The Vancouver Indy Coffee Scene

Well our little yelp got a lot of traffic and while we don’t like to cause controversy we just found the entire experience a little odd. I feel we can describe this issue using the selling of coffee beans as an example.

Summer of 2007 I went to Victoria and checked out the Murchie’s Government Street cafe. I asked where the roast was from and they said:

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

And this flies in the face of what most artisan roasters are doing these days. Roasters like Victrola, 49th Parallel and Intelligentsia all mention the region, farm and altitude in which the coffee is picked and how it is roasted. It isn’t a secret they actually really want you to know because for them it is about the quality. To my understanding this is the basis for direct trade and the basis for complete transparency in the direct trade model.

Don't let your transparency slide photo credit: durak.org

If you see a bag of coffee in the grocery store that says direct trade and there is no other information on it, no website info, farm, co-op or location, well the bag of coffee could have come from anywhere and has about as much accountability as your two-year-old does while getting driven home from preschool (or none).

I believe all of these community review sites and user-generated content site is all about transparency. Another example would be Digg. I love Digg, especially its labs. But I would never consider uncredited links from Digg more accurate over places like the Globe and Mail or the New York Times. A lot of links on Digg just don’t have the ethical transparency that either news organization has.

We love to spoon

This is why we have put our support behind the Urban Spoon model (my name is Coffee Rob on Urban Spoon btw) of ranking and reviewing cafes and coffee shops. With its spoon backs as they call it and adding reviews from inside along with outside sources will give readers, in my opinion, a more informed review from a variety of sources.

The UrbanSpoon Back

Yelp banned me for linking back to my blog, and I included those links to provide some credit where credit was due.

So in this era of everyone having an opinion or a review, lets try to have some transparency and accountability and if you’re really serious about reviewing and writing about a subject. I’d suggest you set up your own blog. You will own every piece of content on the site. . . .

Anonymity is important

A reason why I have a coffee cup over my face is I really like the anonymity of a review. Much like a food reviewer I don’t tell cafes when or where I show up. I pay for all of my drinks and only after I have spent two or three visits to a cafe before I actually write about it. It is really important for me to experience the cafe how the average consumer would enjoy it. This is also why I always try to bring along a guest with me the first time. And if you want to find a picture of me well it is as easy as a google keyword search.

Corrispondence

Crystal H did respond back in the late afternoon and I thank her for her response, but yet  the email address she left for people to write regarding any questions or concerns bounces back (as of Wed. May, 7 evening). Again I have found all of this odd. And it isn’t hard to provide feedback to Yelp, but leaving people an email address that bounces back doesn’t give me any sense of comfort in accountability of previous actions.

Can’t say I’m not happy about the publicity the blog has received, but truthfully I just want to get back to writing about coffee.

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. . .

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)

Back, way back in the early years of the 90s I loved Starbucks. I couldn’t get enough of this new drug. I have even been to the first ever Starbucks in Pike Place Market, Seattle. I mean I was a fan. I was used to coffee from McDonalds, BC Ferries and Petro Can. But this was actually good…and those barista’s were so friendly and knowledgeable.

Skip ahead a couple years, when I lived in Yellowknife for three years and rarely saw a Starbucks (or any other chain for that matter). But, Javaroma roasted its own beans and is totally independent. My love of coffee grew. I did a lot of travel up there and had some good and not so good coffee; the best was in Greenland. It was a Danish roast that was cheap as hell and got me through a number of hangovers. To this day I don’t know what was in that roast or why it was so cheap, I don’t speak Danish, but it was so good. The Canadian Customs Agents even joked about having to confiscate my brew during my repatriation in Iqualuit, NU.

Vancouver visit not complete without a visit to Starbucks. . .

I visited Starbucks occasionally every time I was in Vancouver. I still found that friendly service but noticed they were everywhere. I didn’t have to search to find that diamond in the rough. It kind of spoiled the adventure for me a bit when I could find one on every street corner. I wanted more then a 100% Arabica bean and a cute smile from the female barista behind the bar. I wanted culture, stories and the community of people that inhabited the shop. I wasn’t finding that at Starbucks anymore.

A trip down south

The Starbucks Paradox by Bernie Hou

I moved to Winnipeg and found a few independent chains that were as good, if not better than Starbucks. but to skip ahead a couple of years, I had the chance to visit Bogotá, Colombia in 2004. My eyes were open to the world of coffee and how we are exploiting it. I had some great and not so great coffee while I was down there but every shop and cafe I went to seemed to have so much character with a little old lady walking around with cream and sugar or a broom, it was cute. I hate to see what cookie cutter cafes would turn that country into. Also, it was very difficult to get coffee to go in Bogotá, you had to sit and enjoy your beverage. It was kind of nice to sit, relax and enjoy the aroma and chat with your neighbour.

When I moved back to Vancouver in 2005; the Starbucks Paradox (the one thing Starbucks had created they were slowly destroying) had taken over the city, but even more than that. Baristas were now telling me how my drink was made or the way I should like it, and what I should drink. Obviously they were right being the biggest and best coffee chain in the world, they can set the tone that everyone else should follow, right?

Not religious enough

A friend of mine was going to be fired for not taking out her nose stud when company policy changed. She said her mother had given her nose ring to her since puberty and it was a religious symbol in her faith. Starbucks said that was fine but she had to prove it by getting documentation from more than three religious leaders. She was shocked and horrified. . . and left the company not wanting to fight the rule and left after two years of successful employment.

You’ll have to wait a minute because it’s an instamatic

Although the speed and efficiency of the Barista was greatly improved by the automatic machines, the quality of the drinks suffered. It would be great if I could get a latte on any street corner in Vancouver in less than a minute, but why would I want one if no care was put into the making of it, should convenience trump quality?

Disclaimer
(amendment Feb 2009)

I still go to Starbucks about once a month, just to see what is going one. This rant is to show I don’t hate Starbucks because they are the biggest coffee chain on the planet and everyone loves a good David versus Goliath battle. I hate Starbucks because they don’t hold to the virtues that they once held so true.