Prairies Regional Canadian Barista Competition®, and some taste-y reflections

Sorry for the my absence (that’s to future me more than present you, but if you really missed me, sorry); if you’ve been checking my twitter feed (here or on twitter) you know that I’ve been increasingly fond of the act and utility of the micro-blogging thing, especially with my new phone, but tweets aren’t narrative even if they’re, you know, dialogical, and I do have some stuff to write more than 140 characters about, so here we go.

Yesterday was the prairies barista comps, held as they were last year at Fratello Coffee Company here in Calgary. I dropped Brian off at the airport for a trip to Anchorage AK via Vancouver at around 9am and then scooted over to Fratello, what I thought was a straight shot down Barlow Trail from the airport, but it wasn’t quite that simple and I was a few minutes late, not a problem since I did not, as it turned out, judge this year. I didn’t signal my intentions to do so in time, the slate was full, and I know to inquire earlier next year. BUT I was a good audience member, stayed for the whole thing (until past 6pm, surviving on coffee, cookies, and chips), and had a great time. Make that a GREAT time, an emotional experience really. There were 11 competitors which is two fewer than last year but I can confidently say that the level of competition was higher; for example, last year’s winner only placed 3rd this year, and last year’s second-place finisher finished too low to qualify for nationals, a feat he’s managed several times now. Add to this the fact that, among all four regional qualifiers, our first-place finisher (and maybe our second-place and third-place as well) had the single highest score of any barista in the country. Calgary (and Edmonton) has not only arrived in the coffee scene- we might take the whole thing this year.

Here are the results:

6: Jimmy Oneschuk from Museo Coffee (Saskatoon) – 476
5: Mike Tam from Phil & Sebastian Coffee Company (Calgary) – 602.5
4: Josh Hockin from Transcend Coffee (Edmonton) – 607
3: Chad Moss from Transcend Coffee (Edmonton) – 628
2: Joel May from Fratello Coffee Company (Calgary) – 628.5
1: Ben Put from Phil & Sebastian Coffee Company (Calgary) – 632

Josh, Chad, Joel and Ben will be representing the prairies (but really Alberta) at nationals next month in Vancouver. This event was one day, unlike last year when the top six competed in a day-two round and the top three qualified straightaway for nationals, with four and five (last year this was Joel, who ended up 3rd in the country at nationals, and Phil of Phil and Sebastian, who ended up fifth at nationals) getting in due to other contestants not being able to make it. So it’s possible that Mike and even Jimmy will end up in Vancouver. In any case, I found the final announcement and Ben’s incredible, nation’s-best showing to be just an amazing thing to witness; it was hard not to cry. Happy, happy moment. Congrats to all.

With respect to the reflections on “taste” I mention in this post title, I’ve been working (as always) on manuscripts and have two that I’m trying to finish by the end of the month. One is based on the talk that I have last February in Berlin and it’s about how machines in third-wave cafes (and non-third-wave, with some crucial differences) are oriented to by interactants at those shops; I use photographic “data” for this one and so while I’m writing I have one eye on the web, searching for journals that are accommodating of visual sociology and that would reproduce my evidence well. Since Berlin I’ve seen some superb examples of the phenomena I’m describing at shops here and in Toronto, but yesterday I also go to play, for the first time (for me) on the “Slayer” espresso machine that has been developed by a Calgary/Seattle consortium and was originally conceived of by the boys at Fratello, right here in Calgary, and I hasten to mention this as I’ve seen the Slayer described on the net and in print as  a “Seattle-produced machine.” It is in part, but it’s also a Calgary-based invention and I want everybody to know this. (Except I’m wrong- see Eric Perkunder’s comment below). Here’s a pic:

But getting back to my introduction to it: one thing that I want my ethnography to capture is the pleasure, the FUN, that’s involved in using professional equipment, like the Slayer or the Synesso or the various beauties put out by La Marzocco or, honestly, just about any cafe-level equipment, especially by a wide-eyed coffee geek like me. I cannot see how a superautomatic, dumbed-down machine, like those used at horrible cafes where the coffee is an afterthought, could ever be FUN, never mind how it could be a focus for conversation and sociability and even the topic of conversation itself. So I’d like to address the human-machine sort of interaction and not only the human-human version and seeing as I have very little experience in this area I have to start to learn it.

