Tradegy.

The beginning of last Augest, some co-workers and I decided to take a trip up to Vancouver to tour the Coffee industry, hang out, and do Canada things. Its rough that things don't always work out how you want...

We left Seattle around 7:00 PM Friday night. Five of us packed into a two door Subaru. The sense of togetherness was great...a little too much. We arrived at the boarder around 9:15ish. We love national security and things of that nature. After searching the car for a little over an hour, we restart our journy and realize that much to our dismay, they re-organized most of the car! And, in the process, took Alex's keys. We still haven't found them.

The next day we started our adventures off at Cafe Artigiano on Hornby, home of the mythical 5 GROUPHEAD LINEA! The coffee was decent, and we were all impressed that for the hour that we lingered there, there was a constant line 13 people deep! Way to go, guys!

From there we headed off to Brad Ford's Wicked Cafe. We got some juicy shots of Black Cat pulled by the manager, Arthur. We sat in the rain. We talked with Brad and Arthur about their new cafe on Hornby, which should be opening soon! If your in Vancouver, check it out. These guys know what their doing, not to mention have great tattoos.

We lunched at a Persian deli on Commercial, and continued our search at Re-Entry Cafe. We were greated with Espresso Vivaces Vita blend. Your never too far from home, I guess.

From here we visited 49ths Cafe on Fourth. O dear...O dear. Imagine walking into a cafe designed by the coolest people in the world. And then synchronize all the colour with blue and brown. Then be served Epic off a hot Mistral(that apparently has cut everyone on staff at least once, don't know how I know that...). And also imagine you have a million dollars. That makes it a little more fun. Here we met Conrad, the V-neck loving barista who rang us up and put on old time country music. We like Conrad. We Love Conrad, actully. Conrad has a sweet Soma(I think...), 48x17. He told us to hit up Elysian room right around the corner, so we did...

The Elysian Room is Coffee-God Alistair Durie's brain child. Located in a smallish storefront location next to a rug store(?), movie theatre, and BMW dealership(who was having a bar-b-que...), The Elysian Room offers some tastey 49th Parallel coffees in a chill-ass enviroment. Think single orgin Brazil pulled into a brown FAC's that tatstes like coffee cake melted into a cup. Wow. Also, think lime green Synesso.

Wow...

To sum up the evening, we watched some wackey firework compatition and then got jumped. Nothing to major.

After a recovery/good nights sleep at the Grand Trunk Hostel, we rolled our wagons out to Origins Roasters on Granville Island. This is the remenace of Hines Public Market Cafe in Seattle, including an all-star line up of John Sanders and freinds. We cupped some awsome coffees roasted on their old-ass probat, and played around with inovative new gadgets, like the auto adjusting doser. And we got some sweet pins to take home. I totally dig the pins.

That night we dined with my hero and man crush, Mark Prince. We snuck some bottles of Punt E Mes up for Mark, and in turn, he took us out for sushi. Barrent and Coltair(?) Jones came along, and the evening was as good as you could picture it. Mark and I had a heart to heart about stretching. This is one thing I never, ever, ever thought I would do.

The next day we visited the 49th roastery in Burnaby. We cupped a few Ethiopians, a Kenya, and the Colombia La Planada with Lindsy and Vince. Sammy showed me around the Renegade roasers(5 kilo and 60 kilo). Beautiful machines. I FINALLY figured out what Agtrons are actully doing. We watched Coltairs compatiton routine, and sampled his drinks. They absolutley sucked. Just kidding. He is on fire. Keep it up, Coltair(?)!

On the way home we hit up Edwin at Onyx in Bellingham. Edwin is amazing. He is setting up an awsome cupping/training facility with killer ideas. We talked for hours. Unfortunatly, I had to close that night, so we made a mad dash back for Seattle where we ended our journey.


In Conclusion:
check out the
-Elysian Room
-49th Parallel
-Wicked
-Mink Chocolate

We learned:
don't
-get jumped
-pull knives on drunk guys who want to hurt you
-back into a corner and let them surround you and your freinds
-let them hit your co-workers

I guess it wasn't too much of a tradegy...
Stay tuned for Chapter 2, The Return.
Expect our car to get broken into and Marks Punt E Mes to get stolen, along with hundreds of rare Japaneese psycidalia and Spanish disco CD's!!

-Matt