Coffee and Tea Limited

Jim runs Coffee and Tea Limited out of a tiny hole-in-the-wall on 43rd Street in Minneapolis, where beans are roasted on site and the smell hits you at the door. A customer was recently told this was the last dollar cup of coffee in the area, which is its own kind of credential and a fair description of where the operation sits in the local market. There is no sit-and-work cafe here. The shop is built around bagged beans, loose-leaf tea, and quick counter service, and the layout reflects it: small enough that two people make a crowd, with the focus on what you're carrying out the door rather than what you're sitting down to consume on premises. Order a cappuccino, a chai latte, a half-pound bag of fresh-roasted beans, or loose-leaf tea by the cup, which is the kind of by-the-cup tea service you do not get at a grocery store and barely get at most cafes that bother stocking tea at all. Dogs are welcome, which is part of why dog walkers turn the shop into a regular stop on their loop and part of why the place gets called a local treasure by people who use it weekly. The wide bean and loose-leaf tea selection is the draw. Jim's owner-led service is the reason customers stick. The combination has kept the small footprint viable in a city with no shortage of bigger, flashier options that don't have the bean depth or the dollar cup. The trade-off is the schedule. Posted hours have not always been kept lately, which is the cost of a small shop run by one person with a roaster going and a deep bench of inventory to keep on the shelves. Worth checking before you make a special trip across town. Bean and tea buyers who want serious selection without a sit-down spot get the most out of this place, and a half-pound bag of fresh-roasted beans plus a sleeve of loose-leaf is the right take-home haul. Laptop people should go somewhere else, and Jim would probably tell you the same on the way to ringing up your beans.