Coffee

Wake the Dead brews coffee with love 

by Veronika Kondratieva


A place where you can find a great mix of people fromevery walk of life, Wake the Dead draws customers in with its delicious coffee and hip personality, said barista Christina Orta.

“The atmosphere (of Wake the Dead) accomplishes everything it sets out to,” Orta said. “It’s like one big sip of 'Ahhhhh.'”

The coffee at black and red stripped Wake the Dead is special because baristas were fortunate to be trained by a national barista David Harmon, said barista Dana Dacy, who has worked at Wake the Dead for five years. In addition, Wake the Dead purchases its whole bean coffee from Katz Coffee in Houston, providing a taste of locality.

“Katz are very particular about the beans they roast,”owner Julie Balkman said. “It has to do with their roasting techniques, as well.”

“The coffee we brew is so delicious because of the amount of beans we use per brew, water filtration and correct water temperatures,” Balkman said.

Wake the Dead always offers light, medium and dark roasts of coffee, she said. The coffee house also orders coffee beans from different regions like Ethiopia, Africa, Hawaii or South America to satisfy any type of taste.

The coffee house also has a Bat City blend from Katz Coffee, which is a dark roast composed of completely organic beans. Since the blend is a joint work of Katz Coffee and Bat Conservation International based in Austin, a percentage from the sale of this blend serves as a donation to the conservation.

 Espresso Machine - Photo by Veronika Kondratieva

The most popular drink at Wake the Dead is Iced Toddy. It is loved by the customers due to its high volume of caffeine. Dacy revealed the secret to the beloved drink. Unlike other coffee houses where they brew coffee for eight or 12 hours, coffee beans for Iced Toddy at Wake the Dead are brewed in cold water for 24 hours, ensuring the most caffeine.

“When you put heat on a bean,” Dacy said. “It loses the caffeine.

“(Iced Toddy is) simple, full of caffeine and less acidic,” Balkman said. “So it doesn’t hurt your belly.”

Their newest drink addition for the holiday season is Apple Cider, which has also become very popular. However, other seasonal syrups such as gingerbread, butterscotch, pumpkin spice, etc. are offered year-round, said Dacy as she fixed a peppermint latte for a guest.

Not just the high quality of coffee draws people in this eccentric staple, it also the love they feel when they come in. For instance, most of the time Orta knows customers’ drink order when they walk in.

“We can just exchange warm words of welcome and have our morning laughs while I fix them their favorite morning starters,” Orta said. “It is a lovely feeling to see them day in and day out and to make the drinks they love; it brightens my morning every time.”

“If you care about your job,” Dacy said. “Everything comes out better."

Bill Cunningham, a Wake the Dead regular and a former University Star and San Antonio Express-News contributor, said he feels warm and welcomed by the staff.

“I usually start my day here before I go out and around,” Cunningham said. “Staff here is wonderful, they are good people to talk to, and you make good friends here.”

Beside delicious coffee, Wake the Dead offers great food with salmon and lox as the bestseller and locally made pastries. The chef from former Rivendell restaurant brought a lot of customers to Wake the Dead due to her amazing baking skills, said barista Kat Herbert.

“Food made with love tastes better,” Herbert said. “We make drinks, we serve drinks, we make food, we are everything here. It's definitely more than just a job.”