Easy Like Sunday Morning
by Logan Brumm
Can you imagine a morning without a cup of coffee? Whether we admit it or not, coffee plays an important role in our everyday lives. People have been drinking coffee for centuries, for its energizing effect or just for the pleasure of sipping a warm and tasty beverage. Nowadays, worldwide coffee consumption has grown into an enormous industry. In Canada, the average annual coffee consumption per capita is 6.5 kilograms. The huge amount of emerging trends and different brands of both coffee and coffee makers are making coffee drinking more and more sophisticated. Here is a small coffee guide for Torontonians.
Buy the right coffee maker
Coffee Maker by frkstyle
A coffee maker is a vital and important kitchen appliance. When considering one, try to focus on several questions:
- how much coffee do you make on a regular basis
- what type of coffee do you prefer
- which special features do you use regularly
If you often prepare larger quantities of coffee and enjoy various types of coffee, you should think about purchasing a combo machine. You will definitely save time and space in your kitchen as well. There are several excellent combo coffee makers, such as Krups Cafe Bistro, Delonghi Cafe Nero Combination Espresso Machine, and Briel Sintra Espresso Coffee Maker.
The most demanding coffee lovers will surely fall for The ECM Giotto, which is a very rigorous coffee maker that will never let you down. If you’re looking for a decent coffee maker, Solis and Gaggia coffee makers will almost always satisfy your requirements.
Most of these machines can be found on the shelves of GTA shops like:
- The Green Beanery (565 Bloor Street West Toronto)
- Williams-Sonoma (4 locations in Toronto)
Coffee quality
If you want to make a quality cup of coffee, you should take into consideration the following factors:
- How long it’s been since the beans were ground
- How long it’s been since the beans were roasted
- The cleanliness of the brewing equipment
- The coffee bean quality
- The type and quality of water used
You will soon discover that the quality of the coffee bean is irrelevant if you don’t take into consideration the four other factors mentioned above. A great quality coffee bean will taste bad if roasted and ground and then left to go stale. It makes a huge difference when you use freshly roasted and ground coffee beans.
Coffee Beans by davidd
It is not recommended to buy canned coffee from supermarkets that don’t contain only arabica beans but a blend of arabica and robusta. These cheaper substitutes have less flavour and an unnecessarily high amount of caffeine. It might be better to buy your coffee in special coffee houses or markets and to look for 100 per cent arabica (but espresso blends may be a combination of both arabica and robusta).
There are many great coffee houses in Toronto that roast in-house and sell fresh coffee of a decent quality. Fair trade coffee shops always have very tasty and fresh coffee, and their staff is always willing to help you. Some of the best known are:
- Aroma (6 branches around Toronto)
- Dark Horse (3 locations)
- Patachou (1120 Yonge St)
- The Green Beanery (565 Bloor Street West Toronto)
- Merchants of Green Coffee (2 Matilda St.)
- Moonbean Coffee (30 St. Andrew St.)