It’s a way of life.

Annie, Spencer, and Aaron have opened up their darling cafe – and soon to be roaster – Matchstick Coffee.  It hasn’t even been a week since the paper was ripped off the windows and the doors opened, and their shop has already solidified itself in Vancouver’s coffee scene.  At the moment they are offering coffee from Calgary’s Phil & Sebastian, but as you can guess from the name and the pictures, the plan is to roast their coffee in house, something only done in a handful of shops ’round these parts.  The cafe defines the word “spacious” and has plenty of natural light, places to sit, vinyl to listen to, and a communal table you won’t forget.  Coffee is brewed to order via the Kone/Chemex duo, and espresso runs through a forest green Linea before it gets in your cup.  Latte art is included free with every milk drink.

As friends and teachers and former co-employees, I wish these 3 much success and a huge congratulations.

Where: 639 East 15th Avenue (Basically Fraser and Kingsway)
When: 8am-4pm every day.  (If you’re reading this a few weeks after publication – I’d check their website to see if they’ve shortened or extended hours)
Who:  @matchstickyvr
Why:  matchstickcoffee.com

I have found a simple, subtle move that results in a safer flip, and also a more consistent and full extraction for your aeropress.

This developed due to the frustration I was having when I would flip the aeropress, and while plunging down would sometimes notice that in the air pocket some of the wet grounds of the coffee had stuck to the rubber part of the plunger.  When this happened that meant the coffee was OUT of the water, and therefore no longer extracting with the rest of the coffee during the plunge down.  Sometimes there would be none, but other times it would be up to a few grams worth.  This would result in a weaker cup than you had intended as the coffee stuck to the top would only be partially extracted.

So, without further ado, here’s what you do.

After you have prepared your aeropress and gotten to the point where you have screwed the cap on, stop.  Don’t flip it just yet.  While it is still in the upright position, literally pull the top chamber of the aeropress down, as if you are going to push coffee through it upwards.  Don’t stop until there is resistance.  This will feel awkward at first (and look awkward forever) and you will probably feel like you might push too hard and have coffee come through, but you won’t.  You’d have to be pushing down extremely hard and be very absent minded for that to happen, and it will be obvious when to stop.  The goal of this move is to get rid of that half inch or so air pocket that occurs at variant levels depending on how high you connected the bottom plunger to the top chamber at the start.

Now when you do the flip it will be extremely tight and secure, and almost impossible for the plunger to fall off (goodbye burns!).  And most importantly of all, it will ensure that all the coffee is in the water (steeping) the entire time during the plunge down, and not stuck to the rubber.

One effect it will have on your brew method is it will be harder (and therefore take longer) to plunge down without any air between the plunger and the coffee, so you may have to adjust your brew times accordingly.  Or experiment with leaving the smallest gap possible while pushing down.  You’ll figure it out.

It’s a small detail but then so is everything in coffee.

This is what we’ve been up to.

Yes:
mirage triplette
3 grinders. 1 for decaf, 2 for rotating espresso menu
made to order coffee via the Kone.
various alternate brew methods
espresso to go
cream&sugar
vinyl
multi-roaster system that we curate
alley-side service
nuts and candy
baking
loose leaf tea (that we actually drink)
standing bar
Craig Stanghetta
15,000+ nails
hand signals
brothers

No:
soups or sandwiches
ceramic
pretension
Sundays
guns

Crema finally has a little brother.
We can’t wait to open.  Expect us to do so extremely soon.

325 Cambie St.
Vancouver, Canada

For updates follow @revolver_coffee or visit revolvercoffee.ca

I’ll have a black coffee please.

Last week we took to the road for a one and a half hour drive from Vancouver through farmland, over the border, and to just outside of downtown Bellingham to arrive at Onyx Coffee Bar.  It was opened just a couple months ago slightly under the radar by Mr. Edwin Martinez, a name you may recognize as being responsible for the widespread availability of the ever-sought after (and often elusive) Hario products, and for providing and guiding many roasters from around the world to truely wonderful coffees from Guatemala.

