Coffee 101

When I first tasted coffee as a teenager, I thought "This is bitter & disgusting. Why would anyone put themselves through this?" My mother assured me that I would one day be converted, probably when I was in university doing exams, or after the birth of a child. Her confidence in these assertions of course strengthened my resolve to NEVER like the stuff. Imagine my surprise to find a kindred spirit in the owner of my local coffee shop.

Dave Evans, owner of The Stick In The Mud, claims he never drank coffee regularly before the age of 35, as no one had ever made him a good cup of the stuff. He was happy to amble through life as a tea snob of sorts, until a compatriot in the tea camp came back from France a defector. As the story goes, this friend and his wife spent some time in Paris enjoying the traditional one, 10-hour meal per day. Towards the end of the day, early evening-ish, they would head out for an espresso and be good to go for another 2 hours or so. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? This story sent Dave on the quest to find the perfect cup of coffee in Canada. Now, as a barista, coffee roaster, owner and aficionado, he claimed to be able to convert me. Skeptical as I was, I'm always up for a challenge.

The weapon of choice was a cappuccino: 1 ounce of espresso to 5 1/2 ounces of milk. Rich, thick espresso in the bottom with steamed milk poured in, topped with that yummy milk foam, a.k.a. microfoam, a.k.a. liquid marshmallow. (Appropriately called liquid marshmallow as the process of adding heat and air to the milk allows the naturally occurring sugars in the milk to be more readily accessible to the tongue.) In the interest of full disclosure, mine was a wet cappuccino. Wet cappuccinos generally have a higher ratio of milk and are poured slightly differently. According to the laws of cappuccino, you need to drink them within a couple of minutes before things start to separate. Which is probably why they're also not supposed to be larger than 7 ounces. Over 7 ounces, and you call it a latte; roughly the same ratio of espresso to milk, just bigger. As part of my coffee education, I learned that Americanos are made by adding water to espresso. They originated in World War II as a somewhat disdainful accommodation of American GIs in Europe who were seeking a larger cup than the traditional espresso. But I digress; back to my cappuccino.

I gave it a gentle stir and tasted the foam: so far, so good. I dove right in, and guess what? It still tasted like coffee, but it was the best damn cup of coffee I've ever had. Bitter, yes, but bitter in the way of extremely dark chocolate. The Stick In The Mud roasts their own beans on-site, and Dave claims that he aims for the taste of a dark chocolate fruit & nut bar in the roasting process. How can you go wrong with that? I even went on to try an espresso after my cappuccino; a little harder for my virgin palate, but not as harsh as I expected. This could be the caffeine buzz talking, but I may even go on to become a convert. That is, if The Stick didn't make such a damn good chai latte.