I was in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia last week, and of course one of my goals was to explore the 3rd wave coffee world. A good 3rd wave informed friend of mine set up the trajectory of our matinal mission. I met him bright and early on a Monday morning at the Broadway-City Hall SkyTrain station and we were off!

First stop: Elysian Cafe
590 West Broadway

They had two Clover machines on site.

As tempting as that was, I stuck to my morning preferred, the latté.

Thusly fuelled, we hopped on the Broadway bus and headed to…

Second stop: Matchstick Coffee Roasters
639 E 15 Ave (Fraser & Kingsway)

You can migrate to the back of the cafe and watch coffee roasting going on, live, before your very eyes.

Pretty matchstick packaging:

The perfect pour-over: I tried a Los Girasoles of Costa Rica, a lovely delicate brew. And yes folks, I drank it black, with nary a grain of sugar.

We then hoofed it over westward again to…

Third Stop: 49th Parallel
2902 Main Street

The Flat White: an Australian style latté, which looks like a cuter version of a regular latté.

We sat by the fire and the lights. Were we not so full of pâtisseries, we would have tried a famous Lucky’s doughnut.

This place is all about the pretty lights:

Fourth stop: Kafka’s
2525 Main Street

One has to appreciate their slogan: “We’re serious about coffee and not much else.” At this point, we were onto two Gibraltar decafs:

Fifth Stop: Revolver
325 Cambie Street

All coffee-ed out, I settled on this lovely brew: Iron Goddess of Mercy, Oolong tea. With a name like that, how could I not?

Thus ended our cultural coffee sojourn, all in all a very satisfying and edifying quest. Until next time, Vancouver!

– The Well-caffeinated Little Ninja Chef
xxo