Snowy

The sun is shinning and the weather is sweet. Makes us want to move our dancing feet. Mainly due to the fact that the snow is melting and we can, once again, almost walk on the sidewalks without fear of slip sliding away. The snow is pretty though and adds that festive touch.

Rain or shine,
snow is fine,
sun feels nice
will we sip our vice
of hot coffee
or espresso like toffee,
no matter the weather
we drink together.

Ode to Caffiene

Thanks to Mathew from the Elysian Room who brought some of their Espresso blend by Discovery yesterday. We sent him away with some of our blend, nothing better than swaping coffee. We very much enjoyed the shots we pulled. Another day has come and went in blur of burrs. We had some great macchiato's from a new blend we have put togther for Peter Zambri at Zambri's restaurant. Now, much coffee later, we will retire and hope the caffiine buzz wears off somewhat so we can rest and do it again manana.

caffeine, caffeine,
you fiend,
or friend,
it all depends
on whether you love your addiction.

The Tornado of My Love

First of all, we would like to apologize for the delay in our blogging, (is anyone reading them anyways?)....
The trip to Seattle to check out Coffee Fest was a blast. The trade show was massive and the haze of coffee fluff was minimal enough to be able to see the crema on top. Enjoyed a very pleasant visit with the Synesso folks. The Clover family seems to be extending itself as we noticed more than one at the show. Truly is a great machine for showcasing coffee profiles. After visiting, chatting and fighting our way through the mounds of biscotti being hurled at us we managed to tour Seattle and check out a few fine cafes.


Victrola was very fine indeed. Super great staff and we all agreed that our shots of thier Streamline espresso were divine. The atmosphere was funky and the artwork very cool. Interesting enough all their drip coffee was brewed through French Presses then transfered to air pots for warm keeping. One person appeared to be dedicated to the task. We also visited both locations of Vivace. We admired thier use of rich colour and marble bars. The original Vivace had more of a warm, comfortable feeling where as the second location was a bit more sterile. Although this seemed to fit with the modern condo like area where the cafe is located.
Seattle in general is a very cool city. We had a great dinner at a place called the Pink Door and an interesting time finding it. We went in through the out door. We went to a funky market and saw some flying fish. Ate some good chowder, drank some more coffee and called it a fabulous weekend.
Now back in Victoria and the cafe seems to be finding more regulars all the time. Lately we have been pouring latte art with titles such as "The Tornado of my Love". Any locals reading this should come by and enjoy some intrepretive art. Discovery Cafe is now open until 5:00pm on Fridays.

Large French Press to Go Please

It has been an interesting week here at Discovery Coffee. Just when you think you have your coffee rush routine down to a science and have finally convinced your customers to wait the extra minute for a delicious cup of Clover coffee, turns out you need to convince them to wait a minute more. Our Clover is down and has been so for the last two days. French Press is now the method of choice to brew our single origin coffees. Brewing in this manner has turned our Cafe into even more of a science lab and has brought on even more respect for Stumptown's everyday French Press brewing. Although the Clover is a fabulous machine, it is neat to have taken the machine out of the process and become even more interactive with the coffee itself. The customers who do have the time to wait seem to really enjoy and appreciate their cup.
We have a new bean in the house to give big props to and that is a wicked Indonesian Sumatra. Sweet chocolate yumminess!
Discovery is going on a field trip to Seattle for Coffee Fest this weekend and we are really exicted. Hopefully we will learn some new tricks and further expand our little bean brains with more coffee knowledge.

