Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
One year after opening, Xocolate Coffee Co. has distinguished itself with drinks and dishes that celebrate Latin American flavors and cultures. You can enjoy Mexican mocha alongside chilaquiles, burritos with housemade chorizo and, for a fall special, coffee-flavored flan. Or take your order to go on a trip to the coast, as many customers have done.
In Eugene’s bustling coffee scene, Xocolate Coffee Co. has made a name for itself — literally — from chocolate.
Take the Eugene cafe’s signature drink, the Mexican mocha. To make it, co-owner Analley Sanchez melts Ibarra chocolate bars with cinnamon sticks, water and a touch more sugar. Intensely chocolately, warm and spicy, it’s a sweet companion to coffee.
Chocolate is synonymous with Latin America. In Mesoamerica (modern-day Central America) ancient civilizations consumed and worshiped a cacao drink called “xocolatl”, meaning bitter water.
It’s why Sanchez and her husband, Jeshua Castellanos, centered their coffee shop around the ingredient.
Since opening Xocolate (the “x” is pronounced like “ch”) last spring, Sanchez and Castellanos have created countless drinks and dishes that celebrate their Mexican and Guatemalan roots while tying in flavors and cultures from around the world.
You can dunk conchas and other pastries in Xocolate’s mocha or hot chocolate, as Sanchez often did as a child. This fall, the couple is serving pumpkin spice horchata lattes and silky coffee-flavored flan.
The Xocolate team develops drinks by “making random things,” manager Daniel Perez said. It’s how he came up with another fall special, The MVP, with white chocolate pumpkin sauce, a shot of espresso and vanilla cold foam.
Don’t sleep on the matcha lattes, which Sanchez calls the cafe’s “hidden gem.” The grassy green tea powder is mixed with hot water until foamy, then layered in a glass with milk and your choice of syrup or puree.
If you order an iced strawberry matcha latte, you’ll get to blend the colorful blocks of green, white and red.
While Sanchez is the head barista, Castellenos has picked up a few coffee skills in the past year.
“His latte art is better,” Sanchez said of her husband, laughing.
A hub for local producers and causes
Beyond drinks, Xocolate is an ideal stop for breakfast and lunch. If you’re on the go, the burritos are as substantial as they are portable. Get a basic one with eggs, cheese, potato and your choice of meat (they make their own turkey chorizo) or get the works with sour cream, avocado and pico de gallo. Vegetarian burritos are also on the menu.
Dining in? Order the chilaquiles. Tortilla chips (also housemade) are cooked down in salsa verde, making a hearty base for two fried eggs and a shower of queso fresco and thin-sliced red onion.
Be on the lookout for more Latin American specials, such as tostadas with black beans, eggs, meat, lettuce and tomato.
Those with a sweet tooth can opt for the French toast, served with seasonal fruit. Or the apricot Danish, made by Ramiro Lopez, a local baker with a background in French pastry.
For lunch, Xocolate also partners with a local producer: The club sandwich and tuna melt are made on sourdough from Red Hen Kitchen, a Eugene microbakery that also makes brioche for the French toast.
They buy their coffee beans from Cafeto Coffee Company, another Eugene business with Latin American roots.
“I’ve noticed that if we work with other businesses, it’s more beneficial,” Sanchez said. She gets to bring in more quality baked goods and support other small businesses while focusing on her coffee drinks.
Right now, she’s adding more housemade syrup flavors to the mix, including apple crisp and toasted marshmallow.
‘I’m all in’
Sanchez began experimenting with coffee drinks in middle school, using an off-brand coffee maker her mom bought.
“I felt like the coolest person, that I could make coffee,” Sanchez said.
She fell in love with cafe culture while studying abroad in France, watching as people lingered over pastries and good coffee on bistro tables outside.
After marrying and having their first child together last year, Sanchez and Castellanos saw the former location of Sweet Tree Cafe was up for sale.
Castellanos, knowing his wife’s dream was to open a cafe, told her, “If you want to do it, I’m all in.”
The couple wanted to create a space that felt like home: They serve their coffee in mugs. Hoping people will stay a while, they offer tables to study on, a couch perfect for curling up with a good book, and outdoor seating for guests to linger over a meal. A Xocolate customer who recently moved to Oaxaca, where Sanchez’s family is from, brought back Mexican folk art to hang on the cafe’s walls.
They also use the space to host pop-ups and fundraise for causes dear to them. On Sept. 27, they will host Cafe y Musica, a benefit for the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition to support families impacted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions.
“We’re taking initiative to help our community,” Sanchez said.
Through Xocolate, the couple also supports the Lane County Hispanic League, an organization that provides soccer programs and equipment, as well as resources that ensure long-term stability for local families. Xocolate helps purchase soccer cleats and uniforms for young players.
Especially for the league’s first-generation and immigrant players, the tournaments help “keep them distracted from the ICE raids,” said Perez, who founded the Lane County Hispanic League last year.
If you look around Xocolate, you’ll notice several Lego sets around the interior: a snail, flower bouquets, the London Eye and Big Ben.
The couple started their Lego collection before they started their family. It was another “common thing” between them, Sanchez said.
Perhaps most eye-catching is the Lego cafe atop Xocolate’s pastry case. Families sit outside in bistro chairs enjoying cupcakes and coffee and a baguette taller than their children. There are planters and ducklings and a “Cafe Fleur” sign.
The Xocolate logo sits above the tiled archway of the toy cafe, a nod to the iconic Mexican chocolate bar, the couple’s roots and a Eugene coffee shop come to life.
“Seeing [Analley] accomplish this dream makes me feel complete,” Castellenos said.
If you go: Xocolate Coffee Company is located at 995 Tyinn St., 1, Eugene, and is open 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday to Friday; 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
