A Field Guide to Coco Lab 172

Inside the Experiment: A Field Guide to Coco Lab 172

New to the lab? Consider this your orientation packet: the unofficial, occasionally unhinged guide to what's actually happening inside Coco Lab 172, and how to navigate the menu without getting lost in the departments.

Most cafés hand you a menu organized by category: hot drinks, cold drinks, food. We hand you a research directory. Four departments, each with a very specific area of study, and one shared mission: proving that "serious" and "ridiculous" aren't opposites, they're just two settings on the same dial.

Department One: The Carb Experiments

This is bagel country, and the operating philosophy here is maximum structural ambition. The Smoked Salmón brings cream cheese, smoked salmon, capers, red onion, and dill together in a single, cohesive theory. The Pastrami stacks pastrami, emmental, and dijon mustard against cream cheese for something closer to a deli in disguise. For a lighter hypothesis, the Ham, Egg & Truffle pairs Iberian ham and scrambled egg with truffle oil and rocket, while the Turkey & Emmental keeps things classic with mayonnaise, dijon, and tomato. If you're testing the waters, the Egg & Cheese or the Cream Cheese Plain are solid control groups. Every bagel starts from a base of everything, sesame, poppy seed, or plain, with a gluten-free option available for researchers with dietary constraints.

There's also a wrap on file for anyone who prefers their carbs rolled instead of round: the Pesto Chicken, built on cooked chicken, basil pesto, emmental, and a flour tortilla, served with a house salad on the side.

Department Two: The Liquid Energy

This is where the actual seriousness lives. Espresso, double espresso, cortado, Americano, flat white, cappuccino: the fundamentals are all present and treated with the precision they deserve. From there, things branch into more experimental territory: an Iced Coconut Latte, an Iced Salted Caramel Latte, a Cococcino for the maximalists, and a full matcha and chai lineup for anyone running an alternative energy study, including a Strawberry Matcha and Mango Matcha for the fruit-forward crowd. Oat and coconut milk, plus vanilla or caramel syrup, are available as modifiers for anyone fine-tuning their formula.

Department Three: The Purple Magic

One entry, fully committed. The açaí bowl comes built with banana, strawberry, granola, and coconut, with the option to add peanut butter for anyone who considers breakfast an incomplete experiment without it.

Department Four: The Vitamin Bombs

Consider this the recovery wing. Fresh Orange Juice, pressed to order. The Orange & Carrot Boost, sharpened with fresh ginger. The Green Detox, a blend of apple, cucumber, spinach, lemon, and ginger built for damage control. And for anyone who wants their vitamins concentrated and immediate, the Orange Ginger Shot delivers exactly that, no dilution.

Lab Hours and Field Conditions

The lab runs daily from 08:30 to 21:00, or, in our internal terminology, open until we run out of carbs. The location itself sits on Carrer Gran de Gràcia, in the middle of one of Barcelona's most walkable, most lived-in neighborhoods, which means the lab doubles as a genuine neighborhood fixture, not just a destination.

One more field note, and it's a load-bearing one: dogs are always on the guest list. This isn't a suggestion or an unofficial policy. It's stated brand fact. If your research assistant happens to have four legs and a tail, they're welcome at the table.

How to Use This Guide

There's no wrong way to move through the menu, but if you're building your first order, a reasonable protocol looks like this: pick one item from The Carb Experiments as your base hypothesis, add something from The Liquid Energy to fuel the session, and if you're feeling thorough, close the loop with a Vitamin Bomb on your way out. Repeat as needed. Adjust variables. Come back and run it again.

That's the whole field guide. No lab coat required, no prior research experience necessary: just an appetite and a willingness to take absurdly good bagels exactly as seriously as we do.