Mixing Peruvian food with original recipes for tea and coffee, the Hope Cafe and Tea House is committed to helping those in need.

The cafe was built upon a long history of charity work conducted by owner, Matthew Cullipher and his wife, Mary Cullipher. The couple has been running the cafe for about a month at 305 Vine St. in Liverpool.

“We’ve had our charity for 12 years,” Cullipher said. “We have been doing work all over the world. We’ve been in twelve nations, given away 120,000 meals worldwide. We’ve done disaster relief. We’ve been able to touch over 400,000 lives globally.”

Hope Cafe and Tea House is a nonprofit, and its proceeds go to assisting people in need. The staff has dedicated a huge portion of their lives to helping others.

“Everybody works for free,” Cullipher said. “We are all volunteering until there is an actual salary so everyone here is living off what they have in savings to help with this.”

Courtesy of Hope Cafe and Tea House

The owner said despite working without a salary, the staff at Hope Cafe and Tea House are very passionate about the quality of food and the nonprofit’s service to the community.

“We have really good and authentic Peruvian food and have a really old school-style way of doing things,” Cullipher said. “Every empanada is handmade, and we also provide great drinks.”

The start of this cafe is a Peruvian classic, Emoliente — a health bomb natured in the form of tea.

“Emoliente is something you’d find at a street vendor in Peru,” Cullipher said. “It’s a very holistic way to drink since it’s very medicinal and incredibly tasty.”

Made up of nearly 13 to 20 ingredients, these “teas” are concoctions of medicinal herbs that are shipped from Peru because they are not found in the United States.

Cullipher said the coffee is as “smooth as butter.” The cafe brews using an old school-style that makes a lower pressure espresso so the coffee won’t be burned by acidity and has “clean caffeine” from the natural oils of the bean.

A cup of joe like this takes longer than a normal brew. Cullipher said 24 shots of espresso take about 20 to 30 minutes to brew.

“It’s a pain in the butt, be we wouldn’t serve it any other way,” he said.

Customers, both new and old, can look forward to a new menu item: ceviche. This popular Latin dish will be incorporated into the Hope Cafe and Tea House’s regular menu and served weekly.

“We wondered if making ceviche would fit in with a coffee house, but then we decided to do it anyway.” Cullipher said. “We make our own rules here and want to make ceviche. We’re going to go to the Asian market since they have fresh fish that they kill right there and start doing ceviche once a week.”

The owner hopes to grow the cafe’s presence in the Syracuse community to help those in need. He calls the sitting area a “community lounge” because it’s a place for people to hang out, relax and enjoy the food or conversations.

“This cafe means community,” Cullipher said. “It means that we can help more people, and it means that we can be ambassadors for quality food and drink.”

Published on October 8, 2017 at 9:53 pm

Contact Leah: ltoney@syr.edu