The story goes as follows:  Before opening, Edwin went around to a bunch of customers of local cafes with the question why they frequented the cafes they did, having options such as “coffee, location, service, price, etc” to choose from.  Contrary to what coffee people would hope, “Coffee” wasn’t even in the top 5 reasons (It actually came 7th).  What came first slips my mind at the moment – convenience maybe? – but none the less, he acknowledged the data and opened up his coffee shop.  Only he did the opposite of the data, and opened a cafe that focused solely on coffee.

That focus on coffee is presented not just by what they have, but perhaps even more so in what they don’t have.

What they have: an unparalleled selection of coffee.  When we were there we could have chosen from over 20 coffees, from 8 different roasters.  Each coffee is available via pour over or syphon, by the cup, or in a tasting flight of 3 coffees of your choice.
What they don’t have: Milk, or sugar, or a condiment stand of any kind.  And as for milk, that goes for both hot and cold.  There is an espresso machine, but it’s just for espresso.

Now with the above being said, the philosophy of the store is that every customer who walks in, walks out happy; whether they do so with a coffee, or empty handed with directions to another place.

And so now that you know the pre-story, you can view the images with it in mind.

The machine they use isn’t one that many people would be familiar with – but it’s really cool looking.  It’s Nuova Simonelli by make – a Nuova Simonelli Yacht Club.  (Type it into google if you think I fib.)  Obviously from the way it is situated on the bar you can’t see the back but it is paneled in wood (real or fake I don’t know) and is clearly designed with a “nautical” inspiration.  We stuck to drip coffee however, so I can’t tell you much more about the machine itself, or what was brewing.

The shop is small, with a few seats at the bar, and plays out more like a tasting room than your traditional cafe setting, which serves it’s purpose quite well.

“Pulpa” or cascara, from Edwin’s farm, that we tried cold and carbonated.  It was a work in progress he said, but very good none the less.  If you have access to any, you should give it a shot and see what you come up with.

Tim Wendelboe and Scott Rao neighbored one another on the bookshelf.

After the coffee gala, Edwin took out a suitcase and asked Evan to retrieve a key he had put behind the counter, and after stating, “no eyes had seen this yet”, he proceeded to tell us the story of how he came into possession of it’s internal contents and that they were older in years than he was.

Behold!

Beautifully rare and accurate relieved maps of the Huehuetenango regions.  Edwin gave us a guided tour through his finger, tracing along the map over the rough roads and mountains through various farming regions while narrating.  (Did you know you could be stuck in some areas for several days?  Or that going to the bank is a 1+ hour endeavour?)

And when the the stories were done and the suitcase closed, it was back to the paved roads of Bellingham for us, over the border and into Vancouver.  But we’ll be back for certain.

If you’re looking for Edwin’s Hario (and more) page:  http://roustaboutproducts.com/

Onyx Coffee Bar:  1015 Railroad Avenue, Unit #105 (Bellingham, Washington State)
Hours of Operation:  Wednesday – Saturday, 10-6 (closed from 2-3 for lunch)
Website:  http://www.onyxcoffee.com/index.php
Tweeter: @onyxcoffeebar

Yawei and her brother Jarome opened a cafe back in November while I was temporarily living in Montreal and even though I’ve been a whole heap o’ times, I never seemed to have my camera in hand.  But enough is enough – It’s time to share with the world my love affair with Innocent Coffee.  There is a certain calmness that radiates through the entire 2 story building (cafe down low, art gallery up-top), causing anyone who enters to leave their worries on the doorstep.  The cafe is minimalist and rather adorable, which brought me back to the cafes I visited in Japan.  They serve up Origins Coffee, who roast the coffee only a 10 minute walk away, down on Granville Island.  They have an espresso machine and drip of course, with each cup made to order, via either press or pour over (kone or paper) and all their baking and food is done on site, right behind the counter – which means that every time you walk in you either smell fresh coffee or fresh baking.  I like those odds.

As a side note – due to health codez they can only do paper cup service.  If you think that could be an issue for you, bring your favorite cup from home.  #BYOC
Located at 1340 W 4th Ave.  Open from 7am-5pm, Monday through Saturday. Closed Sundays.  twitter//innocentcoffee

February 28th to March 4th I participated in the inaugural banding of a group of people in the specialty coffee industry under the guise, “Coffee Common” down in Long Beach, California at the wonderful TED talks.

