Valiente Café is a café and barista school in La Macarena, Bogotá. Everything on the menu is vegan, made without animal ingredients. The coffee menu runs from single and double espresso, macchiato and americano to cappuccino, latte, flat white and mocaccino, with filter coffee in three sizes, café campesino and a carajillo. Cold drinks include cold brew, a coffee granita, a coffee milkshake and an espresso affogato. Plant milk goes into the milk drinks, teas and juices, and is also sold by the glass and to take away.
The kitchen serves breakfast and savoury plates. There is a tamal tolimense made with chickpea protein and a tamal de pipián made with soy protein, sourdough tartines spread with chickpea hummus, scrambled tofu with arepa de peto, an oat waffle with almonds and dates, and house granola with coconut yoghurt. Potato and soy empanadas and a baked quinoa empanada sit beside croissants. Desserts include a cashew cheesecake, a pavlova, brownies, an almond and berry muffin made with rice flour and organic panela, and tapioca pearls in coconut milk with mango jam. Whole cakes, tamales, peanut and almond butter and ají can be ordered to take away.
Valiente sells bagged coffee, whole bean or ground, listed by process and variety: washed, natural, honey, geisha and bourbon. Its courses are taught in groups of up to six people. Fundamentos de Barismo follows coffee from the seed to the cup, through origin, botany and post-harvest processing to espresso and milk drinks, and works with Colombian specialty coffees. The latte art workshop covers etching and free pouring, including texturing plant drinks. The extraction workshop covers the French press, syphon, Chemex, V60, Origami and AeroPress. A course for home brewers teaches the French press, moka pot, V60 and AeroPress, and espresso drinks made with plant milk.
Photograph: Valiente Café