Traveling tires me out!  I enjoy meeting all the new people, and expanding the transcend network, but at the end of the day, my travel is never restful.  If it is not driving bumpy roads at origin for 15 hours a day, it is visiting cafes, and connecting with people (all good!) but nevertheless exhausting.  One thing I have done more on this trip than any other recent trip is read (this is a good thing).  I worked through "In Defense of Food" (awesome book) first, and now have been gulping up the Charlie Trotter book on Service, which is both inspiring and unbelievably challenging to read.  Reading the book on Charlie's philosophy on service has left me wanting to ramp up the service at Transcend, to an even higher level than it already is.  While we are not a Micheline 5 Star dining facility, we do provide a product (coffee) with some of the highest standards in the world.  Alas, I know better than anyone, that our service does not always match the quality of our drinks.  We have amazing people at Transcend, but like me, some have never been involved in the service industry before.  So, I have resolved to work towards changing this, and will lead by example (this is one of the Trotter key foundations).  To that end, I will work with Josh when I get home to get my latte art back up to snuff, and you will see me pulling shots a couple of times a week behind the bar.  While I know that this is not the most effective use of my time in terms of growing the business, I now feel that it is essential for me to be up front once and a while to connect with you our customers.  It is also important for me to know and understand what our amazing baristas go through every day, so that we can make our customer's experience even better.  So, look for me every once and a while behind the Synesso in a couple of weeks, and forgive me, if my hands are not quite as steady as they used to be.

PS... if you want to read an amazing book, read this book on service, it will enlighten you.  Also read In Defense of Food, it will change your life.

If you frequent the blog, you probably know that, well, we've got this little project on the go that will likely (hopefully) double our entire operation in a very short time. This is of course exciting, but we're going to need some seriously dedicated coffee folks to come on board right away, train hard and learn the art and craft of the barista, and uphold the level of quality, service and knowledge that our customers expect and deserve.

If you, or someone you know, just might be that kind of coffee zealot, please read below, pass this on and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Do you love coffee? I mean, do you really, truly love coffee? To the point where other people look at you funny?

If so, we’d like to meet you.

Transcend Coffee is Edmonton’s only specialty coffee roaster and coffee bar, and we’re opening a new coffeebar in the Garneau Theatre building, close to the U of A and we’re looking for energetic people who are excited about coffee.

You’ll get:

• An exciting job in a great, friendly industry

• Trained how to prepare world-class espresso and pour amazing latte art

• Paid training starting in October

• Part-time or full-time work available at Transcend Argyle starting in October

• Part-time or full-time work at Transcend Garneau starting in January

• Educated about the world of specialty coffee - where it grows, how it’s roasted

• Flexible schedules

• Competitive pay

• Opportunities for advancement

We’ll be counting on you to:

• Greet customers and take orders

• Prepare and serve coffee, espresso and other specialty drinks

• Maintain café cleanliness

• Prepare food (baked goods and light fare)

• Know and understand our products (coffee varietals, espresso blends and basic knowledge of equipment)

• Re-stock supplies

• Prepare retail packaging (e.g. bagging and sealing retail coffee; gift baskets)

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and tell us why you’re a coffee fanatic.

One of the things that I have had a tremendous bit of fun with while in London, is drinking single shots of espresso.  It is something that we never do, or rarely do, in North America anymore.  Truthfully, the only time that I drink a single shot is in and around barista competitions, as baristas are required to pull single shots.  One of the things that I normally don't like about singles is the funky taste of metal on the coffee as a result of it running down the spout [on that front, James just showed my his spanky teflon coated basket and portafilter, which would aliviate that concern for me].  The beauty of singles while doing a crawl, is that you can try more coffee without losing your ability to hold a cup from caffeine overdose.

While touring around in London these past days, I have been evaluating espresso like I normally would while judging a barista competition.  Today especially I made note of the espresso served to me at this tiny little cafe on Hackney, A Taste of Bitter Love.  This tiny cafe serves up Square Mile espresso, and make all of their food in-house.  The raspberry pastry that I had this morning for breakfast was AMAZING.  The single espresso pulled and served in porcelain (first one in London) was perhaps a bit light in colour, but otherwise it was a great shot.  In fact, it was better than most of the shots that I had during the recent barista competition.  The persistency and consistency of the crema was great, and it was a very tasty balanced shot of espresso, so much so that I ordered another.  It was served with a petite little glass of water and the environment it was served in was quaint and quirky with all of these old vinyl records strune about.