I’m also working on a paper on connoisseurship and am looking at narratives in which coffee aficionados discuss how they arrived at their current taste for coffee and (this goes back to what I saw as the theme for this whole project) how burdensome “taste” can be. Now one nice development I have for this part of my project is some survey data that Brian collected as part of a larger study on consumer habits that he’s doing and he asked people about coffee-drinking habits and where people buy their coffee. He surveyed more than a thousand respondents and found that (1) only 9% of Canadians normally get coffee at “locally owned independent coffeehouses,” and (2) more than 70% of Canadians drink Tim Hortons style brewed coffee when they drink “coffee.” 4% drink espresso; fewer than 2% drink French press. These are interesting data that give some quantitative weight to the qualitative insight gleaned from my narratives, which are about how lonely it can be to be as oriented to coffee as self-described coffee geeks are.

So to stitch parts 1 and 2 of this entry together: it’s indeed lonely to have particular (I can’t say “good” because, well, I try not to be an ass all the time) taste in things, but sharing a whole day with people who share your passion? It was downright religious. In the Durkheimian sense.

Calgary coffee updates

…but first, my caraganas are lookin’ fine! Relatively easy trim (no ladder work, hooray!) and here’s the result as of this afternoon:

For comparison’s sake, and I know I’ve posted this pic before, but not juxtaposed with the above image, was one year ago:

New fence is also evident. I’m happy. Paint job on the house next door is very nice, too. Our car is the Sonata in the “before” pic, only thing that’s not improved…

And so… coffee news! Exciting times in Calgary for the coffee geek and the geek-in-training. I happened by Caffe Rosso today, which is a charming little coffeehouse in Ramsay, which is directly east of the Stampede grounds and very much up-and-coming, and had a long chat with the owner. I mentioned my research project and how I’ve become resigned, because of my lack of external funding, to doing interviews and fieldwork in Calgary and not in more stereotyped third-wave coffee hubs like Portland or Seattle. But, I noted (and I only really reasoned/articulated this today), Calgary is perfect for my project, because it’s transforming far more than those other cities. A year ago I’d have counted six third-wavers in Calgary: Java Jamboree, Kawa Espresso Bar, Bumpy’s, Phil and Sebastian, DeVille Luxury Coffee, and Caffe Artigiano, with Kawa and DeVille having been open about month. Today? Add to that list a second DeVille location, with their excellent beans from Intelligentsia (with “Chow Bazaar” in the Colours condo tower on 1st Street SW), A Ladybug Cafe, serving JJ Bean coffees made with a La Marzocco FB-80 on the far west side of town (2132 Aspen Stone Blvd, past 85 St SW), a second Caffe Artigiano at Shell Centre (Shell is at 3rd St and 4th Ave, but the entrance for CA will be on the 3rd Ave side of the complex), a retail location (huzzah!) for Phil and Sebastian opening late summer at the Shops of Marda Loop, in the retail level of the new six-storey condo building currently in the final stages of construction at 33rd Avenue and 20 Street SW; a new shop called Insomnia Cafe in the Burns Building (which is the grand old white building attached to the Epcor Centre, right at Olympic Plaza), which opens TOMORROW, and which is pulling delicious (I got a sample) espresso made with Fratello’s “competition blend,” first coffeehouse in town to do so to my knowledge, and then of course there’s the afore-mentioned Caffe Rosso, which started out using the recogizable but not very strong Illy espresso but is now sourcing from Boston’s respected Terroir roastery. So we now can lay claim to no fewer than TWELVE third-wave shops in Calgary. And that’s not even counting Caffe Beano, which does have its third-wave sensibilities, and the ever-improving and even downright “serious” coffee treatment you can find at the many locations of Good Earth Cafes around town.

