Costa Rica - El Quizarra (Pilot)

Costa Rica El Quizarra (Single-Origin)
Producer: Carole Zbinden
Composition: Single-Origin
Varietal: Caturra and Catuai (1370m / 4500 ft)
Roasters: Pilot Coffee Roasters (website)
Located: Toronto, ON
*Direct-Trade*

Preferred Method: V60 (Pour-over)

Thoughts: clean mouth-feel and smooth finish (similar to green tea), with a mouth watering feeling (cf. juicy grapes and dragonfruit.) Pick-up this bag if you want a single-origin coffee to discover, but enjoy typical coffee blends.

Happy New Year; Fresh starts, new beginnings

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone rang in the 2014 in Wrecking Ball style, I'm talking about coffee not the singer.

This year, I decided against a top 10, I might have different feelings in the upcoming weeks, but here are my best bets.

Mercury Espresso
Te Aro
Dark Horse
Crema
Sam James Coffee Bar
Manic Coffee
Rooster
Fahrenheit
Lit
Capital Espresso
Good Neighbour
Early Bird
Bandit

A good representation of Toronto, I must admit I am partial to the East End, and will tend to frequent cafes in my neighbourhood of Leslieville.

This year I was able to travel around the world, and met many fellow writers, drinkers, and appreciators of coffee. I reached out and did my best to meet up with those that challenge my concepts, in as many cities as possible. It's been a great year offline, and I wish I had published more on the site, but my other projects pulled me in a different direction for 2013, as such many stories landed on the cutting floor, or were never revived.

I had some great coffee from amazing roasters, few of the memorable ones:
Phil & Seb (Costa Rican)
Transcend (Guatemalan)
Bows & Arrows (Kenyan)
Ritual (Kenyan)
George Howell (Rwandan)
Pilot (Ethiopian)
Tim Wendleboe (Ethiopian)

2014 you will definitely some more writing, more photos, and more Espresso Adventures.

Cdn National Barista Competition

The Canadian Barista Champsionship happened over the weekend in Vancouver.

16 Regional finalists gathered for the chance to head to Italy.

(Competitor list)
1 Alix Osinchuk Transcend Coffee
2 Jerome Grenier-Desbiens Humble Lion
3 Brett Johnston Pilot Coffee Roasters
4 Georgia Henry Dark Horse Espresso Bar
5 Keaton Ritchie Café Myriade
6 Benjamin Put Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters
7 Geoff Woodley Detour Coffee Roasters
8 Kelsey Hemphill Habit Coffee
9 Morgan Allen Caffe Artigiano
10 Megan Feniak Phil & Sebastian
11 Stephane Laurence-Pressault Bridgehead
12 Cole Torode Rosso Coffee
13 William Wang Prado Cafe
14 Momiji Kishi Detour Coffee Roasters
15 Tristan Mapstone Fernwood Coffee Co
16 Clifford Hansen Bridgehead

I must admit, I was not able to watch the live feed this year, but definitely followed via twitter.

Heavy hitters this year, but it was the pose of Benjamin Put that took the crown.
As the runner-up for the past 2 years, it was a satisfying feeling having Ben represent Canada in May.

(photo courtesy of: M.Kishi) 

(Finalist: Ben Put, Morgan Allen, Keaton Ritchie, Megan Feniak, Cole Torode, Tristan Mapstone)
** Heavy representation from AB and the West**

National Coffee Day - Sept 29th

How are you celebrating National Coffee Day this Sunday?

I've also been dormant on the site, and I apologize, I have many photos and post to share. I will get some up by Sunday

Best of Iced Coffee (Toronto Life edition)

A little late in the summer months but Toronto Life has published their top choices for Iced Coffee (here)

Recap:
1) Te Aro
2) Rooster
3) Ezra's Pound
Notable Mention: Early Bird.

I'm excited that Pilot is gaining traction; with 3 out of the 4 mentioned above.... but am puzzled as to why a couple of notables weren't mentioned.

Dark Horse or Mercury.

Handpresso (Equipment)

Hello Lovely readers,

I apologize for my hiatus, I've been working on a few non-coffee projects as well as had a little summer time off and went to LA for a bit.

Sometimes I get caught up, and dont remember to post to the blog/site, but feel free to follow me on Instragram or Twitter or Facebook


This morning I stumbled upon this device:

Handpresso Auto 
Portable car-powered espresso maker, with 16 bars of pressure.

My question is:

What about the mess?

Results; CCBC 2013

Canadian Barista Competition Cycle begins:

The 2013 competition cycle is in full swing with the Central Region Barista Competition concluding over a two-day affair at Hart House in Toronto.

A list of 18 competitors competed to dethrone Detours Geoff Woodley, and boy was the competition stiff. With many familiar competitors and a slew of new faces, it would be difficult to predict who'd take the crown.

The results are in;
1. Momiji Kishi from Detour Coffee (formerly Dark Horse) - 632
2. Georgina Henry, Dark Horse - 575
3. Brett Johnston, Crafted Coffee (Te Aro) -567.50
4. Geoff Woodley, Detour Coffee - 542

Momiji pure elation on her face is priceless.

Congratulations all competitors and to the organizing committee.

 [photo courtsey of CCBC; (l-r: Geoff Woodley, Brett Johnston, Momiji Kishi, Georgia Henry)]

Catch Momiji performance here; starting at 5:15.
The sound is not super crisp, but you can make out a majority of her rountine.