The Coffee Has Arrived

Fine Day for Espresso

Another sunny September morning finds us happy and fueled here at Discovery Coffee. It was a fine start to the day with a test taste between the French Press and the Clover. It was an interesting test as the variables are quite difficult to control in a French Press where the Clover allows for complete control pretty much every step of the way. Yet, in the end, most of us agreed we preferred the taste of the Press. This was probably due to the steep time.
As a barista in training I, (Jaelithe), am finding the whole process interesting and am slowly beginning to train my palate in sensing the various neuances of the coffee bean. I awoke the other morning at 4am and the first thought that popped into my mind was, "Oh ya! Today is the peak day for the espresso!" And I was excited. This is how I know two things. That I am in the right job with the right people and that I am becoming a definite coffee geek. Thanks Logan.
Your welcome Jaelithe. Coffee is truly an amazing thing with multiple personalities, a lot like my new member here at the shop. Keeping a crew that is passionate not just about a great product but also respecting the bean, in its many forms, is essential here at Discovery Coffee . Its great to have Jaelithe on board.
As I walked in this morning Sam was already dosing my espresso to start the day. He had been creating new blends all morning and I can only assume he had been dreaming them up all night. Of course this turned into a guess the blend game. So if you are in the shop in the next few days, we will be running multiple espresso grinders to test these new ideas. Cheers. The Discovery Gang.

Field Trip To Candaian Barista Championship

Discovery Coffee closed up shop this weekend for a trip to Vancouver for the CBC. Having never gone to a competition before, I was very excited and assumed it would be an event built for baristas. I was, however, a little disapointed by the lack of technical tools and toys for the serious barista. My hopes in discovering brilliant milk pitchers, innovative steam wand tips and gruesome grinders were replaced by generic teas and those flavored syrups that add sweet lies to any great shot of espresso. Needless to say, I spent the majority of time observing the competition aspect of the show. Having Sam Jones, one of the owners of Discovery Coffee, as a judge allowed for a real behind the scenes perspective. All the competitors were very professional including Kat, the only competitor from Victoria. I wandered through the show sporting one of our new Discovery shirts which recieved many a compliment. This was good as many a blood, sweat and tear was spent on the design of this marvellous shirt.
If any one else attended the convention in Vancouver and has any comments to add we would love to hear from you. I say "we" here as we have a new fantastic employee, Jaelithe aka the Producer aka Speilburg. Welcome to the Discovery family.

A nice pour during some latte training.


I saw this on someones pictures the other day so i thought i would give it a go. I will try and get a better picture next time.

A quick thank you going out to James Hofmann who will be sending out a bag of his wonderful coffee for us to sample. There will be a post to follow about the coffee and his random act of kindness. If you dont already jimseven is an awsome blog to read and further your coffee education. I also will finally get to our visit from Stephen an at large irish barista.

Woke up early on this long weekend and as usual craved to start the day with a fine cup. Almost always i fall asleep dreaming of what i will start the fallowing day with. Its a long weekend and the shop is closed but what better day to go in and do some experimenting. This morning I through a cup of our newest batch of Ethiopian Harar Sam has truely turned a courner with a few of his new roasts. Our new single origins are coming out amazing off the clover and my french press of the Yirgachffe this afternoon is very enjoyable. Anyway back to playing at the shop this morning I pulled a bag of esspresso off the shelf and toped up the hopper. Five days off the roast so buttery and smooth just thinking about it, I want one now. Did some compairing and had to throw in a few single origin shots for fun. I have had an injury on my tamping hand so have been rocking the left handed tamp all week and am amazed with much concintration how good a shot i can pull. You never know could be a good skill in the future. Ok enough of my blabing on heres some pics enjoy.

Training baristas is something that happens often at discovery. Just last week we had the Dublin Barista Stephen Morrisey over for a visit as he dazzled us with his amazing techniques i happened to pick up some tricks heres my try at a double.(more to come on Stephens and his lovley partner Jens visit)

Another long day at discovery coffee but some of us get to sit down and enjoy the fruits of our labour. Irene Coughlin one of our well trained baristas drinking a nicely poured latte.

An early morning at the lab with Sam Jones hard at work.

Well its my first try at this blog thing so you all will have to bare with all my spelling mistakes, gramatical errors and just plain bad writing. But i will try and talk as much as i can about our passion for coffee and our journey to make it the best we can. With the knowlege base of Sam Jones from 2%jazz and the efforts of his partner John Riopka along with a very hard working family. We feel like we've built an amazing cafe and the base for an incredibly wholesale company. The team at Discovery Coffee spends everyday, ok every waking moment testing, sampling and creating coffee in all its fine forms.