Let me talk about Rosso a bit, because I’d been avoiding it because I’m not a fan of Illy and I was dismayed to know that a shop with such fine equipment (a Synesso espresso machine) would “waste” it on Illy, which is famed and famous but which is unavoidably stale when it arrives on our shores. I reconsidered this aversion when I realised that Rosso would be an opportunity for me to sample Illy in its best expression and so I decided to give it a try. And… they’re no longer using Illy, but as I mention in the last paragraph, Terroir (and are the only ones in Calgary, maybe in all of Canada, to do so). So here’s my chance to grab some beans from that roaster, and I set off today.

Caffe Rosso is in an odd location, an industrial area that’s across the street from a characterful residential part of an interesting inner-city neighbourhood called Ramsay. The plot it sits on is inside industrial lands slated for massive redevelopment as something to be called “Ramsay Exchange,” and the owners are real pioneers in this regard, but there is lots of housing adjacent and really nothing in the way of retail, so there is method to the seeming madness of their location. Here’s the view as you approach it:

Quite cute, really; look beyond this fence and try to imagine condo towers and a retail village, because that’s the plan and I hope it comes to fruition:

Inside is calm and comfy, and contrary to what the cinderblock facade might suggest, there are big windows on the sides of the cottage and lots of natural light. I took a pic but can’t seem to locate it, sorry, but I encourage folks to check it out; it’s close to Crossroads Market and a unique refuge. I had an espresso and it was very good, nice temperature and very balanced, not unlike Intelligentsia Black Cat. I bought a pound and look forward to trying it at home.

So there are coffee things happening downtown, in the Beltline, in Marda Loop, in the ‘burbs, and even in this unlikely setting in Ramsay. And there’s more to come.

On Vario

Troubling times: Swine flu is threatening to go pro (as in pandemic), and even worse is that the Flames got eliminated yesterday in a series that went from a nicely matched one to an utterly embarassing slaughter. Okay, maybe I’m being melodramatic (and not dramatic enough about the swine flu, but I’ve been castigated before, on this very site, for being deluded), but hockey really does matter here (“here” being Canada, not just in Calgary), it defines the local ethos, it’s something that one can’t help getting swept up in, and when Mighty Casey strikes out (sorry about mixing metaphors), it’s, well, it’s tragic.

Add to all that: the damned weather. Yes, it’s Spring, absolutely, the tulips and those bizarre weeds with the oak-crossed-with-clover leaves, the little turmeric staining flowers and as I discovered last week the bizarrely orange (and even more turmeric-like) roots are growing; the trees and bushes are budding in some rare cases starting to leaf out, and the days are, regardless of the temps, really getting long en route to “too long” in a few weeks. BUT it’s cold, no-shorts cold, and it’s depressing. High today was maybe 2 and it was blustery and mostly gray to boot. So, yeah, it’s my sort of elongated “summer” but too much negative stuff in the way to enjoy it.

So I bought a new toy. My clever title is a pun- the “Vario” is the new coffee grinder from Baratza, the folks who made an outrageously big-selling burr grinder for Starbucks, and the makers of the well-respected Virtuoso and Maestro, which are both relatively inexpensive but good-quality consumer machines that are not especially well-reviewed for the demands of espresso, which has finer, and more exacting, grinding requirements than do drip or French press brewing methods. In fact one often hears that the grinder is more important than the espresso machine and I’m inclined to agree. I can get decent espresso, if I have to, from my 15-year-old Krups Espresso Novo, which I paid $130 for; but if I had to use a cheap grinder (like my old Braun) with my $1600 Elektra Leva espresso machine, I’d get nothing but crap from it, because the Braun could simply not grind fine enough for espresso and its burrs were tiny and cheap.

