Out of all the Tucson coffee shops I go to for working, studying, or journaling, Cartel Roasting Co or Cartel coffee lab is the one I go to the most. So I’m quite excited to share my review and opinions with you!
Tucson Coffee shop review: Cartel Roasting Co.
I’ll start out with a short intro to Cartel and then jump into the review! I’ll be reviewing the coffee, how productive you can be at Cartel, interior/décor, and ease to find parking! Everything will be rated out of 10.
Brief coffee shop background
Cartel coffee has 2 locations in Tucson. One’s in downtown Tucson and the other is slightly north east on Campbell.
They also have 3 locations in Phoenix, but I won’t be including the ones in Phoenix since I’ve never been to those locations.
This review will only look at the Tucson locations.
Coffee and tea drinks: 9/10
Here’s a picture of Cartel Coffee Roasters’ menu:
Cartel sells both coffee and tea. I really liked how they split up the drink categories (filter, traditional, experimental, tea). There is a paper menu at the counter that explains what goes into each drink, which is super helpful. They also have seasonal drinks too – it’s not just not shown on the menu board.
They sell their own coffee grounds too. I’ve never gotten them myself since I’m too lazy to make my own coffee.
Decent pastries to compliment your coffee
Both locations also serve pastries to compliment your coffee. I’ve gotten some of their pastries and they’re pretty good. Not super sweet and not super buttery. Both locations sell the same pastries. They do offer some unique pastries like Raspberry Almond Loaf in addition to some of the standard pastries, like a chocolate chip cookie or muffin, that you might find at a coffee shop. They do rotate what pastries they sell, but not often.
I usually get their sweetened latte with agave sweetener and oat milk. I do like my coffee on the sweeter side, but it’s not as sweet as a Starbucks latte. The sweetener isn’t overpowering, and I can still taste the rich coffee!
If I’m not feeling coffee, I’ll go for a Matcha Latte. It’s super good. Even though the drink is predominately milk, the Matcha taste is really strong. You can get the Matcha Latte iced or hot.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of their experimental Honey Lavender Matcha Latte. There were too many flavors conflicting with the Matcha. I would stick with the plain Matcha Latte.
I would’ve given this place a 10/10 for coffee and tea, but I docked a point off because the coffee and tea are a little pricy. At the time of writing this review, I pay around ~$8 for the sweetened latte and somewhere around ~$7 for the Matcha latte.
Productivity: 7/10
Both cartel locations are great spots to study. Every time I go, there’s a decent number of people studying and working there. Despite how busy it gets, I’ve always been able to find a spot to study. There’s ample amounts of room, especially at the Campbell location.
Each spot has plenty of wall sockets for you to charge your laptop or phone. The Campbell location has extension chords at some of the tables that aren’t close to the wall for you to charge your laptop.
Both places are decently quiet. They rarely play music in the background. Most of the people at Cartel are studying or working so there’s not that much loud chatter around the coffee shop.
The only reason why I docked 3 points off for productivity is how spotty the internet connection is at both locations. I’ve had to hot spot from my phone several times because I was constantly losing connection to their wifi. Since a lot of people study at both locations, the wifi can get incredibly slow.
I still go to both locations based on convenience and how good their coffee is.
Décor: 8/10 for Campbell, 9/10 for Downtown
Here’s what the Campbell location looks like:
Here’s what the downtown location looks like:
Both locations have an industrial theme to it. They both have big wooden exposed ceilings. Most of their tables are made of metal. I just realized this but both locations have a large wooden table in the center of their very open floor plan. The large wooden table adds a nice touch to the industrial style interior. Both locations offer comfortable couches to sit on if you don’t want to sit at the tables.
As mentioned previously, both locations are pretty spacious. The Campbell location is bigger, but not by much. I think the big open space is arguably the reason why it’s a super popular, if not the best, Tucson coffee shop to study and work at.
Both shops do post up some community artwork as well.
I docked a point off the Campbell location because of how dark it can get inside. They have dim light bulbs to light the place up if it isn’t sunny outside. It sometimes feels like I’m working in a closet. When I leave, my eyes have to adjust to the bright outside. The downtown location is well lit though!
Overall, the interior design of Cartel is really visually pleasing and doesn’t distract me from working or studying when I’m at either location 🙂
Parking: 8/10
Each location has parking spots available, but there’s not a lot and they get taken up pretty quickly.
The downtown location sort of speaks for itself since it’s in downtown. There is an alleyway called South Herbert Ave that’s right next to the coffee shop where you can find parking. You do have to pay to park if you’re planning to be there during the ‘non-free’ parking times. I’ve usually been able to find a parking spot in the alleyway almost every time I go. Don’t worry – it’s not a shady alleyway. All the people at the coffee shop usually park their cars there.
Compared to other downtown Tucson coffee shops, Cartel has the best parking in terms of proximity and availability.
The Campbell location has a parking lot in the front and back, but the parking lots are pretty small. Cartel also shares the parking lot with 4 or 5 other stores so the front parking lot gets filled up pretty fast. I usually just drive around to the back to find parking.
I hope you enjoyed this Cartel coffee shop review!
Although both Tucson locations have spotty internet, Cartel is still my favorite Tucson coffee shop to study and journal at.
Let me know what you think and if you want me to review other Tucson coffee shops!
