Going to Scooter’s Coffee feels like cheating. And it is—the Iowa City location is just down the street from my favorite independent coffee shop, Press Coffee, where they know my order (a 12 oz London fog) by heart.
But, alas, as The Little Hawk’s resident protein coffee journalists, Martha and I had to try the Scooter’s protein cold foam. Luckily, we had a gift card.
Turtle Latte with Sweet Cream Protein Cold Foam
Price: $7.58/16 oz ($5.85 w/o cold foam)
Protein: 13 g/16 oz
Most of the drinks on the Scooter’s menu sound like abominations, so we decided to dive in headfirst to the candy-crusted world and ordered the turtle latte. The cold foam isn’t included in any of their drinks, so we added it on. The cold foam was thicker than the Starbucks protein cold foam, which melted almost immediately after we received it.
Remember, we’re judging the cold foam here—not the drink. It’s your prerogative if you want to order something as cursed as a turtle latte, but Martha and I can both confidently say that we’re never drinking a coffee named after a chocolate candy again.
And the protein cold foam was, to be honest, a disappointment. While Starbucks’ protein cold foam was denser than their original, which was light and fluffy like a cloud, it still imitated what a cold foam should be. In contrast, the Scooter’s cold foam was more like a layer of thick cream on top of the coffee. It certainly lies more on the “sweet cream” side of the sweet cream protein cold foam spectrum than the “cold foam” side.
The taste itself left a lot to be desired. We enjoyed the Starbucks cold foam because it had a subtle vanilla flavor without overpowering the drink itself, but the Scooter’s cold foam was almost too sweet to the point of being inedible. And while the Starbucks cold foam didn’t have that telling “protein” flavor, the Scooter’s one did—despite having two grams of protein less than Starbucks. In Martha’s words, “it tastes like a marshmallow if someone added whey to it.”
Martha’s rating: 5/10 “it was good if you like getting your protein in the form of marshmallow fluff”
Lily’s rating: 3/10 “too sweet”
We don’t think the Scooter’s protein cold foam is good enough to justify almost an additional $2. However, we also didn’t like the coffee—maybe Scooter’s devotees enjoy the sweet cream protein cold foam.
Also, the employee that chose the music needs to be banned from the staff playlist.
