Mountain View Roasterie, Didsbury AB

We stopped in Community Natural Foods yesterday and picked up some more peaches (it’s been another great summer for peaches, especially since I’ve learned not to refrigerate under-ripe ones- put them in a fruit bowl on the kitchen table and in a day or so, they’re perfect) and bulk granola, and I checked on their coffee selection just out of idle curiosity. Community has some decent local/BC roasters’ beans, including my previously-discussed Big Mountain Coffee, and a range of other small-ish roasters. I was amazed to find that, in their very limited shelf space, they’ve started to carry five beans from Mountain View Roasterie in Didsbury, about 40 minutes north of Calgary. MVR is a new roaster, only in business since late last winter, but they have great branding- here’s the logo portion of the bag I bought yesterday:

And a close-up of the best part:

Yep, a roast date! And it was four days prior to my purchase- sweet spot, in other words. I still have at least a half pound of the last pound of 49th Parallel Epic in my cabinet, but I had to try this new one. It’s (as you can see) a Costa Rican “La Amistad,” roasted medium/”full city.” All of the MVR beans at Community except for the Sumatran are medium; the Sumatran is med-dark, which is my preference usually. BUT I have always loved Costa Rican beans; Tarrazu was the first varietal that I really enjoyed, so I thought I’d give this a shot for espresso, and if that didn’t work, I’d try it in a press pot. Either way, it wasn’t a huge investment, with Community selling MVR at $13.95 a pound. That’s three bucks less than 49th and two less than Big Mountain- and Big Mountain doesn’t provide roast dates.

And I’m happy to say that the La Amistad makes a DELECTABLE espresso, a great balance of smooth-bright-deep and even warm spice and chocolate. Absolutely fantastic. I wrote the MVR owner, and he said that Bumpy’s and Beano will start carrying and serving his products. This is very, very interesting news, and I would love to taste his creations on a professional machine, but I’m not sure if they’re going to end up in the espresso machines at either shop.

Until then, you can find MVR’s Costa Rican La Amistad, Sumatran Gayoland, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Mexican and Peruvian at Community Natural Foods, both the 10th Ave and Chinook (61st Ave) locations.