For those of you who don’t know what TED is it’s an acronym that stands for “Technology Entertainment Design” and their motto is “Ideas worth spreading”.  TED talks are free to watch online and they will easily inspire you with some of the greatest 18 minute presentations you’ll ever watch. Or at least that’s the goal.  You can watch the talks and learn more about it by clicking here.

A number of baristas were invited down to participate in the “Coffee Common” from all different areas of the industry and world.  You can find out more about the “Common” brand here, but the general idea is to group and gather people and businesses that would normally be considered competitors together for a common goal, that is beneficial for all parties involved.  It can be applied to anything, not just coffee.

The mission for those of us in the coffee common was to expose the attendees of TED to what coffee is, and what it can be.

The menu was very simple and small (in all senses of the word):  Drip Coffee (via V60, 6oz cups). Espresso.  Macchiato.  Cappuccino (6oz).  Whole milk or soy.  Coffees were provided by 8 different roasters and were rotated through multiple times a day based on a schedule that coincided with the beginnings and endings of the presentation sessions.

Because it was a conference, the work flow would range from very non-chalant and personable moments, where you might find yourself with double digit minutes of no drinks to make, over to extremely intense onslaughts of people flooding the bars, before and after the sessions.  In most cases you were paired with a partner and stationed at one of the 6 bars where one of you would be on shots, the other on milk.  Each bar but one had at least one espresso machine, with V60 pour over stations on the 2 main bars, as well as one bar dedicated solely to “alternative brew methods” such as Syphon, Aeropress, Kone, French Press and so on.

Throughout the course of the week I worked with 5 different people, and of those 5 I had never worked with 4 of them before the week began.  It was very interesting for me was seeing how different, some more obvious than others, each barista I worked with did certain things.  From dialing in and profiling the shots they were serving, to how clean they kept their bar, their capacity for talking and working at the same time, how good they could get the message across, and so on.  An interesting thing to do was to make your way around a the different bars and see all the different interpretations of the coffee being served – it was inevitably a different experience at each bar depending on who made it.

The week was tough work.  Talking to each person that you could and trying to share little details on the coffee you were serving was exhausting — there is no denying that.  And especially the first couple days when people didn’t really know what we were doing and were more excited just to be at TED than they were to be drinking coffee (and understandably so) it almost seemed a little hopeless.  But gradually things changed.  Some people began to “get” what we were doing there, that we weren’t just a normal catering service.  Many started asking which coffee was being served, and being able to recall favorites.  Many compliments and “thank yous” were given.

So was it a success?

Yes.  I think so.  I hope so!

I like to think that the next time these people are drinking coffee they will have their TED experience in the back of their minds, and maybe some of them will seek it again.

And while I of course can’t speak for anyone at TED personally as I’m not them I do feel that just the idea of a “Coffee Common” and the execution of it was an inspiration to everyone involved, and that maybe some of that inspiration trickled through to many of those following alongside us through blogs or through coffeecommon-hashtagged-tweets and retweets.  What that hopefully has begun to lead to (and will continue to do so) is more awareness among ourselves not only on what we are drinking, but what we are capable of doing for coffee, not just at events and conferences like this, but over our own counters for our own customers in our everyday jobs and lives.  And when we realize that and embrace it,  things can really start happening.

It’s certainly had this affect on me.

Stephen Morrissey, Kyle Glanville, Tim Styles, Brent Fortune, Sean Bonner and Peter Giuliano all deserve huge credit for putting together what they did.  Just the front end things that I saw them doing tirelessly for 12+ hours each day would have been hard enough, and I’m positive that there was much more going on in the background that they had to deal with that none of us saw.  Thank you thank you thank you.  Intelligentsia were also amazingly gracious hosts, both upon my arrival in L.A. at the Venice location and then the  wrap up dinner party at their Pasadena location.  The food was delicious and all the staff so very hospitable.  Sean Bonner I’m sure other people were involved in this, like sponsors and the roasters and designers and other coffee drinkers, so to all you invisible people and unsung heroes that also helped make it all happen, thanks thanks thanks!

