Monument’s Tumbleweed Coffee House is a homey, sweet Westcliffe option | Food & Drink

Earlier this year we made a day trip to Westcliffe and heard good responses from fans of the area.

We found reason to venture down again recently. It’s morning on a Sunday and another place we’ve wanted to try for craft coffee, Peregrine Coffee Roasters, is closed. But a door down, homey Tumbleweed has a line at its walk-up window and cute patio seating.

An employee tells us they’re 3 years old and we laugh about the tiny town having seven coffee shops at one point, now down to a handful (Candy’s being the original.)

We nab a dirty chai, half-sweet almond milk peanut butter latte, a maple-apple crumble and chocolate croissant. The employee says the owners don’t tell him where the coffee’s from (i.e., don’t expect full craft quality), though the sweets come from a local bakery, he notes. Still, the java ain’t bad under the sweet flavorings.

The latte’s basically just nutty, but the chai (from an unnamed powder) sings with a big ginger snap essence that we love — the key is steaming the milk separately, he says.

The crumble is one ticket to Sweet Tooth Town as a moist muffin with a highly sugary topping. It easily bests the croissant, too densely layered in biscuit-evoking pastry layers and under-browned, basically amateurish aside from a fine dark cacao filling.