This is the Salt Spring Coffee “Canadiano” – yes, it’s an Americano, but with a better name :)

Serving coffee in pint glasses is something that the owners, Mickey and Robbyn, picked up in San Francisco.

Posted from Vancouver Coffee.

We had the absolute best first introduction to cupping thanks to Salt Spring Coffee. A cupping is the way you taste for quality in coffee. You’re looking for many things in taste, but also in smell. This way you can tell not only freshness and consistency in the beans, but also the quality, level and consistency of the roasting.

You grind up the beans and then pour over water that’s just before the boil (never at a full boil). You then let it steep for a couple of minutes. After that, you begin with the smelling stage. You break the top of the coffee with your spoon and mix around a bit with your nose right at the cup. You smell for many things. And, trust me, you can really smell differences. Seriously. You can actually smell bitterness or smell smoothness. It’s awesome. You’d never get this any other way. It’s all about lining them up. A really organized cupping will place many of the same coffee in a row to test the consistency thing. You simply spin the table around and keep on going.

After the smell stage is the taste stage. You don’t “drink” it, really. You suck it into your mouth really quickly so that it lands on the palate just so. Aerates. Then you swirl it and spit it back out. Waste, perhaps. But it matters when you try so many. I think my favourite was the Ethiopian Yergacheffe. It was a ton of fun! Lots of learning, but really amazing. You’d just really never get this depth of understanding of taste and smell unless you tried them all in this way.

Here is me doing the official cupping:

Here are some of the descriptive words to use when cupping (click through for larger):

My only addition was the term “buttery” for smell as well.

Posted from Vancouver Coffee.

From Devin Page of iNeedCoffee is an interesting opinion on Starbucks.

Devin takes a look at what it is exactly that makes Starbucks so popular – why do people line up outside the door for a Starbucks coffee? When it’s not even that good?

Starbucks offers a solution to a serious and growing need that is found throughout the world, and no, that need is not caffeine addiction, it is simply the need to relax.

All Starbucks locations are the same. They offer the same drinks, but more importantly there is always a calm, almost religious happiness that surrounds the industrial coffee makers and earthy-toned pictures that make up the interior decor. There is bound to be at least one couple talking and giggling and one or two men in business suits sitting by themselves with their eyes closed wishing they didn’t have to leave and return to their five by six cubicles. This escape is what makes Starbucks so popular…

A Starbucks is a place where people of all walks of life can come together on equal terms…. [Starbucks wants] to connect with their customers on an emotional (even quazi-spiritual) level.

Some may argue that they are devoted only to the great coffee, but that is not likely… a shot of espresso can have as little as half the amount of caffeine in it as a cheap $0.79 cup from Hardees . It’s not the coffee (nor the caffeine) that brings customers running back–– it’s the atmosphere.

Starbucks could very well operate without even selling coffee. They could charge an entrance fee and offer nothing else but a room and mellow Bob Marley music softly playing in the background and people would still come…

My anaology would be a classic one. Starbucks is McDonald’s. Neither are good. But are built upon standard blocks: consistency, branding, social gathering.

Amazing post Devin!!

So, we were grocery shopping tonight at Safeway in Kitsilano. Our Safeway has been undergoing renovations for some time. Today, we saw one new area that is most definitely becomming a Starbucks. It doesn’t say so yet, but we can tell. And, what do you know, right at the bottom of our receipt is a “You have purchased 0 of 7 Starbucks beverages towards your free drink” or something. So, yes, Starbucks is coming to Safeway. And with a partnership so large that Starbucks is finally doing the free beverage thing.

Here is the info from the Safeway website.

Originally posted to Vancouver Coffee

I have revised my review of Trees Organic based upon a wider sample of coffee. Basically, to sum up, I dropped my rating from 4/4 to 3/4. I still maintain that they have the city’s best drip coffee, but I am not positive that the baristas are trained well enough to make a high quality and consistent espresso.

Go here to read the full review, including updates.

Originally posted to Vancouver Coffee

Mine is the large Americano. Ianiv had the Cappucino.

Small review: great coffee. Amazingly consistent. Fresh always. A smooth very very slightly bitter and tangy taste. We go fairly often. Many locations to be had.

Go to Vancouver Coffee or Subscribe to its feed to read more!

Today marks the launch of the Vancouver Coffee blog. We noticed a few gaps in the blogosphere when it came to coffee. So we decided to fill it up a bit.

What can you expect from our new coffee blog?

- Vancouver cafe reviews
- Coffee & espresso machine reviews
- Brewing tips
- Book reviews
- Accessory buying guide
- Recipes that use coffee
- Interesting coffee news
- Global coffee news
and we’ll even throw in a few tea posts as well.

This blog is all about the coffee experience. We are not coffee snobs – just 2 people who really like a smooth cup of coffee and who enjoy just sitting back in a comfortable, trendy cafe on the weekend.

So, read our blog. Subscribe to our feed. Get ready to learn with us about coffee and to see what quirky coffee news we can dig up.