The Vancouver Indy Coffee Scene

Yelp is Evil - Credit: East Bay Express

I joined Yelp weeks ago just to see what it was all about. I hadn’t really done anything with it until I was contacted by Crystal H. last week, who looks like a normal user but is actually staff for Yelp and has the title of new community manager for Yelp Vancouver.

She asked where all the great coffee places in Vancouver was and was dieing to know. So I told her about the coffee blog and how it wasn’t a money-making venture, but it was a site I was working on.

She checked out the blog, loved it and then told me she got a lot more traffic from Yelp then she ever did from Twitter.

I thought great, I will share my content with Yelp and get some reciprocal links to improve my authority on Yelp as a strong and competent reviewer and everyone will be happy.

I had heard some news about Yelp’s odd review removal policy back in February, but after reading the FAQ’s I though it might had seen the light.

In the two days I was actually posting by Yelp I added four new locations and out of the 16 places I had reviewed I also already had three Useful and one Cool rating on my reviews. Instant feedback that I was doing something right. I had added about 300 words to each review, photos, and star rating and then at the bottom a link to this blog.

I was told by Crystal H. that Yelp doesn’t really like posted links ( yet still allows users to submit them). I was also told I should really yelp about more then just coffee, (which is complete reversal to what she originally asked for) I was also told I should really put some Yelp Bling on my site to show where I have been on and what I have reviewed on Yelp.

Within 48 hours of being asked to submit my two years of cafe review knowledge I was banned from the site in an email from Sydney at Yelp HQ.

Hello,

I’m writing to let you know about our decision to close your account. Your user account was flagged by the Yelp community, and our support team has determined that your account has violated Yelp’s Terms of Service (http://www.yelp.ca/static?p=tos), specifically for using your account for commercial or promotional purposes.

While we don’t provide additional details about account closures, please know that we review every situation with great attention and take this matter very seriously.

Regards,
Sydney
Yelp User Support

I wasn’t given a warning, probation told to take down what they considered offending content, I was just not wanted around anymore and deleted from the system.

While I haven’t lost any sleep over this blogger Vancouver Eats agree that is just absolute BS. I will wear it with a badge of honour. It is the first social network I have ever been banned from, and yes, my parents are very proud…

But I am left with food for thought:
• Crystal H never gives a bad review about anything, thinks everything is great.
• Yelp wants you to put all its badges on my site and yet absolutely nothing in return.
• I saw very little transparency in the authority of reviews on Yelp, there could be hundreds of shills.

Will I ever return to Yelp if asked back? Nope… it was about as fair and balanced as Fox News during the Bush Administration.

But in my next post I will talk about how to do this properly and how to do it right, and why we’re adding Urban Spoon to our sites social network.

Yes nothing has changed

To you coffee aficionados, this is one post you might want to skip. To those of you who see a savvy marketing campaign, and curiosity that can’t be killed along with free stuff, well, read on but don’t say I didn’t warn you. . .

When I heard that McDonalds had come up with a new roast for its coffee and was giving it away for free during the breakfast hours, well, I didn’t rush to the golden arches to get mine. But, one morning I did fine myself near one of the restaurants and tried this so-called new roast.

When it arrived the coffee was in more of an incredibly small plastic cup and extremely hot. It did have a funky lid that was probably invented to help prevent third-degree burns from super-hot coffee.

Once cool enough to sip, it was a murky taste that had no distinguishable flavour and weak in strength. It was not full in body (full in body really doesn’t mean anything). It was actually thin and watery in body and once a little cooler there were hardly any redeeming qualities.

Oh, 100 per cent Arabica Beans actually doesn’t mean as much as it used to. There are so many varieties of Arabica that just because it is of the Arabica doesn’t mean it is any good.

Case in point. . .

Most of you are probably thinking why the hell is this indy coffee blogger writing about McDonalds’ coffee and shouldn’t he know it is crap already?

Well yes, I kind of knew what I should have expected and it was the same crap in a different package. But much like “New Coke” I had to try it just to say it sucks.

Why do I torture myself? Well I do it for you my readers. I find the good, the bad and the ugly.

Just incase you were wondering I have tried the Tim Hortons *new* latte and Starbucks’ new Pike Place Roast.

Not surprisingly the Starbucks new Pike Place Roast was best out of the three and if given the choice I would choose bucks over the other two. But only because the barista might have a bit more of a clue than the other two combined.

Authors Note: Tim Hortons is not advertising its version of a “latte” anymore and you also can’t find any information when you search for latte on the website. It was never a real latte and never used a combination of espresso and freshly steamed milk. It is what I like to call convenience store cappuccino. More on that later. . .

I  once again had to return to the Sunshine Coast to pick up some documents and get my taxes done. (Thanks again, Peter). I decided to review one of the longest running coffee shops of recent times in Sechelt called The Daily Roast. This cafe has been a stable of coffee consumers in Sechelt since the mid 90s.

The Daily Roast in Sechelt BC

Its first location was a small place on the main street corner. It has an all wood interior, half a dozen tables and one of the first cafes that had an internet connection. Wifi had yet to become mainstream, but the marriage of cafes and internet had begun its courtship.

The Daily Roast was also the first time I tried the Swiss Water Process for decaf coffee and even to my untrained palette at the time I enjoyed the difference. And it was the first time I had ever tasted a decaf coffee that came even close in taste to the regular cup of joe I was used to.

