A Caffeinated Guide to California's Mojave Desert

Where days are long and temps run high, these 7 coffee shops will keep you cool.

BY MELINA DEVONEY
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE

Photos by Melina Devoney (Featured photo: Nice Dream in Yucca Valley, California)

Specialty coffee shops in California‘s Mojave Desert serve extraordinary coffee despite their seclusion from major shipping routes and competition.

International park tourists, music festival-goers, and off-roading fanatics are adding the specialty-coffee scene in Joshua Tree and its surrounding communities to their itineraries. The area, once dominated by conventional dark roasted coffee, has been hit with a wave of specialty profiles coming from roasters across the country. 

This May, I road-tripped to taste all the coffee I could handle, and sat down with pioneers of specialty coffee in the Joshua Tree area. 

Nice Dream

Trevor Simpkin (Nice Dream co-owner and Head of Coffee) and his wife, Coral, moved from New York and began selling vegan ice cream at the Joshua Tree farmers market five years ago. Before long, Trevor also served specialty coffee from roasters all over the United States.

“At the time in the area, there was not a ton of what I consider ‘specialty coffee,’” Trevor told Barista Magazine. “Coming from bigger metropolitan areas, I’ve always really loved specialty coffee, and what I search for is something that’s unique and different every time.”

Trevor, Coral, and their partners Ren and Jesse opened Nice Dream’s brick-and-mortar in Yucca Valley this April. Within the calming, minimalist aesthetic of the café, Trevor masterfully dials in a new espresso daily from a constant rotation of roasters (I had a stellar shot of Little Wolf).

 “We’re not trying to just put out one thing that we do really well,” he says. “I’m more concerned about bringing something new, something exciting to everyone, not the same thing that people have in the area.”

Nice Dream rotates ingredients from the farmers market into their extensive menu of coffee, tea, ice cream, and light, refreshing cuisine perfect for the desert weather. Customers sometimes need convincing to try the unfamiliar specialty coffee profiles; “It’s two sides of the coin that are both hard and extremely rewarding,” Trevor says. 

Nice Dream challenges customers to branch out and try food and drinks they know they’ll love. 

“Everything we do is about putting forward something we’re really proud of,” Trevor says. “Every roaster that I work with are amazing people…I can say that about the farmers we get our food from. I can say that about all of our employees.” 

Matson Ambroise

This coffee shop + art gallery is one-of-a-kind in Yucca Valley. Owner Matt Reid and his wife, Amber, are artists who recently moved from Los Angeles to raise their kids. 

They bought a rustic building—a fire station turned hot rod shop—to create a blue chip art gallery. When the space evolved into their own open studio, they pondered leasing it out. Matt worked in a coffee truck years ago and instead decided to flex the old muscles. They tucked an espresso bar into the corner of the stunning interior, which is still lined with Matt and Amber’s paintings. 

Matson Ambroise has been unhurriedly spreading the word of their opening this March, “to keep it people’s secret spot for a minute,” Matt says.  

Most Joshua Tree businesses cater to high volumes of visitors looking for drinks and food for the road. Instead of long lines, Matt wanted an uncrowded space that invited customers to stay a while. His approach is to slowly and steadily win locals over with a mellow, unpretentious café culture. 

“It was really important to me to make a good impression from the beginning,” he says. “We’re integrated into the desert. We’re not trying to take something from LA and drop it out here.”

He serves traditional espresso drinks made with Linea coffee, focusing on “showcasing really good coffee, simply.” The espresso I ordered did just that. 

Time slowed down as I sipped my espresso on Matson Ambroise’s patio and gazed at the mountainside. Unsurprisingly, the café has already earned an enthusiastic following, and has hosted culinary pop-ups and cocktail classes.

Joshua Tree Coffee Company

Joshua Tree Coffee Company (JTC) is virtually the only café-roastery in the gateway communities. JTC opened in 2014 in Joshua Tree proper when there were zero specialty coffee shops. It’s still the only café in town (besides Starbucks). 

For over a decade, JTC has perfected the traditional espresso menu—focusing less on extravagant beverages—with high-quality organic ingredients and consistent execution. I can also attest to their consistently supreme hospitality.

“We take the same care we took when we opened,” says VP of Sales and Operations Julie Harrison, who’s been with JTC since 2015.  Back then, a surge of national park tourists drove JTC’s growth through word of mouth.  

JTC’s iconic branding—a deep purple Joshua tree on a dusty pink backdrop—is now prominent across social media and Californian coffee shops. 

From day one, the company’s raison d’être has powered their unwavering reign: “We’ve always been passionate about making a product that is organic, that is healthier for people,” Julie says.  

JTC beans, such as my favorite Ethiopian peaberry light roast, have more nuanced, deep flavors than nearby diner coffee. Still, they cater to everyone from Angelenos seeking limited single origins to Europeans craving dark-roasted espresso. 

The café-roastery remains a small operation; employees jump between the espresso bar to delivering coffee to roasting. I watched the roaster at work through a window in the café.     

“(JTC is) roasted with love,” says Operations Assistant Alexandra Grayton. “The same person that roasted your coffee could also be serving your coffee.” 

Más o Menos

This café-bar in Joshua Tree was most highly recommended to me. 

At dusk, I walked straight into a DJ set kicking off the Mojave Zine Fest. With ample open-air space, a photobooth, and a stone-fired pizza pop-up, Más o Menos hosts a non-stop party that leans into the desert backdrop. 

The coffee menu at Más o Menos features Canyon Coffee, plus tea, small bites, mocktails and cocktails—including three mouthwatering versions of carajillo.

Desierto Alto

This little Yucca Valley bodega curates an outsized selection of craft alcohol, chocolates, tchotchkes, and groceries. 

They squeezed in an espresso bar that serves Counter Culture Coffee, plus indoor and outdoor bar seating. Their espresso was solid, as was their (mushroom-forward) mushroom cocoa. 

Frontier Café

The constant-yet-fast-moving line out the door indicates just how locked in this Yucca Valley café has been since 2016. 

The inviting space is regularly full of festival-goers refueling with loaded sandwiches and flavorful drinks: Think ube, maple-banana or cookie butter lattes, marshmallow flavored cold foam, and coconut water iced americanos. Plus, they use Joshua Tree Coffee.

The Coyote Cone

Established in 2021, this bright pink and blue ice cream parlour in Morongo Valley is a cutesy, nostalgic, and budget-friendly stop for Thrifty ice cream. 

The Coyote Cone is also an unassuming yet perfect last stop for a coffee heading out of the desert. I was happily surprised by their signature Snake Bite latte made with ground chocolate and cayenne.

The barista couldn’t tell me much about their Desert Dog Coffee “extra dark roast,” but they now offer organic espresso by request. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melina Devoney (she/her) is a barista and freelance writer in Los Angeles zeroed in on coffee and agriculture. She aims to amplify the voices of farmers and a diversity of perspectives within the coffee industry, and she’s happiest when running on wooded trails and dancing at concerts.

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