HVMANS cafeLocation: 1455 rue Sainte_Catherine Ouest, MontrealMetro Station: Guy-ConcordiaHello hell

HVMANS cafe

Location: 1455 rue Sainte_Catherine Ouest, Montreal

Metro Station: Guy-Concordia

Hello hello!!! I have officially closed all my school books and made myself a nice cup of tea. I am ready to tell you about the all new coffee shop that literally opened about a week ago and how it quickly turned into my favorite spot near school. 

But let me start with a little background story (obviously). So Monday around noon, I came to Concordia for my class. All along the metro ride there, I was wishing I was home instead, drinking coffee, doing something relaxing. Monday blues had hit me hard. Even though my first class started at 2. And I only had one class. Okay… not the worse Monday you can have, but it was still Monday. And I walked into school unhappy. But my bitter unhappiness suddenly turned into confusion.. 

As I walked up to the second floor, I realized that none of the lights in the school were turned on. It took me a while to realize that Concordia was having a power outage. Cherry on top of all the issues this school has been having this semester.

They evacuated the building and my class got canceled. My Monday was getting  a bit better and a little more interesting.

I’m in downtown at this point - with no laptop or notebooks. I can’t do any school work. What do I do? Yap, you guessed it. 

I decided to try HVMANS cafe that just opened next to the EV Building. Let me tell you - every single cafe crawler I know had tried this place within days of its opening. And fell in love. So yes, I was excited to see it for myself.

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I walked into the cafe, immediately greeted by beautiful sunlight entering from their huge windows. 

I noticed their decor was mainly concentrated on a very pale color palette - mainly white and pale wood with strong greenery accents. The windows amplified any light that came in, and the white-ness of the entire place reflected even more brightness and made the space shine. I’m a huge believer of light and its benefits to our mood. I was instantly happy. My Monday blues were cured.

Although the cafe was mainly white, they had decorated the space with many little plants (including cacti), which provided a beautiful contrast and amazing prop for those Instagram latte pictures. Plants are becoming a trend in Montreal cafes and I’m absolutely loving it. More please!!! They add so much life, yet have a subtle elegance.

The chairs here were extremely comfortable and they have many tables - and a lot of window seats. I don’t know about you but window seats are my absolute favorite spots in coffee shops. I sometimes hunt for those seats when entering a coffee shop and have my eyes set on the window seats. It’s a bit stressful. But not here, because almost their entire cafe is windows. Chances are - you’ll get the exact seat you want. They have many individual tables and a big desk at the very end if that’s what you prefer. I think I changed my spot about 3 times so I could experience different settings in the cafe. 

Let’s talk about coffee. First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever stayed so long at a coffee shop before (6 hours) and I don’t think I’ve ever ordered so many drinks at once! I took a chai latte (which was recommended by my cousin), a regular latte and a matcha latte. And a croissant on the side.

Ok, let’s start with the chai. Heaven. and gorgeous. and heaven. Best chai latte I’ve ever had in my entire life! The cinnamon wasn’t too empowering, the spice wasn’t too much and the amount of milk was just right. I think I finished it in 5 minutes. I didn’t even take a bite out of my croissant in between sips like I normally do. I need to go back there for another chai. Soon.

The regular latte was my friends’ and she loved it. The latte art on this one was really nice. I need go to back to try their regular coffee since I didn’t this time (oops). 

And the matcha - delicious matcha! Matcha lattes are one of my favorite drinks and not a lot of cafes do it right. It’s really easy for matcha to taste like fish (it’s not suppose to) so I really try to look out for coffee shops that get it right. And HVMANS did. I go to Leaves cafe for my matcha but now this place is a good competitor. And you can see that I had a lot of fun taking pictures of it too.

Another aspect I loved were the people. The barista was super nice and forgave me for my broken french (I really tried). And since this cafe was all new, and right next to a university that lost power for  a few hours, a lot of Instagrammers stopped by at my same time. I was able to meet/see some of my favorites, which made my experience here even more exceptional. 

So, hvmans of Concordia, if our school ever has a power failure again, you know what to do. You know what the real drill is!!! HVMANS: the perfect hideaway on a Monday. 

IG: legendoftamar