It was great to start off the morning in a little cafe where it is clearly evident that Passion is the main ingredient in all they do.  When in London, you must make a trip to East London (276 Hackney Road) and have some coffee at A Taste of Bitter Love.  Nothing bitter about the coffee to be sure.

Today I spent most of the day walking.  Walking the streets of London, and more specifically the area of Soho in London, where there are a number of great little cafes.  To reinforce my comments on Europe from previous posts, it is just so different over here from North America.  For one, the place is very crowded.  As many can attest who know me, I am not a big fans of crowds.  But over here, you really don't have any choice, as there is nowhere to escape the crowd.  Things are far more compact and much more densely populated.  The cafes over here are tiny!  Even the 500 SF of space that Transcend occupies in its coffee bar is massive compared to most of the cafes that I visited today.  And yet these little cafes push through significant volume day in, and day out.  So on one hand, it makes me say hmmm as to why we at Transcend can't do more business on a Saturday for example.  Yet on the other hand, I know that the mentality of the average Canadian doesn't really jive with the tight and cramped spaces that I visited today.  Canadians need there personal space, after all.

The day started off with some delightful coffee at the Squaremile Coffee Roastery.  After a nice visit, I was off, map in hand on the tube to the Tottenham Court Road station.  I popped up from the underground to find myself in the hustle and bustle of downtown London, where people were scurrying about, trying to get lunch before heading back to their offices.  I made my way, a bit like a hound on the scent of a winged fox, towards my first stop Monmouth Coffee.  I didn't quite know where I was going, but eventually I did find my way there.  Life would have been so much easier if I had turned on my 3G function on the iPhone, but I wasn't up for dishing $500 over to Fido for 5 minutes of data streaming.  I found the little cafe, full to the rafters with customers on Monmouth Street, and popped in and found a seat in this pill boxed sized cubbyhole of a table and ordered a single espresso.  I know, we in Edmonton always serve up doubles, but while in London, I thought I would follow suit and order singles, and also follow Josh's explicit instructions to drink singles.  Having quaffed down the espresso, I started to Chat it up with the barista who was literally breathing down my neck, as he was so close to my seat.  He was a Kiwi, and I quickly found out that he has a friend in Edmonton, who is a great barista.  Without hesitation I pulled out my card and asked him to pass it on to his friend in Edmonton, to call me about a job.  I thought it just a tad bit cool that I could be recruiting potential baristas in London of all places.  After that, he introduced me to Anita Le Roy, his boss, whom I had a delightful conversation with for some time.

From there I continued my awkward search for the next cafe on my list, Milkbar.  After some walking, and turning, and returning, I eventually found the cafe and wandered in for some coffee.  A fellow named Tim waited on me, and I ordered up a macchiato.  What was served to me, was actually quite surprising as the drink came in a shot glass and was barely an ounce.  I seriously tasty bit of coffee it was too, but BIT is the key word in this sentence, as it was small even by Transcend standards.  It was the thing most striking to me today - how small all of the drinks were.  Reinforcing for me the request and suggestion made by Anette and James the night previous, that we should cease and desist serving 16oz drinks at Transcend Garneau, and make our largest offering a 12oz drink.  After today, I am giving this suggestion some seriousl thought.

Milkbar behind me, I ventured forth to find a fish and chips spot to grab some lunch.  After 1 hour of wandering about Soho, up and down Polland street, I gave up, as I just couldn't find the little shop called Chippy's (found out is now called Union Golden).  So I stopped into a pub, The Endurance for some Bacon and Liver.  Having armed my system with protien and fats to counteract the impending overdose of caffeine, I made my way to the cafe Flat White, owned by the same fellow that owns Milkbar, which seemed fully staffed by Ausies by the way.  Here I was treated to the most intense espresso I think I have ever had.  From what Josh tells me, they are pulling nearly 35 grams of coffee into a one ounce ristretto.  It wasn't astringent or bitter and had great flavour, but it was Strong!

Now feeling the effects of much caffeine in my viens, I made my way up to one of the newest shops in Soho, namely Kaffeine.  This little cafe has only been open for 5 weeks and is serving up Squaremile coffee (as is Milkbar and Flat White).  I had a great talk with Peter, the owner of Kaffeine and was served up an even smaller macchiato than I had been served at Milkbar.  It was very tasty, and the shop was immaculate.  Peter's background is in hospitality, and it shows as his new cafe screams quality and the highest in standards of service.  Now thoroughly caffeinated, I was buzzing a bit, Peter offered me a fresh mint leaf tea, which he called a Maraco Whiskey.  It was simply fresh mint leaves steeped in hot water for a bit, with a teaspoon of sugar.  And I must admit, even as non tea guy, this drink was delicious and refreshing, exactly fitting the description which Peter promised.  When in London, you must pay Peter and Kaffeine a visit.

