A new restaurant in Provo is making sure that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can participate in National Coffee Day with their Word of Wisdom approved coffee substitute.
“Michael and Ruthie both grew up drinking coffee, they weren’t members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so as they got baptized they stopped drinking coffee,” Cayler Simpson, one of the co-founders of Latter-Day Cafe, said.
Michael and Ruthie are the co-founders of Latter-Day Cafe along with Simpson. The trio created the company so members of the Church could drink coffee without breaking the Word of Wisdom.
“Now you have a coffee substitute that allows you to join in. So we’re just allowing Provo to do what the rest of the world has been doing all along,” Simpson said.
Michael discovered capomo, or the Maya nut, which is the center of a peach-like fruit. It is healthier and less acidic than regular coffee.
“Michael tried everything, literally bought every coffee substitute that exists and he found this capomo, which tasted the most like it, and then he still had to tweak it to make it even more life coffee,” Simpson said.
Since opening four weeks ago at the Hut, located south of BYU campus, Latter-Day Cafe has allowed members of the Church to try something they perhaps never thought they would.
“We know this is a new experience for most people, so we want you to just love it, and we think you will,” Simpson said. “We want you to love your drink, so if you come, if you have never had coffee before, you don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like and you don’t like it? We will remake you a drink right then and there. We want you to love your drink.”
