Grilled Fruit? Huh??

On the recommendation of a very nice barista at Wicked named Vivian, I picked up a bag of Intelligentsia’s Guatemala Finca La Soledad yesterday. I brewed it in a pourover this morning and WOW!! A very nice coffee. Oodles of body with notes of – it surprised me too – grilled fruit. I don’t know if you’ve ever grilled a nectarine, but it’s delicious – you should try it. That’s also what this coffee reminded me of! Delectable.

LOL,

Tim

The Things I’d Do for Just One neKisse…

Dear coffee lovers,

I have some fantastic news for you! We have just received an amazing new Ethiopian coffee – the Sidamo Nekisse Micro Selection. The proceeds from this coffee are going to imagine1day, a local charity that will use the money to build a school in Ethiopia. The tagline: “coffee educates a nation”.

The backstory:

This coffee comes from the Sidamo region of Ethiopia and is classified as a micro selection. That means it is a small portion of a micro lot, which is a small portion of one harvest. It is of exceptional quality and it is incredibly rare – 49th Parallel is the only roaster in Canada to have access to the green from this selection.

As this is a charity project, we receive no wholesale price on these beans. We pay the same as you.

San Fransisco presents

Tyler just got back from Korea and had a layover in San Fransisco, so he brought us back from espresso from Ritual coffee roasters and… three different kinds of coffee from Four Barrel that we are brewing on our clover upon request (or suggestion ;))

…come down and try some!

Café Myriade

So I made the trek out to Café Myriade today….It was indeed a trek, but definitely worth it. Chatted with Anthony and the two baristi on shift about their machine, coffee in general, business, you name it. It made me miss making coffee and interacting with people in that way.

With regards to that last post, the main issue brought up there has been fixed….

Recognize the bag, anyone? Café Myriade’s roastery is none other than 49th Parallel! That bag is the Tanzanian Karmaro Microlot…can’t wait to try it tomorrow morning 😀

Anthony treated me to a delicious espresso and the very talented (and very lovely) Cici – spelling unknown – made me a fantastic cappuccino. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, so I couldn’t take any photos of the café (or the space). Next time, I promise!

LOL,

Tim

Musings of a Gingerkid

News from Montréal!

Hey guys – long time no talk!

Just thought I’d post a little blurb about what’s been going on out here in Québec. Lots of stuff, but first:

Nooooooo!!!!!! I’M OUT OF COFFEE!!!!!!

As the sweat beads trickle

Oh the horror.  Sweat beads trickled as the grand masters of espresso took their sips.  Nervous barista texts flew as we were honoured with a visit from 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters’ gang of incessant cuppers.  The man with the golden tongue took the photo.

Adieu, Adieu!

“Adieu, adieu my good friends all,

And be kind to [the Synesso]”

-“Bonnie Barbara Allen”, Traditional Scottish Ballad

Unfortunately I must take my leave of you all! Sad, yes. Not really “adieu”, though, more of an “au revoir” – I’ll be back at Christmas, so look for me to be putting in some time then. My last shift was last night and you can read all about it here. Also to be found on that page is the story of the last of Sammy Piccolo’s WBC blend!

It’s been fun, cafca. See you soon.

LOL,

Tim

PS – For those of you who don’t know, I’ve started a blog to keep my friends and family up with life in Montreal. It can be found here.

PPS – If you got the joke in the edited version of “Bonnie Barbara Allen” above, you just earned yourself big points in my books!

Eastern Canada Barista Championships

Coffee Guru/Techno Geek, Les Kwan has forwarded the link to the video of the Eastern Canadian Barista Championships. Check it out.  If you are into that sort of thing…

Introducing Matthew

This is Matthew. He is friendly and new.

This is Matthew’s first cappuccino.

We love Matthew.

<photos by: sonia novikova>

Tasting @ Crema

Although I’ve been an aspiring coffee geek for about a year and a half now, I’ve never had the opportunity to attend a tasting. I’ve had plenty of straight espressi and a handful of french press/Clover coffees, but I’ve never been able to taste a group of fine coffees consecutively. Last night, at Café Crema in West Vancouver, I had that opportunity.

It was a blind tasting of 12 different single-origin coffees, all roasted by roasters in or around Portland, Oregon. Brent Fortune, owner of a café also called Crema in Portland, brought with him a dufflebag PACKED with coffees to sample. We tasted the coffees in two blind rounds; 5 brewed and one as espresso each round. At the end of each round we compared notes on what we tasted, then listened raptly as the origin, variety, and roaster were revealed.

One of the great things about tasting is that there is no “wrong” answer. Taste descriptors ranged from “blueberry” to “fruit by the foot” to “stumpy”, and even “mud puddle with peppa’ “. I think last night really helped me develop my palate further – that and I gained so much respect for the roasters who have the strength of tastebud to cup 50 or even 100 coffees in a single day.

However, the best part of the night for me was meeting other coffee geeks and getting to chat with them. Brent, besides owning a café, also trains judges for the WBC. Other faces included Troy (Elysian and a premier café in Edmonton), the owner of the new Momento Coffeehouse (website here) in Downtown Vancouver, the man behind the scenes at Elysian, and many more. Sorry to all the others and the last two – I’m horrible with names. There was so much knowledge concentrated in that space and being able to access it was very special.