Tamosan Coffee Lounge with Anaya
HELLO everyone! I’d like you to meet a great friend of mine: Anaya! Since the two of us don’t have too much class time together, it was great to take the afternoon to interview Anaya and get to know her hidden gem, Tamosan Coffee Lounge.
On this lovely afternoon, Anaya took me to Tamosan Coffee Lounge, a super unique coffee tucked away in the Southeast corner of Scottsdale and Shea. This great, local cafe is best known for their drinks and pastries, which are raved about online for their high quality and attention to detail. On this particular day, I was very excited to try one of their matchas. Tamosan has a variety of house-made syrups and unique flavor combinations, and I was torn on which one to try. I’m usually not a big matcha fan, but I landed on one of their matcha tonics. * For the life of me, I cannot remember what the flavor combo was, but it was one of their seasonal ones. Safe to say I slammed it; I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was! Anaya and I also shared a small loaf of carrot cake, which piqued my interest in what other baked goods and food they might offer. Unfortunately, I didn’t get too many photos of the cafe itself, but the bright and colorful interior was very inviting. If you know me by now, you know I’m a huge fan of fun seating options. We just chose a table, but Tamosan has a variety of seating options available for you to chill out or get some work done.
* Barista: “It’s a matcha tonic, is that alright?” Me: “Yeah, absolutely!” Immediately following this exchange, I began frantically Googling what a matcha tonic was, worried that I just spent ~$7 on a crazy drink I might hate. As aforementioned, I actually realled liked it, very refreshing! A matcha tonic is matcha made with tonic water. There’s some reasoning behind why it’s done and how it changes the flavor, but I’m not a matcha expert so I won’t try to explain all that.
Though she was born in Pittsburgh, Anaya has lived in Phoenix since she was three years old, making her a Phoenix local for sure. We’ve actually lived on the same street for quite a while, but I’ve only really gotten to know Anaya and her family after she came to Shadow Mountain during our sophomore year. Since then, we’ve had a variety of classes together, but none as fun as our online class period, where we had lots of time to get to know each other and study together. Anaya thinks that Phoenix is charming for a variety of reasons, but the people make it special. “If you really look… you can find people who are in touch with what they love, she says. Anaya can clearly see the passion from the people who started Tamosan, “I’ve been coming here since they were a tiny coffee shop, and now they’ve recently expanded!” She came here once while her mom was getting a haircut, and she’s fallen in love with the cafe ever since. As for Anaya’s passions, she LOVES to swim. “High school’s been hard, but there’s truly a place for everyone, even if it’s not at school.” Without many natural bodies of water, Anaya has grown in touch with the side of her that is passionate about swim team, club swim, etc.
A running theme is beginning to emerge within most of my interviewees, they’re mostly current or former DAAPS students; Anaya is no different! Currently a senior in the DAAPS program, Anaya is completing her DAAPSTONE, Project NADAR, which has been a huge success across our campus and community. The bilingual water safety initiative, which stands for Navigating Aquatic Dangers And Risks, started as a passion project and was transformed into her senior capstone project. With her love of the water being a clear factor that drives what she does. Anaya spent much of her junior year fundraising and developing resources, focusing her senior year on community outreach. Anaya has been a Spanish student for six years, and has enjoyed putting her skills to the test with her project. I’m definitely oversimplifying the incredible work she’s done, so check out her website for yourself!
Anaya couldn’t pick just one, so if she were on a deserted island, she would bring Zach Bryan, Chance Peña, and Noah Kahan’s discographies with her.
Attached below are links to Project NADAR’s website and Instagram page — go check out all the cool stuff Anaya is working on!