Blast through the next 12 years, four provinces and one territory and The Daily Roast has doubled in size and moved across the street. The Internet station is gone, but they have free wireless and is more of a cafe with soup and sandwiches with beans provided from Beans Around The World.

Crema What Crema

An americano with out any crema

The girl behind the counter took my order quickly and orderly and if anything the price was right. I received two cookies and a 12 oz americano for just over four dollars. But when I saw the americano I knew the price was too good to be true. Their wasn’t an ounce of crema shortly after the double shot was poured on top of the hot water. ( Those of you in the know always pour the shot on top of the hot water to show the quality of the crema to your customer).

As I sat down I let it cool for 30 seconds and took my first sip of what I can only describe as under extracted, no depth, little body and a poor finish of no discernible taste. I would have been happier with a drip coffee spending the extra for poorly extracted espresso.

And while I sat and drank my coffee through the cooling stages, Corey Hart “I wear my sunglasses at night” was streaming through the cafe only to be followed up by Celine Dion . . . I just tried to go to my happy place.

Just before I left I decided to go back and get a 12 oz latte to go, again it was amazingly cheap in comparison to other cafes in Sechelt and yet I was completely disappointed. The drink was made with a single shot, the milk was over heated and the taste was more heated milk with the after taste of coffee. Sadly I couldn’t even finish it and had to drink some water to get the after taste out of my mouth.

The bar area

I went back a couple days later just to make sure they weren’t having a bad day and this time I tried a 12 oz Kona medium roast of drip coffee. It had been on a heater for some time and it was luke warm, briny, and very weak in taste. I did sample some dark roast and it seemed to have a less briny taste and seemed to hide the imperfections better than my medium roast. In almost everything I tasted at this shop it seemed old, woody or muddy or just not anything desirable in a coffee. Luckily it wasn’t playing Celine on my last trip.

I would suggest cleaning everything with espresso machine detergent (also known by the brand name espresso magic), I have had some Bean Around The World roast since then and the taste was a lot better then anything servered here, Or maybe a change of your water filter?

Barista to blame?

It is always hard for me to give a bad review, because generally I really like finding good cafes, but I also wonder if it is the fault of the barista or if they are just not trained properly. The girls behind the counter were no different in age then their counterparts in Vancouver and seemed to enjoy serving customers and being sociable and cleaning up tables in an orderly manner. But for what ever reason this level of service just doesn’t follow through to the most important part of the cafe. . .  the coffee.

Faces and Places

Where blog was written: The Daily Roast
Drinks ordered: 12 oz. americano & 12 oz latte & 12 oz med roast
Discount of own to-go cup: 10 cents
Barista Skill: sadly none
Barista’s friendliness: sincere, courteous and friendly
Website: none

Murchies Victoria

While I was in Victoria I went to check out the massive Murchies on Government Street. It looked very high class with it’s white shirts, black pants and everything served on a fancy tray. For any tourist coming to Victoria, this would certainly be a spot to check out, especially when high tea at the Empress is about $70 dollars a person. High tea here would cost you about $10-12 dollars. Not really being a local, but not really being a tourist I came for the coffee.

Everybody is doing it

This place was busy, full of tourist, so I walked in ordered a medium roast, it was called Danish. I asked the girl behind the bar if it was really grown in Denmark and her reply was ” Everybody is doing it”. I asked if I could try some and she have to brew up a new batch, she waited for the brew to start and then started to pour the cup. Argh! I asked her if she could wait until it brewed, she did apologies and then realized how horrible coffee tastes if you do this.

What’s the big secret?

While my coffee was brewing I went over to the bulk bean sales area where they had a list of coffees they roast. Some had names like:

• Murchie’s Best
• Mexican Fancy
• Canadian Blend
• CBC Morning Roast
• Danish Roast
  

I asked where the Danish roast was from the slightly older women responded it isn’t from Demark, that would taste horrible, I asked where it’s origins are from.

“She (the owner) doesn’t like to tell people there is to much competition, but it is a blend of beans from South America,”

A view of Murchies Bar area

More and more companies are talking about the Co-ops they have purchased from, including the name of the farm(s), the manager of the farm, and the town and country of origin. It is a matter of pride for the cafe and the farm to have these relationships as it is just more then one Juan Valdez and a donkey picking your beans.

Three strikes and your out

I didn’t really know what to expect from Murchies, but just asking a few simple questions I was certainly disappointed with the lack of knowledge at this location. So once I had my freshly brewed coffee I can say that it was only alright, nothing special, and certainly not even close to 49th Parallel standards, but the surroundings and vanilla slice I had certainly were nice. I never tried the tea and Murchies is a bit more famous for being a tea company. If your in Victoria and looking for a cafe, I’d pass on this one (their busy enough with the tourists) and head down to Serious Coffee for your daily addiction. . . I will be reviewing Serious Coffee soon, I just needed to get caught up on my blogs.

Faces and Places

Where this Blog was written: Murchie’s Victoria Location
Drink ordered: Danish Blend 12oz
Discount of own to-go cup: Didn’t ask
Barista Knowledge: Dumb as a post in terms of coffee knowledge
Barista Friendliness: friendly
Café website : (Sorry you didn’t make the cut)