I already have a good grinder- a Rancilio Rocky with a “doser,” which is the paddle that you see baristas thwack-thwacking the coffee grounds out of the grinder and into the portafilter with at most caffes. Brian bought it for me (well, for us really) here in Calgary at, I think, Mr Cappuccino, and that was less than four years ago. It still works and I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping it clean. But it’s beaten up, with a cracked bean receptacle and a broken spring for the doser. I also wanted a doserless grinder, one that grinds directly into the portafilter instead of having to do the “thwack thwack,” a procedure that’s supposed to deposit a measured amount of grounds into the filter but one that is very imprecise in that regard and that requires a superfluous extra step for me. Dosing does break up clumps in the grounds, but there are downsides to it for me, including the fact that my machine (my Elektra, not my Brasilia) has a nonstandard (small) sized portafilter, so I can’t play professional barista and dose into the portafilter; instead I dose into this little tupperware container and then feed it into my portafilter. I wanted to not do that anymore. One more thing: Rocky is loud. Not as loud as many grinders, but loud enough when our bedroom and kitchen share a wall.

So I’d been reading product overviews of the Vario on coffeegeek and elsewhere and decided this past weekend to give it a whirl. It turns out that Phil and Sebastian (Calgary Farmers’ Market, see “places I like”) are stocking  it, so I took the plunge. $489 (Canadian), a few bucks more than I’d seen it list at the only other Canadian source I could find, but that was in Vancouver, so here we are. My coffee shrine looks like this now:

Left to right are the Elektra Microcasa a Leva, Brasilia Lady, and the Vario. The Leva has to be to one side or the other so we can open the upper cupboard.

Closeup of Vario:

There are lots of buttons. What they do is allow you to grind “manually” for however long you care to (up to two minutes I think) or to use preset times for grinding. I measured beans and did the former to allow me to determine how long it took to grind a dose of beans for each of my espresso machines, and then I easily programmed the buttons below it, using the “espresso” button for the Leva and the “drip” button for the Lady. These buttons do NOT change the GRIND of the coffee, but rather the amount of coffee that is ground. I dialed in the grind using the guides to the right and left of the panel. The right slider is “macro” level with fineness increasing bottom to top (top is labelled “espresso,” which is confusing and misleading- more on that in a bit); the right slider is a micro-level “fineness” setting for each of the “macro” settings. Think of it like derailleurs on a bike: One gear shifts the “macro” front gears, and you have five to seven gradations in the back, set with the other gear shifter, for each of those front cogs. Same thing here (I think; not sure about “cogs”).

So I’ve deduced, for now, that it takes 22 seconds to grind a double in the Lady’s big 58mm bottomless portafilter, so I’ve programmed the button labelled “filter” for that espresso machine:

…and 14.5 seconds for the smaller Elektra, whose portafilter is 49mm in diameter. Same grind–they both make espresso–but a smaller amount of coffee, and so I’ve programmed the button labelled “espresso” for it:

These settings I arrived at via trial and error. Fun and delicious trial and error.

NOW you may notice that the right slider is nowhere near “espresso,” and this is what I was getting at when I mentioned how these labels are misleading. I tried my first espresso with the setting at “espresso,” slider up to the top, and the COARSEST “micro” setting, expecting a gusher with such “coarse” grinds. Nope, not even close; the coffee was like Turkish powder and not a single drop came out. Too fine- WAY to fine. I had to (after many tries) go three full “macro” clicks from the top. What this means is, given this grinder’s factory settings (which can be reset but which I lack the proper tool for), “espresso” is going to be closer to the middle of the settings. This isn’t just confusing; it also means that the “press” setting will be way too fine even at the very bottom of both sliders. Now I don’t drink much French press at all, but this is still a bit concerning and I’d like to get it readjusted- but the problem there is having to relearn the settings I have now, settings I burnt though more than a half pound of coffee beans to uncover. But I’ll think about that later. The point for now is that Baratza might have made things simpler by just labelling both sliders “coarse” and “fine” and by just labelling the bottom timed buttons, I don’t know, maybe just “1,2,3.”

I can say that I am THRILLED with the shots I’ve been getting, the quiet and the sexy build of this new grinder, and that I’m more than happy with my purchase. Some kinks remain to be worked out, naturally, but there’s a lot to be excited about here.

