hopkin

how many square inches in a portafilter basket? for dramatic effect i quoted a reputable figure who referred to the equivalent of 9 bar in 'tamping pressure'. as can be seen with a naked portafilter the stainless steel basket actually bulges out convex when the pump is engaged. point is its A LOT. Many sources claim Coffee is. Many sources claim Tea is. Some even claim that Beer is. Interesting. I do see a LOT more coffee shops than there are tea houses. Statistics are based on interpretation... by tonnage coffee weighs more so it may be said we drink more coffee than tea. point is we drink A LOT.

I think Artigiano deserve a thread of their own. I am very pleased and humbled to hear everyone’s good experiences at The Elysian Room. I really look forward to meeting more egulleters and I hope that your coffee here is excellent. If its not, please let us know and we will gladly make you another. I am sorry to hear any criticism of Artigiano and JJ Bean. Like getting an average meal in a fantastic restaurant, not everyone can be 'on' all of the time. The coffeehouse scene in Vancouver was quite pathetic until the last 2-3 years, although it still has a long way to go, a huge quality upscale began here with JJ Bean and Artigiano. They deserve credit for delivering truly quality coffee. I hope that whatever negative experiences anyone had, you will try again with an open mind. Just as you buy fresh local produce, show your support for the few local coffeehouses and roasteries who focus on delivering excellent coffee. High quality espresso is extremely difficult to produce. It is an extremely volatile, mysterious, elusive liquid, i know of no other culinary product that compares. Coffee is an organic product subject to all the elements of farming and agriculture, and its full potential can only be achieved if a massive list of criteria are in check. For the most part, bad espresso can be hidden by milk to make an average tasting latte. For espresso, the roaster will blend perhaps 3-4 separate roast profiles into an espresso blend. The day after roasting it finally reaches the cafe and into the hands of the barista. It will rest (de-gas) for 2 days and be used within 6 days. For each espresso shot, approximately 60 coffee beans will be ground fresh within 1 minute of brewing. The grinder must be dialed in and adjusted often, almost every hour to compensate for humidity changes that effect grind particle size and therefore the rate of extraction. The barista will dose and tamp, load it into the perfectly clean espresso machine that has been temperature calibrated according to the blend being brewed. Under 9 atmospheres of pressure (about 550 pounds) the espresso will drip and pour like honey for about 28 seconds. If everyone has done their job well, you will receive an excellent espresso with a complex and delicious aroma (as roasted coffee has), is not bitter but semi-sweet with such a pleasant and lingering aftertaste that you do not even want to drink water. You'll want it to permeate the pores of your mouth as the flavour develops on your palate for 10 to 20 minutes. When I look at coffee beans and sip coffee, I often think of all the hard work (and low income) that brought me this demitasse of delicious, fragile liquid. The farmers who grow it, his kids who pick ripe cherries, the men and women who process the fruit, drying it, separating the bean, cleaning, sorting, grading and bagging the green beans then shipped thousands of miles to the importer and quality control. Then to the roaster who sample roasts and cups the coffee, searching for the sweet spot for each origin before production roasting and shipping to then be brewed with complex equipment - there are so many careers of expertise involved in this chain and every one of them must be done with passion in order to achieve a great cup of coffee. When roasted fresh and brewed properly, coffee produces distinctive notes of fruits, woods, nuts, spices... brewing and tasting coffee is as, or even more complex than wine. The most popular prepared beverage in the world, the second largest commodity (next to oil), coffee is widely misunderstood, underestimated, and taken for granted. So are barista's and coffee shops. Coffee deserves its place in the culinary arts.

Calgary: Big Mountain Coffee House & Roasters Ltd., located at 1004 8th St. SW (see thread on CoffeeGeek)

Start by finding some better beans. From what you are using now it can only get better. Way better. Find a local roaster and get some fresh roasted beans. French Roast is roast colour. Very dark "roasted" flavour, all of the more subtle "coffee" flavour have been roasted out. Try a medium-dark roast. Then concentrate on brewing. press pot? coffeegeek guide to french press. your coffee will be very pleasant and aromatic, no bitterness. You might even like it.

huh? sushi I cant believe i gotta explain this to ya! latte art defined: espresso, crema and lusciously steamed milk gracefully combined together. the way that latte art is poured leaves the crema layer with the silky foam on top - the two sweetest parts of the drink. it somewhat seperates the 4 elements (espresso, crema, milk, foam) for a more complex experience. compare this with *$ or any big chain - espresso that has steamed milk dumped on it, crema all mixed in, bubbly foam spooned on top. yuck. two dramatically different drinks. if you need proof i'll make 2 for you. you're due for a visit anyhow!

