After I left Seattle, I made my way up to I-5 to Vancouver. I fully realize how blessed I was to call this city home for the first 29 years of my life. And the incredible coffee culture this city offers is one of the best in my opinion.
But even with a greater amount of time to spend in this city, I had to be selective with the places I visited. So here’s where I managed to hit up:
- Stir Coffee (Ladner, BC)
I grew up in Ladner. And this café’s location comes with quite the history. The café itself sits on the former spot of Johnny’s Market. Johnny’s son, Robert, is the owner of Stir and if you’re lucky you can still find him pulling shots behind the bar. You can read more about the history here (link).
I love how small towns have places where the community can gather; that’s Stir. Nestled in the old part of Ladner, it has charm, has an amazing patio, and makes really good coffee from 49th Parallel. I make it a priority to visit every time I get back. If you live in the Vancouver area, or you find yourself visiting the area, make the trek out to Stir.
One of the newer players in the Vancouver coffee scene, I have enjoyed the times I have visited. Their selection of coffee varies month to month so always stop by to see what is new.
I only had a few minutes here to enjoy a Trad-Capp but I really enjoyed the Anthem Espresso from Pilot. Super tasty!
3. Revolver
If you live in Vancouver, or you’ve visited on holidays, I should come as no surprise that I made my way here. I would consider Revolver to be the EPICENTRE of specialty coffee in the city. I mean, the selection of roasters on their wall is ridiculous. Just look at the picture below!
I was fortunate to grab the often-instragramed bench seats at the front of the café. This also allowed me to “borrow” some wifi from some nearby restaurant for all my posting. I came with full intensions to grab a coffee, and some beans. So after much deliberation I grabbed a macchiato, and two bags of coffee; The Villaquira, Colombia, Espresso from Matchstick, and the first ever bag of Ethiopian Kochere for filter from a brand-new roaster called Be Still Cody.
From start to finish this place was AWESOME. I can only hope that Calgary gets a café like this one day.
Last on my list of café’s to visit is run by a good buddy, Eldric. We first met when he and I competed against each other two years ago in the Canadian Aeropress Championship. (I’ll blog about that another day!) Needless to say he won, and went on to place 3rd that year so I don’t feel as bad losing. This man is a mad-scientist with the Aeropress. And the coffee he brings in are some of the most unique and rare coffee’s that aren’t found anywhere else in Vancouver.
What made this experience even more fun, was that just before I arrived at Aubade, I met up with Nate & Laura from Luna Coffee at Birds & the Beets to grab some coffee. They were making a delivery and then heading over to Aubade, so we walked & talked and had a great time. They are such a lovely couple and super knowledgable when it comes to all things coffee. Eldric brewed us some of their Lemon Tea Daydream and being able to drink it with the very people who roasted it was pretty amazing.
If there’s one thing that I can say about the specialty coffee community is how amazingly friendly and generous people are. It was such a blast wrapping up my day downtown with these three. I am even more excited to brew some of Luna’s Jelly Donut. They have been one of the roasters I have been dying to try for quite some time.
Vancouver is so lucky to have such an amazing coffee community. I really need a good day or two to really visit all the other great places I have yet to see. Hopefully again sometime soon.
-Tyler
commonly coffee 