Just up a flight of stairs and through the doors of Cien Ojos Studio on Canal Street, you’ll find one of Merced’s best-kept coffee secrets: El Cid Coffee.
The handcrafted coffee cart sits inside the downtown art studio and is owned and operated by Joseph Rodriguez, a Merced native with a deep passion for coffee culture, rich flavors, and good music. El Cid Coffee is more than just caffeine fix, it’s an experience of rich indulgence and unique flavor combinations curated and tested by El Cid.
The Times sat down with Rodriguez to discuss his passion for coffee making and to discover just how “the mastery” of java comes to life.
“I think of it as culinary art,” he shared, relaxing on one of the many vintage seats inside Cien Ojos. “From roasting to putting it together and then getting the presentation out. It’s how a chef looks at the ingredients in front of them, like, all right, how do I wanna cook this to bring out the best flavors.”
From making his own syrups to combining flavors like vanilla, coke and espresso, El Cid Coffee is the full experience.
“I like to go to cocktail lounges and see what they do. It’s kind of the same thing; they all have their own prep where they make their own flavors and syrups and they also have their own garnishes for the cocktails. I look at it almost the same as with the lattes. ‘How is this going to balance with the espresso and then with the milk or the ice?’ ‘How do I garnish it and how do I present it to everyone?’”
One of El Cid’s latest latte specials, “The Sade” featured a delicious cherry pistachio syrup made from locally sourced cherries topped off with small pistachio pieces. Although the latte is no longer on the menu, customers can anticipate new drink specials on a seasonal basis as El Cid experiments with new flavors throughout the year.
The “Cid” in El Cid comes from the Arabic word ‘sīd’ which translates to “master.” Rodriguez puts his own twist on the word as he described what the name means to his craft.
“It’s not the best or the master,” he said, “but the feeling when you’re on the journey of mastery. The mastery is always learning, always getting better, always practicing.”
Journey to mastery may be the perfect description to Rodriguez’s coffee journey. He was working in the food and beverage department at a hotel in Los Angeles when the coffee bug bit him.
“On my day’s off, I would go around LA to different neighborhoods and just try to find local coffee shops and experience the different taste in coffees. I would notice a lot of the shops had their own roaster out in front sometimes and I thought, what is that machine?”
Soon after COVID hit.
“Everything kind of shut down, and I was like laid off from the hotel for a while. That’s when I was like, OK, maybe I could just get a little roaster and start practicing since I have all this extra time. I found like a little popcorn popper, from the ’80s or ’90s, you know, those old school ones. You could roast coffee in there.”
It blew out two weeks later.
“It was good, it was funny. I did get to actually roast a little bit and try a cup. So that’s kind of cool. It was burnt, it was a really bad cup of coffee, but I got to do that and taste it, and I was like, I made this.”
Rodriguez kept going, practicing, and invested in a home coffee roaster to continue the journey of mastering roasting. After a period of burnt coffee, experimentation, and growth, El Cid began inviting friends over for cups of coffee.
“I would have DJs come in every once in a while come in when I started doing a few little pop ups here and there.”
And as of earlier this year, he is now an official staple upstairs at Cien Ojos Studios. Now equipped with a full mobile coffee cart and signage, El Cid is open for business most Wednesdays through Saturdays, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 1740 Canal St in Merced.
You can also catch El Cid collaborating with other local businesses and spinning his favorite vinyl at pop-up events in downtown Merced and at @elcidcoffee on Instagram.
Whether you stop in for your regular coffee fix or a seasonal surprise, El Cid Coffee is a Merced must-try!