Very long time no see…

Looking out my window onto a dark wintery cityscape this morning, I felt compelled to catch my blog readers up on the last few months of my coffee life.  I’m now at Phil & Sebastian Coffee and I’ve been there for almost six months.  I suppose this may seem strange considering two posts ago I wrote about one of my first visits there.  How things have changed here in the city.  Caffé Artigiano has recently moved into town, bringing more people’s attention to quality coffee, and we’re fresh off our renovation, running two espresso machines now.  Oh, what a wonderful difference it makes.  The owner of Java Jamboree is currently working on a new café called Kawa, on 8th St. at 14th Ave.  As I can smell a wonderful breakfast being made for me, I’m going to leave you with this thought.  If someone asks for a regular coffee, is it not like asking for a regular wine at a boutique wine shop… or a regular bread at a patisserie?  Maybe this is too simple… but maybe coffee has become too simple in people’s minds.

Meet-up / Latte Art Throwdown in Cochrane

Apologies to all of my loyal blog readers, I’m sure most of you are no longer loyal after my long leave of absence. Tonight was an awesome night. It was a good gathering of home enthusiasts, baristi from different shops, The Coffeegeek himself, and a pretty sweet latte art throwdown that included some of the worst latte art poured by some of us in a while (including myself). I’m sure there will be pictures floating around at some point… I unfortunately did not take any. There was some schwag (sp?) given out, and I came out with a sweet Brokeback Steve t-shirt. Will (of Phil & Sebastian) came out with a [hefty prize] after an undisputed victory in the latte art throwdown. Thanks go out to Mark and Beata for coming out and giving stuff away, and a HUGE thanks to Les and his wife for closing Java Jamboree early, feeding us, supplying our needs and letting us take over.

Phil & Sebastian

I stopped by Phil & Sebastian today (second time since they opened last weekend), and had a very nice espresso and a wonderful cappuccino (best I’ve had since that one day a couple of weeks ago when I finally had a eureka moment with my milk steaming). The biggest issue that I noticed was that you can tell just how dialed in the espresso is, between the grind, dose and temperature… it brings out a strong, but very tasty sweet chocolatey flavour. I also noticed that they’re using Valhrona chocolate for their hot chocolates. Very nice. Anyway, last week when we stopped by, I had my first taste of coffee from the clover. It was quite nice, but the best parts of it are 1. The aesthetics and 2. I was able to have two different cups of coffee in such a short time. I had the Ethiopia Hache, which I had been thinking about ordering from Novo, quite tasty, and the Panama Los Lajones that has an extremely interesting herb and fruit combination.

Transcend

This past weekend I took a drive up to Edmonton for my sister’s birthday and I made a point of stopping at some coffee spots that I’ve been hearing about. Well, I made it over to Transcend Coffee, where I met Andrew, who pulled me a couple of very tasty shots. One was their Espresso Blend, and the other was their Brazil Cerrado. If you’re in the area, definitely stop in.

A couple of Links:
A very interesting video about Barista Competitions that I got word of: Click Here
An interesting article about Restaurants via Dwelltime: Click Here

Good Stuff

The other day we took off to Java Jamboree, and I picked up some of Vivace’s Dolce blend. I probably don’t have to say that it’s a really nice blend, so I won’t. Very intriguing… hints of dark chocolate with a definite banana overtone. Yep, banana. Anyway, quite tasty to say the least.
Today I received a package from Intelligentsia. Included, was my brand new Intelligentsia Skateboard Deck and a half pound of Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda Jaramillo Especial. More on that one later. But for now, let me leave it at this: oh so tasty…

Communitea

On Saturday, we took off to Canmore to check out another semi-local cafe… The Communitea. I got a chance to meet Alex a little while back when he and Marnie came in to our shop. This time I also met Nic, and they were all very friendly and hospitable. I got a chance to check out the Synesso and have a couple of shots. They’ve brought in Intelligentsia (one of my personal favourites) as their coffee supplier, so it’s going to be really nice to have somewhere around pulling Black Cat. They’re doing a good job there, the shots were tasty, beautiful crema, incredibly smooth with a creamy full body. They’ve only been open for (I think) a little over a week, but they seem to be doing really well, and their food & tea menus looked pretty solid. They’ve got a really nice space, I’ll definitely be heading in there the next time I’m in Canmore (maybe this weekend… I have friends in town there). I also picked up some coffee, Intelligentsia’s Los Inmortales, El Salvador Micro-Lot: Malacara. Very nice.

Java Jamboree & Stuff

So Michelle and I stopped in at Java Jamboree in Cochrane on Sunday (we were on our way to Canmore to hang out with friends). I had a very tasty shot of the Malabar Gold, and we sat down and had a chat with Les. It’s always a good time talking to someone who loves coffee. Anyway, I bought some of Vivace’s Vita, and I got some of the Malabar Gold, which we’re already enjoying. Michelle really likes the Malabar, this was one of the few times she’s said that her latte tasted like any particular flavour other than coffee. So I guess her palate has expanded to include “chocolatey”.

In other news, it looks like Communitea in Canmore is pretty much open… I’m not sure exactly what’s happening there, but we went and scoped it out from the outside, and it looks good, synesso within sight from the windows… nice open space, pretty cool, nicely modern without being too stark. So… looks pretty exciting. (oh yes… and the nice Intelligentsia Logo on the window). There was a sign on the door that said they would be open tomorrow (today/monday)… unfortunately I had to come back to Calgary to open this morning, so I didn’t get a chance to check it out myself.

My New Yama 8-Cup Vacuum Brewer

I received my vacuum brewer from Our Coffee Barn last week, the one that I received through my winning bid in the Coffeegeek Charity Silent Auction. My friend Sean and I worked through the majority of a pound of Ethiopia Harrar from Phil & Sebastian Very nice, with an aroma of mint and pipe tobacco, and wonderful cocoa and mint flavour. The Yama made such a nice cup of coffee, that we probably made four pots per day, plus the usual obligatory cappuccino in the morning followed by an espresso, and a macchiato followed by an espresso for Sean. Always a good way to start a day.

Intelligentsia Los Inmortales

I’m sitting on my couch, sipping on a nice cup of Intelligentsia’s Los Inmortales, El Salvador Micro-Lot: Borbollon Reserve. Tasty… so nicely balanced, with a definite Chocolate undertone. There’s a little bit of green grape (or do they call that white?), and a hint of spice.
Also, if you haven’t been around coffeegeek in the last while, there’s a charity auction going on in support of coffeekids. I picked up a pink coffee lab tamper and a solis maestro. It’s a good auction, some really worthwhile things have been donated, so check it out.

Ethiopia Harrar (Part Deux)

I’ve been experimenting a little bit with the Harrar as a Single Origin Espresso, and it’s pretty tasty. Its aroma as espresso is almost entirely blueberry, and the flavour is like blueberries and cream with a slight hint of cocoa. As a Cappuccino it was smooth, sweet and creamy with hints of blueberry.