You can see all the pictures and some videos and find out everything you could possibly want to know about the Coffee Common by clicking here.

Can you remember the last 33 coffees you drank?

Me neither.

Sure, you may remember which country it was from — but the specific region?  The varietal? Farm? Roast Date?  Brew method?

Solution:

33 Coffees.

It’s a little book from Portland that acts as a log for all the coffees you are drinking.  That way you can know which ones you liked and, maybe more importantly, the ones you didn’t.

It makes for a good idea not just for customers, but staff as well.  We’ve started to use them at crema for our weekly tastings of our own offerings to keep track of what we’re lovin’/hatin’.

So yes, you could bust out your Moleskin like you’ve been doing and keep track of your coffee that way, but trust me, this is way more fun and purposeful, and at the end of it all you can look back and perhaps figure out something about your taste preferences.  Or someone else’s.

We have a healthy supply of these little guys over at crema on the shelves for anyone interested, and they only cost $4 a pop.  So basically for the price of 1.5 coffees, you can enjoy 33 coffees.  Good math, good deal.

And remember when I said this book comes from Portland?  I meant it.  This is a direct passage from their site:

“33 Coffees is made with 100% recycled papers sourced in the Pacific Northwest. Interior pages are 100% post-consumer recycled content and covers are 85% post-consumer recycled content and 15% recycled content. The booklets are printed using US-grown soy-based inks in sunny Portland, Oregon.”

That’s cool.

For those of whom are not located in Vancouver, or are based in Vancouver but are too unambitious to come to crema, you can order this online from their website at 33coffees.com

Pronounced “foo-ku-oh-ka”, not how you said it the first time.

As I said months back, I had another post worth of photos of the other main coffee city in Japan:  Fukuoka.  It’s a much smaller city than Tokyo (still massive though, compared to Vancouver) but they completely held their own on the coffee side of things.  The two cities have latte art contests against each other online, so I gather there is some kind of friendly rivalry between them.

And without further ado, I present to you:

Honey Coffee
Honey roasted their own coffee, which they get from being part of the Maruyama coffee group.  What that translates to is a lot of access to award winning green through the cup of excellence and other sources.  They were the only place we came across to have a clover, and they were sporting a synesso for bar drinks.  A few pictures down you’ll see a map written out in only Japanese. It’s a map of other cafes to go visit in Fukuoka.  I really appreciate that sort of camaraderie.

Manu
Manu has it going on.  Brick exterior with lots of wood on the inside, perfectly small in size, licensed with Rogue Beer from Portland, OR. and open deathly late.  (3 a.m. every night, except for Friday and Saturday, when they extend to 5 a.m.)  They have 2 locations and a roastery in the works (which you’ll see further on).  One particular night John and I went in at some point past midnight to find the place full, with the Smiths playing on the stereo and everyone smoking.  Cool.

Manly
Going to Manly is a lot like drinking coffee in your friend’s kitchen.  That is if your friend has a roaster in their kitchen.  To this date it’s the only place I’ve ever seen a “donut coffee” maker in, which we had a cup made off it and bought.  We were then shown how to fold the filter proper to fit it in the donut brew method.  Despite the name, as far as I know it’s run by one person, and that person is a woman.  That makes it even more Manly though.

Manu (other location)
Manu has 2 locations, and this was the other one. Both were very similar in style and design but their soul wasn’t compromised like so many independent-gone-multiple-location cafes I’ve been too.  The main different was just that this spot had a slightly earlier closing time than it’s sister (midnight everyday except Sunday).  Oh and also they would like you to know that they do take out coffee.

Manu Roastery
Manu was in the process of beginning to roast their own coffee while we were in town, and the owner invited us over to show me and John their roastery.  It was conveniently located just a few blocks away from the first Manu, so we walked.  The space had a Seattle-Grunge feel to it, and I mean that in a good way.

Adachi Coffee
From what I can remember this was Adachi’s second location, and it just so happened to be located 20 minutes from a very remote country side area we were staying at for a few days.  The interior was largely centered around cement, large windows, and wooden beams.  They roast as far as I know, and it was rather roomy compared to most of the other cafes we visited around Japan.  The staff were pretty excited when we came in and wanted us to make a few drinks for them, which we of course obliged.

