Vancouver is a coffee city. We drink coffee in Calgary. There is coffee culture in Sydney and Melbourne. But this past week in Vancouver was the first time I had a REAL coffee and experienced a REAL coffee community.
The Australian coffee experience to me was impersonal and in general displeasing. The coffee scene in Calgary is young, budding and therefore sparse. To me, the Vancouver scene was surprising and satisfying. I met a lot of cool people last week who were all in the coffee business. They were all buddies and even though they worked for different companies, they got along just fine. Now I think that what makes Vancouver’s scene work is the fact there are actual places to crawl to. I went to Crema, 49th, Elysian, JJ and new Wicked. There are a few more places that I could have gone to but these places were interesting and substantial enough.
Each cafe has a different vibe. Wicked is small and personal. 49th is chic and modern. Crema is chillin’ and had amazing atmosphere. Elysian was homey.
Each cafe has different combo of coffee to offer. Wicked … Intelli. 49th … 49th on Mirage, siphon, press. Crema had JJ, Ritual, Stumps, and more depending on the week. Elysian had special roast from 49th and SPARKLING WATER!!
There is such a rich variety of coffee choices and different people trying to represent different aspects of coffee that they personally believe in. I can only hope that Calgary gets to this point, and even bombs past this.
[...] Vancouver and the National Barista Championship Jump to Comments Having returned from a week of travel to Vancouver for the CNBC, there are a lot of things that I’ve been reflecting on. We had great experiences at a lot of places in, around and on the way to Vancouver, and we met some really great people. The coffee scene in Vancouver was amazing to experience, so many cafes with solid, unique takes on coffee and the coffee experience. We only stopped at a few cafes due to how busy we were with the competition and it felt like we were just experiencing the tip of the iceberg. Some that we stopped at were JJ Bean, 49th, Elysian, Wicked and Cafe Crema in West Vancouver. All of these guys have some seriously awesome things going on at their cafes and are definitely worth checking out if you’re over there. The competition didn’t quite go as we had hoped (our guys didn’t come in first and second) but our guys did an awesome job, and we learnt a tonne that we can take back to the cafe. At the same time, there is no doubt that we will be even stronger next year, although I expect that next year will bring a multitude of awesome baristi with whom we’ll have to contend. With how unbelievably difficult the competition was this year, with so many solid competitors, will we be seeing a Canadian winning the WBC in 2010 or 2011? I think we have a strong enough field of competitors in Canada now, it could definitely happen. There is one last thing that I would like to talk about in regards to Vancouver… the amazing pubs (Irish Heather and Alibi Room and cocktail bar (Pourhouse) that we went to that also felt like only a hint of a much larger scene. I loved the unique experience of each of these places had to offer, each of which could have easily become (time to steal a line from *$) “my third place”. Of course, my wife would have something to say about that… Anyway, I wanted to share a little of the excitement that I came back from Vancouver with; that sense of renewal that comes from enjoying new tastes and experiences. Really, it’s a reawakening, reminding me of what I love about the sharing of vices. Speaking of which, I almost cried when I tasted the double baked almond croissant from Thomas Haas… It was so delicious that I’m content not having another almond croissant for a long time. Oh yeah, and you can get some of his pastries at 49th Parallel. For a good post about Mike’s experience in Vancouver, check out my co-workers’ blog: Here [...]