Writing what I know: Calgary coffee and sushi news

Okay, enough introspection and social commentary, for now. Coffee and sushi news abounds, and coffee and sushi, in western Canada, don’t know the meaning of “recession.”

On the sushi front: First, I am sad to report that some time before Christmas, what was once the only Nepalese restaurant west of Toronto, Mt Everest’s Kitchen, closed. They had a good run, open for seven years, but these things happen and I wish Raj and the rest of the folks affiliated with the resto good luck and hope that they will find a home somwhere IN CALGARY in the future. The thing is, I rarely went to Mt Everest’s. I found the food delicious but heavy (as in creamy) and just couldn’t bring myself to eat there very often. Sushi and other Japanese treats? I can have sushi three times a week. Hell, seven times a week if the menu is diverse enough. Love ramen, soba, udon. Love Japanese curry and the Japanese take on fried rice. Love gyoza with the deepest of passions. So when I noted that Mt Everest’s will soon morph into “O Shima Japanese Cuisine” (this will be at 1448 17th Ave SW; the new phone number is on the “coming soon” sign on the door and is not the same as Mt Everest’s and if it’s good I’ll keep you posted). I don’t, of course, know if this is actually a sushi place–and honestly I’d rather have a ramen or a curry house since we have much great sushi in Calgary now–despite this post title, but as I say, I’ll let my readers know the story ASAP.

Second sushi news: My beloved Blowfish, 625-11th Ave SW, 403-237-8588, completed some renovations recently and I had lunch there yesterday. It was tremendous. Here is my review cut and pasted from chowhound:

I had lunch at Blowfish (11th Ave SW, just west of Broken City/Amsterdam Rhino, etc) after too many weeks away and got to check out the renos (it was closed for much of Dec-Jan for them). New lighter paint scheme brightens the joint up; the huge lamps were brought down from ceiling height, and unfortunately due to insoluble ventilation issues they had to close off the opening b/t kitchen and dining room where I used to sit and watch the sushi chefs- it’s now a sort of black-glass window with the Blowfish logo in clear letters- so the kitchen is still visible but no more being handed your plates from the chef directly. So it goes- in most respects I’d call it an improvement.

So I sat at the bar (the bar bar; there is no “sushi bar” per se) and ordered yellowtail belly sashimi and one each yam-avocado roll and spicy tuna roll. I have–I am ashamed to admit this but here goes–I have never ordered sashimi. I’ve eaten it when others have ordered it and it’s not that I’m squeamish; I just have never ordered it, so this was a new thing for me. One order of nigiri at Blowfish is, as many of you already know, a two-piece assortment with one piece done trad “naked” and other duded-up in some way; seared maybe, or with a slice of pepper or something like that. With sashimi an order is four slices of fish and a little of the accompanying shredded cabbage. As with nigiri, half is plain raw fish, and in the case of this yellowtail, half was lightly seared. Spectacular! Beautiful cuts and the seared ones in particular were just delicious- warm on top, cool on the bottom, loved this.

The rolls are always a treat for me but this time they were exceptionally well-formed and gorgeously plated. The spicy tuna has a filling of avocado and some fried bits, tempura batter I think, and the tuna is draped over the outside- this means that Blowfish does not use macerated scraps for its spicy tuna. And the slices were super-thin and draped artfully so that there were three of these thin slices on each bite of the roll- this can’t be easy to do and in fact I’ve never seen a roll arranged as carefully as this. WIth the yam-avocado there is tempura sweet potato inside and thin slices of avocado outside, done with as much care as the tuna had been. On each morsel of this roll is a small dollop of mango mayonnaise. Too pretty for words and, more importantly, the tastes were as delicious as any sushi I’ve had anywhere.

I talked to owner Gemma and she asked if I’d met the new chef. New chef? Apparently the former chef, Tomo, has moved to Canmore. And as much as I loved Blowfish before, it’s done the impossible by improving on perfection with this new chef. I didn’t get to meet him (another problem with the closed-off kitchen) but will look forward to more meals there.

Lunch was $32, pricey lunch but worth every penny.

So there it is.