Latte Art (which has been around for decades) can only be achieved if the following criteria are met: espresso with thick crema, milk that is fresh and steamed to silky perfection, and a barista who knows how to pour it. Without these, Latte Art cannot exist. You need to answer a lot of questions, but very generally you can begin by making sure of a few things: - get some good quality coffee that is fresh (roasted within 1 week). find the best local roaster you can. - grind it fresh right before you pull your espresso. basically you should be pouring 2oz in about 25-30 seconds. if you're way out here, you should research more about how to tune your gind and tamp. good grinding, dosing and tamping all contribute to good crema. when you've got your espresso shots right, thick crema and tasting great, just go read the Milk Frothing Guide by Aaron De Lazzer. be patient, practice, be prepared to waste a lot of coffee and milk, and you'll be pouring latte art in no time.. er... maybe in a few weeks. there's a lot to learn about coffee and espresso.

We've had many guests behind the counter, but the nice thing about our open bar setup is the machine doesn't have its back to you, everyone can see it all happening. mon-fri 7am-10:30 sat-sun 12noon-10:30 looking forward to your visit

I agree 15 minutes is WAY too long to wait in those circumstances, i don't really understand how it can be that bad... but... redoing shots is usually a sign that the barista knows what they are looking for, dumping them is a sign they are not finding it. To the barista's credit (and I hope) it may have been someone that was just so fanatical about your drink that they wanted to make it [too] perfect. Not communicating with you about the wait is the worst mistake they made. I was in the commercial store early in the week and had a pretty good shot. I perched behind the bar and watched the crew for about 10 minutes. The place was jammed, the manager wasn't in, the barista's had things under control, there must have been 6 people on shift at least. It seemed like a fairly organised chaos. And the Kolachy shop is how far from you? Don't you go there at least twice a day?! i quote you:

Presentation is a serious factor of course. The coffee should taste great and look great. Latte Art (which has been around for decades) can only be achieved if the following criteria are met: espresso with thick crema, milk that is fresh and steamed to silky perfection, and a barista who knows how to pour it. Without these, Latte Art cannot exist. So for the consumer to find a shop that has good presentation is a good start to finding great coffee. Not a gaurantee, but a very good sign. Caffe Artigiano were the first shop in Vancouver to highlight Latte Art and take it to the extreme (owner Sammy Piccolo won the 2004 world latte art compitition in Singapore).

The naked portafilter was a revolution in espresso. We were one of the first shops to do this here, if not the world. The very first pictures can still be seen Here and the story can be read on the Barista Guild Website Our machine has ran totally Naked ever since. JJ Bean, Artigiano and many other shops are since also using naked portafilters.. so you might have been drinking naked all this time and never knew it

Have we met?

To answer your question as to why Artigiano is great, its because they are covering the basic priciples in producing great espresso. very briefly, these are: - quality bean and roaster, fresh at least once a week - coffee is ground per shot for each and every drink - fresh milk for every drink, steamed properly - quality equipment that is serviced & cleaned regularly - a barista that understands what great espresso is and all the elements involved in making it happen. in old school italian there is a saying: the bean, the grind, the machine, the touch. this may all sound simple as there is so much more to understand about coffee and espresso. but 95% of the cafes/baristas in this town ignore even these basics. they don't know, or do not care to know, how to produce a decent shot. as for starbucks and other major chains: it is really not so difficult to beat them on quality - their format is built around marketing and they will probably never be able to deliver on any one of the principles. a handful of shops in vancouver (listed in the other thread) are pulling very fine espresso. they are paying attention to the principles and you can taste and see it right in the cup.

Try La Petit France (Fir and 10th Ave) where I have sometimes seen Foie Gras. They also have pate, confit de canard, croissants, cakes, chocolates... all made by the owner, great quality. you might also find Foie Gras at Oyama Sausage Co. in the Granville Island public market. fantastic selection of cheese, pate and sausage there.

and if you are not and never will be a licensee, this is irrelevant. A law is only relevant when it is enforced. Major Chutney on Cambie did byow for many years. He knew he would never get a license because he only had one space for a washroom and so could never obtain a full restaurant permit. He had nothing to loose. And how about behind closed doors - a restaurant must not always be public. I've had many events serving liquor in a licenced or non-licensed location, after hours or not, with no trouble. not even from the police if they showed up. remember you can be ticketed for j-walking, riding a bike without a helmet and all sorts of crazy things. if more diners encouraged restaurants to support BYOW, restaurantuers would more often allow it to happen - it would then become common place. I think many restaurants discreetly do this already. a.

I totally agree with what Keyes is saying. for example, is that when starbucks opens up across from your local independant coffee shop, they'd better look out, sharpen their nose and focus on quality. Or be crushed. They might have been getting away with sloppy cappuccino - not any more. Shops like Cobbs serve two functions: they get the masses out of a white bread buns master world - bringing them to the next step (however slight, it is progress). they also prevent the true quality shops from getting lazy and taking thier success for granted, keeping them striving ahead. As an everyday Terra Breads customer, I can certainly say that when cobbs opened up on the same block, Terra noticed. they picked up their heads and focused on quality quality, they are smart enough to know this is how they will beats Cobbs every time. They're doing it very well. a.

