Snowing in Space, Transforming Coffee

Madison Weikle, staff writer

Snow had finished falling on the cold Wednesday morning when I walked into a vibrant coffee house filled with neon colors and rocket ships. I lifted my boot off the melting snow outside and stepped onto the white washed floor and realized, while spring may be approaching outside, it would always be Snowing in Space.

Located off West Main Street is Charlottesville’s first nitro cold brew coffee shop, Snowing in Space’s Space Lab. The Space Lab opened their doors April 2, 2017, and since then expanded their reach by canning cold brews and, according to their website, sending them as far as the District of Columbia.

The Space Lab is decked out all in white with zig zags of  bright blue, yellow, green, and red coming from a spaceship on the surrounding walls. All around are white study tables paired with white chairs and a large dark wooden bar with bar stools each the color of the spaceship’s exhaust. While the amount of spaceships and rockets present in the store might lead someone to believe the Space Lab is space themed, it is not. According to the owners the spaceships represent the high caffeine content in nitro cold brew coffee. Either way, the upbeat setting certainly added to my coffee experience.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Space Lab Commander Julia Minnerly, the manager of the Space Lab, and tasting four different coffees for only $5. My favorite coffee, Big Blue, was the most popular among the cadets, employees. Big Blue was a strong, sweet tasting brew with notes of blueberry and dark chocolate.

Julia informed me, nitro cold brew coffee is naturally sweeter and less acidic than regular hot brewed coffee and because of its long steeping time of twenty-four hours, cold brew coffee contains much more caffeine. This explains why I got shaky after one drink.

As I sipped my coffee, I became aware of the socially interactive setting I was in. Julia informed me that The Space Lab was designed like a bar. The setting impacts the relationships cadets have with their customers, Julia said, “The relationship we have with customers is a little bit less of a get in, get your coffee, get out vibe and more of a conversation.”

While nitro cold brew coffee is all the coffee served at the Space Lab, lattes and other specialty drinks can still be made from it. Cadets can steam the cold brew for a regular hot coffee. By adding milk and different flavored syrups to the espresso cold brew, the cadets have learned to make lattes and other specialty drinks. One of the cadets, Paige Naylor, told me the great thing about cold brew is it is still developing, while traditional espresso is set to specifics. The cadets at Snowing in Space are encouraged to play around and add new specialty drinks to the menus.

I enjoyed my time at Snowing in Space’s Space Lab. I am fortunate enough to have had the chance to sit down with a manager and enjoy the perks of seeing my significant other work behind the counter. Regardless of my advantages, I see many other customers enjoy their experience at the Space Lab.

It is fun to see such a local business collaborate with the Charlottesville community.

Before I walked back out into the melting winter wonderland, Julia let me in on the real space mission, “We have this whole rich coffee culture in Charlottesville, we have a coffee trail, and a coffee community… so we want this to be a place of collaboration and fun.”