The Vancouver Indy Coffee Scene

Epic Convention

My sister was bugging me about going to see her booth at the Epic Sustainability Convention at the new convention centre in Vancouver. While I wasn’t sure what I would find in terms of coffee. I am certainly glad I succumbed to my sisters harassment.

I checked out the Salt Spring Coffee booth and their new single orgin micro lot from Pangoa, Peru that is currently only available during the Epic Convention. It is a medium roasted coffee that is nicely balanced in both body and acidity. I spoke with a barista, (who’s name I have lost with my stolen iPhone) and she was really quite knowledgeably about the company’s mission and the coffee they were promoting. I really enjoyed my conversation with her, smart girl who is also taking a double major at university (editors note: Ya want those double major students behind your booth…)

She introduced me to Banks Thomas who is the new director of coffee for gulf island based company. We chatted about the new micro lot and how they ran a friendly little competition between the farmers of the La Co-operativa Agraria Cafetalera in Pangoa, Peru to choose the best lots to make a single origin coffee.

I was happy to see more transparency in the Salt Spring Island Coffee company and from what I hear from Thomas more is to come. Looks like were going to have yet another top roaster on the West Coast to choose from if this is any indication of what is to come.

Salt Spring Coffee

While chatting with Thomas you can see the passion he has for coffee, it is easy to tell he enjoys what he does. His past also speaks to where Salt Spring might be going. He hails from the very progressive Counter Culture Coffee a roaster that dot’s the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and has been know to produce some excellent batches of the brew.

So while I didn’t plan on blogging or even going to Epic I am certainly glad I did and want to check out of the Salt Spring Coffee cafes in Vancouver for a review.

Salt Spring Coffee Kiosk at the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal

While waiting for the Ferry to Victoria I had the opportunity to check out the Tsawwassen Market which has a host of shops and cafes and food kiosks. On one end I found Starbucks, and found it odd that most shops were not part of chains except for Starbucks. . . the only other coffee other then local is Starbucks on BC Ferries, but even Starbucks is an improvement on what they use to serve in the late 80′s . . . So I went on a search for the alternative. . .

And Alternative I found!

Salt Spring Coffee has a shop at the other end of the marketplace. The two girls behind the counter could have used some more training behind the bar, and it looked like they were just frantically trying to get through their Saturday afternoon shift, can’t blame them for that it was beautiful outside.

They don’t have wireless or even much of a sit down area, but most shops are a kiosk format so they followed the trend.

Portable French Press

I wasn’t in a coffee mood, so I had vanilla steamed milk and checkout out some of the wears.

Brewer all in one

I found this to go mug that also had a French press built into it, I was amazed, it even gave you step by step directions on how to make the drink and if that wasn’t even and you wanted a second cup, well a secret compartment at the bottom would be able to hold enough beans for a second cup. This truly was a multi-tasking cup. I also found these at Uprising Breads Bakery at 1697 Venables just off The Drive.

An Example Accountability

Salt Spring Island Carbon Cool Graphic

I also saw a sign that read that SaltSpring Coffee was the first Carbon Neutral Roaster and after a little bit of research well they are right and they have the data to back it up. They started a site called www.carboncool.ca

I was impressed with the amount of data they had on their website and how they even brake it down to where their energy usage is going to.

But for it’s faults and lack of knowledge or prowess this shop still gets nod in my book just look what the alternative is.

Faces and Places

Where this Blog was written: Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal
Drink ordered: 12 oz Vanilla Steamed milk
Discount of own to-go cup: 15 cents
Barista Knowledge: Somewhat confused
Barista Friendliness: Very courteous
Café website : www.saltspringcoffee.com