On the day after apple announced its fanciest new toy, I thought I should mention that we also have a few shiny new gadgets should your interests lie more in the caffeinated and the culinary, rather than in circuitry, touch-screens and turtlenecks.

Things are moving. Admittedly a little slower than we'd like, but they are moving. There is a wall where there was no wall before.

We want to be absolutely certain that we nail the flow of the space so that you — the ever growing and more ravenous throng of Edmonton coffee fans — get the best coffee experience possible. The next few weeks will see the bar, seating and generally the whole feel and function of the space take shape. It's something that we are eager to get underway.

We know Edmonton is ready for another great place to get exceptional coffee. We know we have a gem of a location. We know it has "great bones" as our interior designer commented, referring to the brick wall and terazzo floor. It is this bone structure that inspired the musical choice for this week's 360 video. Enjoy.

More and more studies are being published proving what we — and many of you —have known for a long time. That there are many significant health benefits to drinking coffee.

In a very well-researched article for FitnessRx magazine, Shoshana Pritzker calls coffee the “healthiest beverage in the world.” She states that coffee is “loaded with polyphenolic compounds and cancer fighting agents,” and that it “lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, liver toxicity, and type 2 diabetes.”

The polyphenols in coffee (mostly chlorogenic acid) are the keys to coffee’s high antioxidant value. Polyphenols “act as antioxidants in the body, playing a role in the protection of the cell against free radical damage and tissue damage from reactive atoms,” Pritzker writes.

The article is written from a women’s fitness point of view, but it is a detailed and fascinating read for any coffee drinker.

Read the entire article (1.4 MB PDF file)

Something has been bugging me for a while, as I watch commercials leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics.  Over and over again we hear that the official restaurant of the 2010 Winter Olympics is none other than good ol' McDonald's.  And my response from the very get go was "SERIOUSLY"!  Isn't McDonald's and Olympics an oxymoron?  Do any serious athletes hoping to stand on the podium this February in Vancouver, ever step foot in a McDonald's restaurant, other than perhaps to film a commercial?  I know that the games are crazy expensive, which is another discussion all in itself for another time, but seriously, couldn't the blatant pandering for cash be somewhat thoughtful.  Couldn't the Olympic Committee have at least chosen Subway as the official restaurant, at least Jared has shown that you can lose weight and still eat at Subway.

That being said, and finally off my chest, another less auspicious group of competitions suffer from the same lack of judgement and integrity.  Yes, I am speaking about Barista Competitions, and all of them.  Regional's, Nationals, Worlds, all of the barista competitions take on sponsors who gladly fork over some cash, to have their logo splashed about.  The problem with some of these sponsors is that they have nothing to do with being a barista, or even anything remotely associated with serious specialty coffee.  Why do we all seem to have syrup sponsors at a barista competition?  I have never watched a competition where someone grabbed the bottle of hazelnut syrup to add to their signature drink.  Why do some of our competitions allow the sponsors to be equipment companies that have nothing to do with quality, let alone the standards associated with the specialty coffee industry?  These are questions I continually ask, and are questions that no one in places of authority ever seem to want to address.  Why not associate ourselves with other products of significant quality, rather than pander and in so doing, mislead the few public who tune into our competitions.  OK, enough of the rants, albeit serious questions that bounce around in my head from time to time.

On the issue of quality, I will write in the near future about Transcend's standards, and what we expect in terms of quality so that my previous post has somewhere to rest, as recent comments have shown that I am guilty of being too vague at times.

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Let the fun begin!  This week we finally received a key to our new coffee bar.  Before this week there wasn't a front door, so there wasn't much point.  The door, pictured below, is a very nice door, albeit still without a handle.  The space is still being worked on by the landlord's builders, but I think it is safe to say that we are now truly in a position to start to do our own improvements.  As you can see, the space has a ton of raw potential, or as our designer Kimberly (Murphy) Bradley says, "the space has great bones".  We are slowly starting to get excited about the prospect.  It is still months off, in terms of an actual opening date, and in between now and then I am going to Ethiopia for a couple of weeks and probably Central America too.  Needless to say, we have some great people lined up to work at Transcend Garneau, with Chuck Elves as Manager, and Troy Archie (giving up nursing) to come back and work for us as the assistant manager.  We are totally stoked to be part of a landmark building like the Garneau Theatre building which is now a historical site in Edmonton.



As you can see from the photos, the original brick wall will be a great feature, and what is not visible is the terrazzo flooring.  We will keep you updated on our progress (a journal of sorts).  This year is poised to be an exciting year for Transcend Coffee, as we are working on new packaging, a new website, new coffees, new origins in terms of Direct Trade and of course the new coffee bar.  We may even have a few more tricks up our sleeve, so stay tuned.

Happy New Year!  It was a crazy Christmas season, and we all at Transcend were overwhelmed with the level of support we experienced over the Christmas craze.  We all had a good week off too, and we appreciate everyone's patience with us as they fasted from fresh roasted coffee.  In short, we had a great year and look forward to all that is going to happen in 2010.  I need to sit down and recap the year that was and perhaps need to pontificate a bit on the year that will be, but that is another post.

Just watched Julie & Julia (a movie about Julia Child and Julie Powell) and must say I enjoyed it very much.  Maybe I am getting older (almost 41) or maybe it is something else, but I do enjoy movies that evoke emotion, passion and joy.  And for me this movie did just that.  It was all about the passion and joy of cooking, and for me, this is close to my heart.  My passion for coffee is a given, and even my passion for wine.  But I also truly enjoy cooking.  We had (including kids) 30 people over for dinner on New Year's eve and the 7 hours of cooking for me was both exhausting and exhilarating.  One of my favourite gifts this year for Christmas was Thomas Keller's cookbook "ad hoc at home" which is full of not only great recipes but real advice on cooking.  I think at the end of the day, it is all about passion!  I want to do that which I love, and share it with those who want to join the ride.  I think that is why I am so excited about coffee, as so many people want to get on the train which just happens to be Transcend.  It is why I get so excited when someone else opens up a serious cafe, or roastery, or winery or wine bar, or bistro, and just wants to do it for the love of doing it.  Too much in our world right now is about the bottom line, or the shareholders.  Too much is about things that have nothing to do with the heart or our souls.  And that is why when I watch movies like Julia & Julia, I am inspired, and spurred on to work both harder and dig deeper into the world of coffee.  It is why we do what we do.  Some days it is easy to get caught up in the world of numbers, financing, and all of that which sucks the life out of us.  But it is movies like this which remind me that it is about celebrating life, celebrating friends and sharing our passions with those who wish to join in.  I don't have Julia Child's cookbook, but I will be buying it, and I will start to cook some of her recipes.  Until then, I will work through Keller's book and tomorrow night will cook his recipe for braised beef short ribs.  I am all over chefs who advocate the use of more butter and more oil.  My advise to you all is to be close to your friends, and drink great wine with them, eat amazing food and oh yes, always always, buy fresh roasted coffee, grind just before brewing, and drink less more often.