I'm interested to know what information you all have that concludes you to say 'bring your own wine' is illegal in vancouver. My understanding has always been that if you don't have a licence, and don't intend to be getting one, you may as well support BYOW because you can serve wine - the trouble comes when you start charging for it. unless there are complaints, there's little any authority will do about this. An owner can support corkage fees and/or BYOW and not raise an eyebrow for years. I'm sure this issue is more complicated, delving deep into the bureaucracy of ridiculous laws in this provence. a.

not sure I understood your post correctly, is Kin's organic also? If so, I'm not sure why capers is so expensive right now.

i consider excellent produce, even at $2-4 a pound, to be very inexpensive. thats just the value i put on it. purchasing produce based only on price is a big mistake. if you judge the value recieved for price paid you pay - organic produce can often be 'cheaper'. in season, organic broccoli is certainly one good example of an organic produce that is not much more, if not the same price, as conventional. (regularly between $1-2.5/lb. at capers). its also a better, tastier variety than the usual stuff found in chinese produce stores. this all said, I wouldn't pay $5/lb. right now is a very bad time to buy broccoli. eat roots and leafy greens. on caper's produce: i have found it to be top quality and not overpriced. they care for thier produce very well, 90% is organic and lots of local which also 'adds value' for me. great roots and greens especially.

To my knowledge Hellem France who make Vacuum Brewers (aka the bc gelati alembic) no longer exist as a company. It would be odd then to find a supplier in Italy... I have used both and I think Hario (Japan) make a superior, more elegant product.

two places with fantastic fries but no dips, maybe you can pack and smuggle your own Go Fish daytime only wed-sun Zizanie nightime only (7th/Fir) quebec bistro, great poutine & fries. Fiction has awesome Yam Fries, with dips.

I'd love to host a cupping / coffee social with food also. The depth of coffee in a cupping process, is comparable to the complexity of wine. Its very exciting. I'll have to consider the logistics, its a small space and we're open 7 days/nights, but we do have quiet periods where say a group of 8-12 could engage. Great space for a wine tasting too, maybe make an evening of it

The Hellem pots (that BC Gelati had) are harder to find, they stopped production of them. Could probably find one on Ebay. But you don't need to spend that much to get the same results, the Yama pots we have are $59. Whats nice about them is you can use them right on a stove and the brew time is about 5-8 minutes. More of an everyday brewer. The Hellem/Hario brewers have thier own stand and depending on the heat source it can take up to half an hour unless you pre-heat your water. They are awesome but more of something you would pull out to use with guests at the diner table.

These are the Bodum Santos Electric re-branded. They have some serious flaws, but are better than most drip machines. And yes even though they are made of plastic they will probably break sooner than glass. They just don't deliver the quality and elegance of traditional vacuum brewers.

of course i understand this, my appologies. you see, i'm very passionate about coffee and perhaps get a little too carried away. chefs and foodies talking about trips to starbucks gets me in a bit of a tizzie. that was my exact intention. truth is i quite like vietnamese iced coffee. i just consider it more of a candy than a coffee: its all about the condensed milk. as an iced coffee, i like a glass of ice, a touch of 10% cream, maple syrup, and 3oz of espresso dropped over it all. delicious.

I must say I'm a little dissapointed from the discussion here, which got sidetracked on condensed milk (with vietnamese coffee added) and where to get late night grub downtown. I can pity that some people are 'forced' (seemingly by the convenience excuse) to flock to starbucks or seattles best, but i'm more sorry to read their confessions. its table wine, filler, plonk! i know you know better. life is too short to drink bad coffee! Its a pain because there are so many quality local independent coffee shops. Here's some mentioned, some not: Caffe Artigiano (various locations) Making the big guys look real bad. fantastic barista's. specialising in caffe latte. JJ Bean (3 locations: granville island, powell street, and commerical) commercial drive location has undergone an almost total staff changeover in the past 3 months, so as for complaints of rough experiences there, a more consistant quality is now settling in. A new Main Street (at 14th) location opening February 2005. The Elysian Room (5th @ Burrard) One of the city's finest cafe's that no one is talking about. modest. charming. delicious. serious coffee. Cafe O (Davie St, attached to the Opus Hotel) changed ownership as of 1 month ago. Previously owner used illy but was not so serious about coffee. New owner has installed a Synesso Cyncra (new Seattle manufacturer), first of its kind in Vancouver. Awesome spot to grab a shot downtown. Wicked Cafe (corner of 7th and Hemlock) Opened about 3 months ago. Owner is very enthusiastic about good coffee and is baking cakes, pastries and waffles in house. Fresh neighborhood energy. Take 5 Cafe (5 downtown locations) My first and only visit was not so positive but I know they have the means and the talent somewhere, sometime. Been meaning to try them again. Bean Around the World locations deserve some mention, a vancouver staple with warm wooden decor, feel-good old world style coffee houses. drip coffee is wisest order. capable of decent espresso but barista's are ill-trained at best. hey you might get lucky. still better choice than starbucks. --------------------- Alistair Durie The Elysian Room