After all of that, I made my way back to East London and Squaremile on an overstuffed and sweaty tube.  The evening finished off perfectly with a meal and great company in Anette and James.  Sorry for the longish post, but I thought you might enjoy reading about my day, as much as I did living it.  Cheers for now.

Well, it’s Sunday and the Technivorm Party is over.  Too be honest, it was overwhelming, in a good sense.  I gave a little speech last night where I remarked that the culture of party and food is so different in Europe compared to North America; we have so much to learn.  Last night was a bit of an extreme, with a 7 hour dinner (we started at 7:30) but it was great nonetheless.  It was a lot of fun to spend a weekend in Europe with a bunch of Scandinavians and I learned a lot about how Technivorm (or Moccamaster in Europe) is marketed and sold.  In Norway alone they have sold over 1.5 million machines in 33 years.  The numbers are quite staggering.
Another interesting thing which I encountered on this trip was a completely different coffee crowd than I am used to mixing with.  It has been interesting for me to spend a weekend with people who are completely focused on drip coffee (filter coffee in Europe) and have hardly any connection with espresso.  The companies who move the Technivorm in Europe are either big commercial roasters or they tend to be equipment distributors.  So it was interesting to be with people who were together for the sole purpose of celebrating an amazing coffee maker, but don’t have the same focus on the coffee as we do within the specialty coffee market.  Having said that, the folk in Norway seem to be very serious about their filter coffee and have a coffee institute focused on establishing standards in brewing and grinding and doing all kinds of research.  This is simply unheard of in Canada.

All in all, the weekend was amazing and I met so many wonderful people.  We spent the days touring little towns and farms in the east part of the Netherlands (including the little cheese factory above), and the nights eating great food and drinking good wine.  I also got a chance to hang with a bunch of Danes and as a result had a good primer with my Danish before I fly there on Tuesday.  Europe is so different from North America, in so many ways, and I am not sure if one is better than the other.  Having said that, one thing that is definitely better in Holland than Canada is the number of people - young and old - who are riding bicycles everywhere.  People are more fit, and they eat much better food.  So if we could only do a bit more of that at home, things would change dramatically.

OK, enough for now, I am writing this on the bus to Dusseldorf, and then off to London.  I am looking forward to that, and will write some more as I spend some time with Square Mile and the coffee culture within East London.

I am in the Netherlands, specifically for the 45th Anniversary of Technivorm.  The festivities don't start until tomorrow, but the North American contingent had the pleasure of a factory tour today.  The party is happening somewhere else in the NL, about a 90 minute drive from the factory.

We started the day off in Gerard's office where we were warmly greeted and served some coffee.  Then it was down to the factory where we were walked through every aspect of the Technivorm brewers assembly.  Each brewer is carefully manufactured and assembled by hand at the factory.  About 100 people work the factory floor and do everything from assembling wire harnesses, to cutting metal for the brewer.  Each machine is thoroughly tested, and is brought up to operating temperature with water in the reservoir and boiler to ensure that the unit is both safe, and sound in its construction.  I was very impressed with the operation of the factory and the care and attention paid to the assembly of these great brewers.  I think from now on, one of the marketing tag lines for Technivorm should be "it's NOT made in China".

People often chide at the price of the Technivorm, complaining that it is too simple a brewer to justify its price.  Having been to the factory, I am more convinced than ever that we sell the brewer too cheap.  For the simplicity of its design and the reliability of the brewer, it is truly one of those things that should be given as a wedding present, as it is an appliance that will last and last.  These brewers work, and not only work, but brew amazing filter coffee, through their consistency and reliability.  If you don't have a Technivorm yet, and are a fan of brewed coffee, than I would encourage you to make the investment.  It will be one that you won't regret, and it will be one of your appliances that you will have and never have to worry about it.  We also got a sneak preview today of a couple of new changes to the brewer, which will make it even better than it currently is.  I shot a lot of video today, so hopefully we can do a video on the Technivorm brewer in the near future.

OK, enough from me for now.  I am still pretty tired, trying to get my body used to being a half day ahead, and I am on the patio of a nice hotel in Europe drinking a Dubbel Ale, so I think I will turn the computer off.  Proost!

