I recently had the opportunity to spend a week as a volunteer barista at the TED talks in Vancouver. This was one of the most interesting coffee bars I have ever worked behind. During our meet and greet before the week at TED, Peter Giuliano told the group that we would be hearing the word “amazing” a lot during the week, and so it was. Everyday was something amazing. The coffee delicious, the baristas professional, the speakers diverse and inspiring, and the TEDsters were friendly and engaging. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Of course my favorite part was the coffee and the coffee team. I was pretty honored to work with people from all over North America dedicated to the same purpose...
Here is the first feature in a series that I will be posting on our local suppliers that stock the ingredients we serve at the Parsonage Café. First up is our local Ocean Wise seafood supplier, Finest at Sea Ocean Products. Our menu at the café often features their cold smoked salmon. We work with suppliers who have the same philosophy about food that we have, and that our customers appreciate. Fresh, local and sustainable. The catch changes with the season from coho to spring to sockeye, each has a unique taste, all are excellent. Finest at Sea started business in 1977 and the company has grown to a locally based, eight boat fleet that includes the FV Ocean Pearl,...
Send someone a gift of your favorite locally roasted specialty coffee and get a bag in return? Sounds good to me.
I just signed up for an online global coffee themed secret Santa at a site called Third Wave Wichteln. Sprudge.com featured an article with some extra info a few days ago and our staff all loved the idea of this gift exchange. There are still 4 days left to sign up or learn more here.
Starting back on Friday December 13 we’re hosting a new series of Friday tastings called Brew Bar Basics. Tristan Mapstone leads the tasting event every Friday afternoon at 2:30pm within the roastery. Our goal is pretty simple, by hosting a series of clinics on some of the most standard brew methods, we give home baristas a chance to ask questions and learn new brew methods. Coffee pros can also join in and discuss variances in the techniques Tristan will demonstrate and share their methods as well. Here is what Tristan had to say about last Friday's event. Today I intended to cover some basic home brewing. The first arriving guest chose what we would focus on – brewing with the...
This year a new staff member represented us in the Barista competitions. Tristan Mapstone came to work for us after time on the bars of Drumroaster and Discovery and some time working in Australia. He placed 2nd in the Western Region behind former Fernwood employee Morgan Allen and then went onto place 6th in the Nationals. We were very proud of how hard Tristan worked and at how well he did. The team that helped him get there was also amazing. Everyone pitched in but the standouts were Rek Feldman and Brette Ellis who both spent many evenings and off days getting Tristan prepared. If you want to ask Tristan about his experiences in competition or just hang out and...
