The places on our maps called “squares” are a geometric curiosity here in Massachusetts. They are clearly not squares – certainly not the three I’ve chosen to for coffee this week, which are convergences, a hub or meeting point of several roads. Older “squares” might have meant an open rectangle, surrounded by paths or roads, or a “common” where people convened and, even longer ago, where cattle grazed. 

We are now the grazers, and this week we do so in three hubs at three deliciously distinct coffee places. Fueled by the potables and comestibles of these shops, you could bike from Teele to Inman to Union (a distance, according to Google, of about 4 miles) and find the voyage very much worthwhile. These cafés, one Rwandan, one Brazilian and one Thai, speak different taste languages.

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Yego 

In the Teele Square area, Yego is a specialty coffee destination. With four tables and a counter, plus a bench outside for good weather, Yego is small but amenable to solitary or social sipping. The ambiance is cheerful, bright with light from floor-to-ceiling windows, with handsomely designed merchandise and craft basketry. Yego means “yes,” and that is definitely the attitude of the owners.

Francois and Fatuma Tuyishime are a coffee family; Francois’ family in Rwanda owns a coffee farm, and he roasts his family’s beans here in the shop in a Loring S7 Nighthawk (that’s for you coffee geeks). Originally, like most of the coffee we drink, Rwandan coffee was a plantation crop for export to a colonial overlord and its export partners. Today, local ownership in Rwanda, despite postcolonial war and genocide, dominates and has a global market. These beans are grown at 3,500 feet, which counts as very high altitude (good for the valued arabica variety), and they are shipped, washed and fermented in a natural anaerobic honey process (ask me), which produces, after roasting, a rich medium roast (my favorite, but Yego also has a darker roast).  One of its roasts is called “Murakose!” which means “thank you” and is heard often in this shop. 

Francois said the biggest problem for coffee growers everywhere is climate change. Current politics of course also factor in our consumption of coffee, because they affect transport and create impediments on the supply chain.

Francois came to the Boston area in 2015 and immediately made friends who form a core of regular customers. When asked what makes a good café, he said “good coffee, good vibes, respect for customers and positivity” and that, dear readers, is what you get at Yego, for which we say “murakose!”

Bom Dough

The bustle of Inman Square is linear: It extends along Cambridge Street (with a bit along Hampshire Street), basically from Trina’s Starlight Lounge to Clover’s commissary or beyond into East Cambridge. These geographies are products of the imagination rather than of cartography or ordinances. In an area that for much of the 20th century was heavily populated with Portuguese (and Italian) immigrants, there are grocers, fishmongers and restaurants serving the foods of Portugal and Brazil. One is Bom Dough, a relatively recent Brazilian coffee and pão de queijo (cheese bun) addition. 

Years ago, the space was occupied by Chris Schlesinger’s legendary East Coast Grill, and the loss of its flavorful food and lively atmosphere is acute for some of us. But Bom Dough is a worthy (if entirely) different successor.

The layout remains, with a couple of rooms separated by a counter and entryway. There are lots of options for sitting and gazing at Cambridge Street traffic, schmoozing with a friend, reading a book or zoning out on the Internet.  

Recently I was there in time to buy the last pão de queijo heated and filled with doce de leite (more commonly known by its Spanish name, dulce de leche).  The servers at the counter where you order are friendly, but maybe they should advise you to wear a bib or stand by with a towel while you eat this messy but oh-so-worth-it treat.

An iced coffee was excellent, with a caramel finish that is a tasting note (not because of a sweet addition). Other coffees, based in espresso, have some bitterness but a smooth finish. Bites of pastries allow the fat and sweet to coat the tongue and minimize the coffee’s bitterness, giving you the best of both. The many reasons to return include a menu full of great-sounding sandwiches, a “matcha program,” acai bowls and plenty of gluten-free options. Obrigada!

Maprang

Maprang is a Thai bakery-café with three low tables, two high-tops and a long counter, serving wonderful pastries and coffees for eat-in and takeout. 

On a clear crisp Sunday morning a steady stream of customers, many accompanied by a dog or a baby, arrived to drink and eat or carry away this lovely shop’s offerings. The décor is simple and welcoming. Wall poster-menus explain what is possible in an iced drink, brightly colored with mango, pandan, strawberry, matcha, the Filipino ube (a bright purple yam) – and then there’s a “blue Hawaii” and a “sunrise yuzu.” (These were a bit startling early in the morning.) 

Of course I wanted a coffee, and those are excellent too: My test cup of straight drip was perfect, alone and with delicious Basque cheesecake, a signature item at this café. Why Basque cheesecake in a Thai café? Well, it became a trend a few years ago in Thailand, and here too the owners have rung all the changes on it, making at least four varieties infused with pandan, matcha and other flavors, all boasting the same mahogany “burnt” topping. The plain one I tasted yielded the creamiest, fluffiest, most craveable spoonful ever. The appetite for this cheesecake in Thailand has extended to Japan, where trends become mega quickly and where I ate one made from Hokkaido milk. However rich that memory, the cake at Maprang wins!

The bestselling items include the “regular” Basque cheesecake; a coconut pandan cake; small versions of all cakes and fruity custards; ube, curry and other puff pastry; and those vivid drinks. Maprang also makes cakes to order, and even on this Sunday, customers leaving with large cake boxes almost equaled those who stayed for on-site treats. (Basque cheesecakes are having a moment in Cambridge and Somerville.) Among the many beverages is Vietnamese coffee, fast becoming a standard even on non-Vietnamese café menus. Here it is made with Café du Monde, the French-influenced roast with a bit of chicory that is the signature drink in New Orleans and now in Vietnamese coffee houses, as the “caphe” from Vietnam gets harder to import.

Maprang? What does that mean? It’s a sweet and tangy “mango-plum,” said to be excellent for digestion, heart ailments and skin. Oddly, it doesn’t appear on the menu, and I hope it gets added to the repertory. You can try to say “khàawp khun khâ” – “thank you” in Thai – as you have learned to do in Rwandan Kinyarwanda (“murakose”) and Portuguese (“obrigada”). 

Yego, 1212 Broadway, West Somerville (7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays; 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays)

Bom Dough, 1271 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge (8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays) and 1 Canal Park, East Cambridge

Maprang, 51 Union Square, Somerville (8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; closed Wednesdays) 

Corky White, a food anthropologist at Boston University, has lived in Cambridge since 1953 with long sojourns in Japan. She has written articles on coffee for Standart Magazine and books including “Cooking for Crowds” (in its 40th Anniversary edition) “Coffee Life in Japan” and, with her son, Ben Wurgaft, “Ways of Eating.” Corky is grounded in coffee and welcomes suggestions at cwhite@csindie.com.

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Corky White

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