The Prairies Regional Barista Championships in Calgary this past weekend was a blast. Of course we’re all thrilled that both Josh and Chad made it through to nationals—now another whole round of hard work begins for the boys. It was the first barista competition event that I’ve attended, and while the event itself was great, I also learned a ton about the coffee industry and met a number of interesting, kind, dedicated, genuine people, and truly experienced the specialty coffee community.

This sense of community was something that I was beginning to get a sense of over the past few months, but it really came into focus this past weekend. I first began to notice it when other café owners would come into the shop, and I noticed the kinds of conversations Poul would have with other roasters and baristas. I have to admit I was surprised. The amount of information being shared about what I would consider sensitive business information — roast profiles, green coffee sources, etc. — is something I couldn’t at first fathom.

You see, I come from the world of advertising, and while co-owning a little four-person shop in a relatively sleepy town like Edmonton was a very, very far cry from the big agency world of Madison Avenue — or even Toronto or Vancouver for that matter — I was still accustomed to a much more cut-throat industry. The ‘community’ in advertising is about as shallow as a puddle on a sidewalk after a light rain. The fact is in advertising, a person would never share a process, or an insight on strategy, or a supplier, or a conversation with a client, with anyone from another agency because you would always fear that person would use the information to steal clients, get a competitive advantage and put you out of business.

But in specialty coffee, that is just not the case. Thankfully, the ‘pie’ when it comes to the coffee market is so huge, that little shops and roasters don’t have to fight over the pieces. Really, the challenge in the marketplace is to help customers realize there is a much tastier pie, made with better ingredients and more love and care, right next to the giant, mass-produced pie with the burnt crust that they are used to eating. All they have to do is slide over and take a bite of the new pie; they’ll taste the difference, fall in love and never go back.

OK, that metaphor was beginning to get away on me there. The point is by working together, we can help restaurant and café owners, and the general coffee-drinking public to realize there is more to coffee then they first thought. We can actively grow the size of the specialty coffee market and continually create opportunities for ourselves.

There are so many possibilities for how the specialty coffee community could work together even more closely, especially in a way that demonstrates that camaraderie and the common philosophy, purpose and goals to coffee-drinking public. And those goals are much bigger than serving quality coffee, they are about social justice, sustainability and the environment — Poul got into this a little deeper in his recent post.

I was able to have a couple of interesting conversations this weekend where we just began to share and discuss some of these ideas and possibilities. Right now I’m doing a lot more listening than talking — trying to absorb where people are coming from and what moves them, but I’m looking forward to having more conversations about the possibilities in specialty coffee. Thanks to Chad and Josh, we’re going to nationals, and I’m fortunate enough to be tagging along, so hopefully we can continue the conversation within about a month.

Today, yesterday, or whatever day it is, I was treated to the joy of flying KLM.  Wow, what a difference in service and quality compared to what we in Canada are used to.  Even when comparing the flight that I just had to Westjet’s best day, it is no comparison.  The food was not only edible, but tasty.  Red wine was complimentary, and the media centre on their planes are impressive.  I still didn’t sleep, although I did try.  I think I am doomed to not sleep on planes.  I even tried the Chad Moss trick and took a couple of Gravol, which did nothing for me.  So, 2 movies later, and 9 chapters into “In Defense of Food” and now I am on a train to Arnhem to visit the folk at Giesen, to check out their work, and perhaps start the ball rolling on a new roaster.  I have to say that I am enjoying the book, and it is refreshing to read something honest and direct.  What I really like so far is his bent towards eating and enjoying food, and not just downing it for nutrients.

Part of me wants to call home and check on everyone, and then I remember it is 4:30 am in Edmonton.

As I wait in Arnhem, Wilfred is coming to get me, from some other town (just a little screw-up).  The joys of international travel.r

They say a picture says a thousand words. We'll put that to the test with a few pics from the weekend's competition. There were lots of cameras snapping at the event, so if we get our hands on some better shots, we may add more later.

[caption id="attachment_807" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="The crowd begins to gather."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_808" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="Mike Tam from Phil and Sebastian serving the judges - he finished 5th overall."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_809" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="The judges took their responsibilities very seriously."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_811" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="Josh starts pulling a shot. Josh placed 4th and made it through to nationals!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_824" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="Josh explains his coffee to the judges."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_814" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="The commotion just before Chad begins his set. "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_815" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="Chad grooving to the tunes as he steams some milk. Chad placed 3rd and is going to nationals."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_810" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="Joel May from Fratello in full concentration. Joel placed 2nd."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_812" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="Ben Put from Phil & Sebastian did a fantastic job and won the PRBC. Congrats Ben!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_813" align="alignnone" width="426" caption="Ben's table setting."][/caption]