Spring usually means that warmer weather is coming and that coffee becomes less of a necessity but that’s not the case when you have so many local options to choose from in Vancouver.

Moja Coffee

Moja Coffee started on the North Shore in 2004 and while one may think that it’s overshadowed by a very competitive market that includes JJ Bean, Starbucks, and Delany’s among others it still has some great coffees that are supremely roasted.

I tried their Espresso and Colombia whole bean offerings that I brewed at home using my trusty French Press, Cone Filter Drip and a Stovetop Espresso Maker.

The Espresso blend contains beans from Brazil and Guatemala. It is described as being syrupy and sweet with notes of caramel. It’s a great coffee to drink any of the three ways I mentioned above and could be drunk as a cup or as a shot. I loved it.

The Organic Columbia is better than I expected as I generally don’t like Columbian coffees given their flavour profile. This one has notes of dark chocolate and orange which I thought were very enjoyable.

Columbian coffee beans are one of the most exported in the world.

CAFFE D’ARTE

Velleteri which I bought from the folks at Espressotec was a tasty blend of coffee that really could be drunk in winter or the spring. It’s a Caffe Darte product that the company says “is roasted on a 1949 Balestra Wood Roaster, which imparts a subtle smoky finish to this medium-dark coffee.”

The coffee has Central and South American beans in it and is a medium dark roast that really sits in my wheelhouse as an ideal type of coffee. I could easily enjoy it as an iced coffee.

JJ Bean

I’ll confess a bit of a bias here as anything JJ Bean is immediately going to get my attention coffee wise. Railtown has to rank in my top three coffees of all time and I mean anywhere.

JJ Bean says “Railtown is a dark roast blend that has Latin American coffee, specifically from Honduras, designed to withstand the heat.”

The thing that strikes me about this coffee too is the versatility of it. Cold, hot, as an espresso shot or a drip coffee or a french press coffee and yes an Aeropress.

Starbucks Anniversary Blend

Starbucks Anniversary Blend is another one of those coffee’s that i have loved for a long time. When I worked there it was brought out every September to commemorate the origins of the company.

According to Starbucks “It’s a complex, hearty coffee with cedary spice notes.” It contains Asia Pacific coffees beans from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

What I found interesting about this coffee in the past was the use of Aged Sumatra in it and the closeness of it to Starbucks Christmas blend which had a similar flavour profile in past years.