Written by Jordan Michelman.
A favorite cafe changes with you throughout the seasons, and the modern coffee menu is marvelously adapted to the comings and goings of the manual calendar. An iced coffee and a baseball day game in the summer, a steamy spiced latte of some sort before a 10 am kick-off during football season, a perfect peppermint mocha while out doing some holiday shopping…these are a few of my favorite things. And in the city of Portland, Oregon—my home—a cafe that I’ve been consistently impressed with is Prince Coffee, year in year out across the swath of the seasons.
Prince is another terrific local Portland mini-chain, independently owned and operated by Katie Prinsen, who launched the shop’s first location back in 2016. The company now has 3 locations, each with distinct personalities; my favorite is the NW 19th Avenue location, a buzzy hub surrounded by design shops, boutiques, and other cool independent businesses, but I go to all three semi-regularly. Prince gets so many details right: they sell the good water (Looen), the signature drinks are fascinating, batch brews are consistently dialed, and a simple shot of espresso on a La Marzocco Linea PB at all their locations is always a must-get, no matter what else I’m ordering.
With the PSL season upon us, I spoke with Julia Wohlstetter, who is the cafe manager at Prince Coffee’s NE Fremont location, in the heart of the lovely Beaumont neighborhood in Portland’s north. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn a little more about Prince’s signature drink program from someone who helps bring it to life.
Hi Julia, thanks so much for chatting with us. Please tell me a little more about your role at Prince. How long have you worked in coffee? How are signature drinks a part of your role at Prince?
Julia Wohlstetter: I manage our Beaumont location and write our Substack. I’ve worked at Prince for almost three years now, but have been in coffee for close to ten years. Coming up with syrup flavors might be my favorite part of the job because it’s such a fanciful activity.
The way we approach seasonals is very democratic. Every few months, we have a syrup-making competition. Anyone can submit a drink, and then we all get together to taste and vote. I love how our baristas shape the menu and direction of the cafes. It’s very collaborative and fun—like being inside the inventing room in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Everyone comes up with really unexpected and imaginative stuff.
So far, I’ve put five seasonal drinks on our menu—the amaretto latte, sugar cookie latte, the peanut brittle latte, the hazelnut caramel latte, and the strawberry shortcake hojicha. My coworkers call me “Princess Bubblegum” (like the character from Adventure Time) because I’m always doing “candy science”.
Around how many signature drinks are you typically running at a time at Prince? And are the same drinks featured at all your cafes, or are some exclusive to individual locations?
We typically run one to three seasonals: at least one espresso-based drink, a matcha, hojicha, or chai, and sometimes a cold brew soda or a loose-leaf tea beverage. We’ve also done limited-release specials, usually around the holidays, that run until they sell out. These are fun because they’re a great opportunity for us to experiment with new flavors.
For fall specifically, I’m asking folks about the “pumpkin spice” of it all — everyone who works in coffee has an opinion on the topic. Does Prince do a “PSL” style drink in the autumn months? Can you tell me more about how it’s put together? What makes yours different?
PSL is for the people! I used to be a PSL hater and kind of a coffee purist. Growing up, my mom always said, “if you can’t drink it black, you shouldn’t be drinking it at all!” and I really took that to heart.
But since coming to Prince, I’ve become a flavor convert. I love our pumpkin sauce because it isn’t very sweet. We use real pumpkin puree and a spice mix we developed in-house. It’s got the greatest hits of fall—cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, etc.—and we top the drink with a little maple-infused whipped cream.
Our approach to flavor is all about balance. Even though we have a lot of syrups on the menu that, at first glance, might read as super sweet—stroop, vanilla, anijsmelk—we never go too hard on the sugar. We always try to create flavors that play well with espresso and lift it.
Has there been a past example of a fall seasonal that you thought was really popular or effective?
When people think of fall seasonals, naturally, a lot of classic dessert flavors come to mind. Last year, we did an apple pie chai as a limited special, and it was delicious.
We used Soul Chai, a Portland-based tea brand, which is a very spicy, traditional masala chai. The syrup was a concentrate of apple juice, brown sugar, and spices that cooked down for a long period of time. Topped with a little whipped cream and a drizzle of apple caramel. It was one of our more decadent creations, but it’s fun to go all out sometimes.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, maybe two years ago now, there was the salted honey hojicha. Hojicha is related to matcha; in fact, they come from the same plant, but the processing is entirely different. Instead of being steamed, hojicha is roasted, so it has a lovely woodsy, chocolatey, earthy flavor. It’s a very warm, comforting flavor. And very fall. The combination with the salted honey was excellent; it made the drink lighter somehow. On its own, honey can be a bit overpowering as a sweetener. I love adding salt to a drink. I think many people assume that it wouldn’t pair well or kind of stick out as a flavor, but it makes everything taste just a little more intense, a little more like itself.
I think we get used to seeing a lot of complicated flavor combinations on offer. But truthfully, when you add too many flavors into a syrup, they can often wash each other out. Especially when paired with espresso. We love coming up with a wild combination, but sometimes simple flavors are the most impactful.
And of course, I have to mention the amaretto latte. When I developed that recipe, I was working on a different concept so it came together by accident. But the flavors of almond and cherry pair well with espresso. It turned out super fruity and aromatic.
I think what makes our seasonals stand out from other shops is that there’s room to experiment and play with all types of flavors. People’s personalities really shine through their drinks. That’s why our syrup competitions are such a hit among our baristas.
Prince Coffee has multiple locations in New York City. Visit their official website and follow them on Instagram for more information.
