Mobile coffee bar The Spilt Milk Cafe serves espresso and Mexican-inspired drinks across St. Louis
Mobile coffee bar The Spilt Milk Cafe’s menu, including cafe de olla, horchata and pastries in addition to espresso drinks, is partly an expression of owner Phoebe Cuevas’ heritage, influenced both by her Mexican father and the formative years she spent in Mexico’s Puebla state. Cuevas traces her love of coffee back to her youthful curiosity about the coffee trees in her family’s yard in Coxcatlan. “I do have a journal entry from when I was 8 years old saying that I was so excited to turn 10 so that I could finally be allowed to drink coffee, because it would bring me one step closer to owning a coffee shop one day,” she said.
Cuevas quit a career in graphic design to work in a series of cafes, gaining her barista certification from the American Coffee Association and entering a few barista competitions along the way. “I really threw myself into it, and it’s just become a complete passion of mine,” Cuevas said.
In addition to Spilt Milk’s staple drinks, the cafe will offer rotating coffee and tea specials celebrating seasonal ingredients and flavors. Cuevas also makes her own syrups, with a spring lineup including lavender, brown sugar, cinnamon and chocolate. And there’s much more to come. “I have a peanut butter and jelly syrup that was pretty popular last summer that I made for a cafe I was working at,” she said.
Cuevas hopes to eventually find a brick-and-mortar location for The Spilt Milk Cafe, but for now she’s using her mobile coffee bar to get the business rolling. The Spilt Milk Cafe will be appearing at farmers markets, and the coffee cart is also available for hire for private events.
