The Vancouver Indy Coffee Scene

Serious Coffee on Yates

Well, after a couple days of R&R in Victoria I can see why people like this place so much. It is awesome.

While walking around downtown I checked out a cafe called Serious Coffee, any cafe with this name is just begging for a review.

Walking I was met with a nice looking cafe, pastel colours, wood floors and track lighting. I was pretty hesitant to think I was going to match the cafe I am use to on the drive, but do I love being wrong.

The americano I had could have been a bit stronger, but it did have a nice mellow body, it just wasn’t the smack across the face of flavour I was craving or was use to with the Organic Ethiopian I usually drink at home. But as I finished the cup, the body became more present to my palette leaving me fulfilled.

Serious routine

The reason I went to Victoria was to visit my friend Lucy Nicholson who was covering the U-20 and she was covering the teams practices in the mornings, so I have my mornings free to lounge around and just enjoy life. I decided to head to back Serious Coffee and make a second review of the cafe.

I got into a great routine of having breakfast at the hostel and then walking up to the cafe and purchasing the fair trade mexican which was a well balanced medium roast.

One thing I really liked about this cafe is that they offered the local newspaper The Times Colonist a 12 oz. coffee for two dollars even. It was really nice to sit down to a daily roast with a nice rag like the TC. I grew quite accustomed to this routine and hated to give it up once I left and had to return back to school.

The girls behind the counter were quite knowledgeable and never missed a beat with any question posed to them. They were light and bubbly and generally enjoyed the work they did.

I didn’t have my laptop but all locations have free wireless and a internet cafe setup.

Serious Coffee Yates Interior view

But why a chain?

As many people know I am not much of a chain type of guy I am much more a independent cafe and local owned an operated business. I like the shop local additude, but after many years of living the land of nothing but Walmart (eg. Portage la Prairie, Manitoba) I know that sometimes searching for quality is important regardless of where it comes from.

But as my visits to Serious Coffee grew, so did my knowledge of the chain. I learnt a bit more about the company and their history, they started in 1994 in Duncan BC. They have grown through out the lower island to over 20 stores and as most of them are franchised. Again, I am not a big fan of franchised as it can really harm the brand if they are not controlled properly.

The Roastery has moved but is now back in Duncan BC and the chain is looking at expanding another 12 to 14 store’s over the next year.

I would compare this micro chain to JJ Beans in Vancouver, although they are in different markets, they are going after the same demographic and both do a nice job of it.

Is this your final answer

As I only went to one cafe, I can’t comment any more on the chain, but I’d be happy to have this cafe blocks away from my house, the staff do make the difference at this location they really did rock. So if your looking for a local cafe with a decent brew and some awesome customer service I would check them out. I would also note that unlike Murchies, the Serious Coffee location was more for locals, then tourist, it seems that they were more concerned with the providing really good product on a daily basis to locals then a single experience to a visiting tourist.

Faces and Places

Where this Blog was written: Serious Coffee (Yates & Broad location)
Drink ordered: Mexican Malinal Fair Trade 12 oz.
Discount of own to-go cup: 10 cents
Barista Knowledge: Intelligent
Barista Friendliness: Personable, good sense of humour
Café website : http://www.seriouscoffee.com/

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)