.

South Plainfield resident Ralph Angeles opened his first location in Edison in early 2020, right before the pandemic hit. With a grand opening scheduled for the end of March 2020, Ralph pivoted and opened had an Instagram live opening with a chance to win some prizes.

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Social media marketing, including a popular page on TikTok kept the business going during a difficult time, and Ralph went on to open a second location at JSQ in Jersey City.

After working on Wall Street, Ralph decided to open his own business and focused on one of his favorite passions – coffee. As a frequent customer of chain coffee shops in the city, he wanted to learn how to do it himself by creating quality coffee in an area that didn’t have anything like it – Middlesex County.

Ralph making me a drink at CLO Coffee in Edison, NJ

When he took the steps to learn about the business it came down to four steps: cultivation, harvesting, roasting, and selling to consumers. By learning the business inside and out, CLO coffee will serve nothing but the best, quality drinks. Ralph’s goal is to offer the “true coffee experience” by reintroducung coffee to NJ.

Beverage #1: Iced Mocha Coconut Latte

You can expect to find espresso drinks like macchiatos, cappuccinos, americanos, latte, and drip coffee. For those who are not coffee drinkers, they also offer tea, hot chocolate, chai latte, and matcha latte. All their coffee uses reverse osmosis (RO) water giving it a better taste.

Popular items include their House Blend Cold Steep Brew, protein shake lattes, and pour-over coffee. They also serve my personal favorite espresso beverage, an affogato, made with gelato.

Customers have also inspired their drinks by creating their own custom drinks like the “Martina” (Iced Pourover Hondurian Beans with Caramel and Foamed Almond Milk), created by Martina a frequent customer. Her drink is so popular it has become part of the menu.

Beverage #2: Mocha CLO Latte

A specialty of CLO Coffee, this is a meticulously crafted espresso-based drink with Mocha, Matcha with the creaminess of oat milk to create a smoothie-like texture. Recommend as an iced beverage, but I chose to drink it hot. The beverage is currently their signature drink.

CLO Coffee also offers a variety of grab-and-go pastries like crossaints, vegan donuts, pre-packaged snacks, and more.

I enjoyed a Banana Walnut Chocolate Bread that was vegan and gluten-free.

Unique to CLO Coffee is their individual workspaces which you can rent by the half-hour or hour. These personal spaces are perfect for meetings, virtual offices, and people like me who are looking for a distraction-free environment to get work done. In total, I worked in this space for 6 hours and got more work done in a day than I had all week.

If you don’t want to rent a workspace, CLO offers free WiFi throughout the coffee shop. They also offer a CLO monthly membership to use on workspace and purchases made.