A little film about Drew Johnson of Origins Coffee’s approach to his work. Created by April Kum, Yi Luo, and I for our New Media Images class. For best results, watch on Vimeo in HD.

Irashaymasayyyyyyy!

Way back at the end of July John and I took off to Japan for just over 3 weeks and while John already had a more than adequate level of Japanese under his cap I was busy getting my black belt in the phrase “shaseen totte mo-ii desu ka?” (May I take pictures).  The majority of our time was equally split between Tokyo and Fukuoka, but below are just cafes from Tokyo.  There will of course be a continuation of this post to Fukuoka cafes but with the amount of pictures there are having them together would have been a major bandwidth hog and could potentially crash the entire internet.

Potluck

Potluck is on the basement floor of a 6 (or was it 7?) floor Men’s and Woman’s clothing store from the U.S.A. called “Opening Ceremony”.  It was also the home of Japanese celebrity barista Masahiro.  They serve blue bottle from San Francisco.

Streamer

Better known as “streamah” on the streets, this is the cafe of Milrock Champion Hiroshi Sawada and places a heavy emphasis on latte art.

Cafe Elliot Avenue

Cafe Elliot is in Yokohoma and is more or less an homage to Seattle, from the postcards and Ichiro bobble heads straight through to their Vivace coffee.

Bear Pond NO.8

This was the second “Bear Pond” location and had just opened up a few weeks prior to our visit.  If you were blindfolded for 24 hours, spun around for disorientation purposes, put on a plane, and then placed inside the cafe and told to guess where you were, New York would be a very acceptable (albeit wrong) answer.  White on white on gym floor.  No straight shots.

55

5 and 5 stands 3 stories high and doubles as a Manga art cafe.  It’s run by a mother and son duo, both of whom were exceptionally welcoming, and from what I understand they regularly showcase different Manga artists.  It’s also the only cafe we went to that had traditional Japanese seating as well as the standard chair and table combo, and was littered with interesting finds throughout.

Fresco

Fresco seems like one of those in-the-know-joints that you only know about because your friend who is cooler than you brought you there.  Thankfully, we had some Japanese barista friends whom were of that variety.  You can see in the picture directly below the side street that Caffe Fresco is situated in. (It’s that wooden board there on the right)

JRBCs

The Japanese Regional Barista Championships happened to take place while we were in town so we went over to watch a bit and cheer on the aforementioned Masahiro who was competing as well.  It was a relatively small room but was jam packed with just as many people who watch the Western Regionals in Vancouver.  I couldn’t understand any of the Emcee or the narration of course but everything seemed to be really efficient and organized (not that I’d expect anything otherwise).  The last 5 pictures in this set were a competitor’s place mats (if anyone reading this knows his name, please let me know so I can give him credit) and it was by far the coolest set I’ve ever seen.  From lego to seed to cup.

Paul Basset

Paul Basset is the name of the 2003 World Barista Champion from Australia and this is obviously his cafe.  He wasn’t working but I hear he stops by from time to time.
They roast inside and have a really nice selection of desserts, and Yuki works here.

Nozy

Nozy had just opened the day we went, or the day before, but either way it was totehmoh/very “atarashi”/new and it was really an interesting lay out in that the bar was downstairs, but when you walk in from street level you are upstairs.  They roast on site and do all their non-espresso drinks in individual multi-coloured french presses.

Hapineko!!!11!1! (Happy Cat)

Hapineko is a nekocafe, or “cat cafe” in english.  There are over a dozen of them in Japan, and each of them have their own set of rules and styles, but the one we went to had about 10 free roaming cats, all named.  We paid 10 Yen for a half an hour free-for-all, where we were allowed to pick up the cats, but only with 2 hands, and not from high places.  The coffee was complimentary.  At the end you get a postcard of one of the cats.  To answer the questions I know you have:  Yes, it is real, and yes, you should go, and yes these should exist in North America, and no, just because you have 15 cats at your house and make a bodum in the morning that does not mean you have experienced this.