Coffee news: It’s almost amazing to think that all that follows is, yes, in the midst of an economic “slowdown” (which is precisely what Calgary and Alberta need right now but more on that in later posts) there is so much expansion planned in some areas, but when it comes to coffee and coffeehouses, expansion and optimism are very much the order of the day. I have other insights of a more unsubstantiated and “gossip” nature that I’ll not mention here, but here’s what I know that is more or less public (or at least publically-available) knowledge. I’m not putting links in here since all the businesses I mention here are already linked in my “places I like” section.

1. Caffe Artigiano has plans to open not one, not  two, but THREE new locations in Calgary. First is at Shell Centre, two blocks north of their current location (6th Ave/3 St SW: Shell is 4th Ave/3 St). Second, but perhaps opening sooner given some obvious turn-key elements, is in the former Second Cup site on Stephen Ave next to Dakota’s, near 2 St SW. Third- and this is the one I’m happiest to hear about- is in Mission at the recently-abandoned, horrible My Marvin’s debacle. My Marvin’s was a concept (a Jewish deli) that might have seemed progressive and edgy in 1985 but today it was just tired and I never heard a single positive thing about the resto. Artigiano will be a blessing in Mission and that location will be a dynamic one for them.

2. DeVille Luxury Coffee is chasing Artigiano for third-wave king status by planning two new locations of its own. The first is well under way and will be on the main level of the GORGEOUS new Colours condo tower on 1st St SW. Next door will be the first, post-Dragon’s-Den-appearance of the great grub of Atomic, the bubble tea people; Atomic also has terrrific Viet-inspired subs and I’m so chuffed about this that I wish I were moving into Colours. Too cool. Second location is, or is planned to be, in the new Fashion Central development at Stephen Ave and 1st St- Encorp is managing this project and as they already manage Art Central, where Deville #1 is, it’s not a stretch to believe that DeVille will be the caffe space in Fashion Central. That’s a lot of DeVille in a fairly tight stretch, but it makes sense given their affiliation with St Germain next to Hotel Arts. Convenient deliveries and such. And with that there will be THREE places in Calgary to buy Intelligentsia beans. Cool.

3. Phil and Sebastian still don’t have a retail storefront but word on the street is that they have settled on a location for a roasting facility. What this means for the future we’ll see, but it’s exciting news that is sure to bring them more customers aside from those who line up for drinks at the Calgary Farmers’ Market. More to come about this, of course.

There are a couple of other developments that I don’t know much about. First, there is an espresso bar at Bite Groceteria in Inglewood that should be bringing artisanal beans of some stripe to that coffee-neglected part of town (one cool in all other respects). Second, the suburbs are getting some major love with A Ladybug Cafe in Aspen Woods (2132 Aspen Stone Blvd, which I am told is near 17th Ave and 85 St SW); they have some top-end equipment and do latte art but I am otherwise not sure of suppliers and such. I’d like to check it out if I’m waaaaaaay in the west side.

UPDATE: A Ladybug sources beans from JJ Bean, and their espresso machine is a La Marzocco GB5. We have Lineas and FB80s in Calgary but ths is the first GB5 I’ve heard of.

Fratello’s glam new Slayer machine is done and ready for the cameras. Barista trainer (and barista per se) extraordinaire Joel May tells me that they’ve sold all 10 units in production, and attention to this beauty is popping up all over the world.

Kawa is now open Th-Fri-Sat nights until 11pm. And they have some amazing beers by the bottle now.

Okay, we didn’t “rule” but still, great job and a Western rout at the CBC.

Sammy wins for the 4th time, but as you can see, this wasn’t a cake walk for him by any means:

1: Sammy Piccolo – Vancouver, BC – 569.5
2: Spencer Viehweger – Vancouver, BC – 562 pts
3: Joel May – Calgary, AB – 555.5 pts
4: Chad Moss – Edmonton, AB – 551.5 pts
5: Phil Robertson – Calgary, AB – 527.5 pts
6: Anthony Benda – Montreal, QC – 517.5 pts

I’m proud to be a Western Canadian coffeegeek right now.