The Bon Vivant Blog

There really only are two places in Vancouver for truly great coffee: 49th Parallel Roasters and Wicked Cafe. The people here really love coffee. They import Intelligentsia coffee (often referred to as the best coffee in the U.S.) from Chicago and they’ll either pull you one of the best ristrettos in the city, or sell [...]

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A popular local Kensington coffee shop just off one of the busy streets. – but it is definitely worth the short stroll. There is no real signage except for the coffee cup with a galaxy-like symbol above the door. The beans are roasted in house and the baristas rigorously trained before they serve actual customers. [...]

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We had to sit down, away from the Internet, somewhere to go and write some thank-you cards. Thus – we thought – local, has good coffee, nice place to sit down, sky overhead – we thought about JJ Bean on Main Street. This place is actually really nice. There’s a pretty sketch Starbucks across the [...]

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Brewing a huge list of coffees by the cup – like a manual Clover system. I tried their most popular brew – Jason’s Blend but they seem to have a blend for all tastes. T tried the handmade espresso in a cappuccino – interestingly prepared with vigorously hand-shaken milk and I think they poured the [...]

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These guys know coffee. Assuming you have a decent espresso machine and a proper grinder, and you want somewhere in Vancouver to buy your beans? Drop that bag of Kirkland beans, my friend and head over to their cafe to pick up a bag of their Espresso. This stuff is awesome. The crema you’ll get [...]

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As the Seattle trip was all about the food, and we knew that Seattle has a great coffee scene, we decided to find out what this good coffee thing was all about. Looking around on chowhound, we found this place, and as it was just a short hike up the hill from downtown, we decided [...]

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