We had a lot of fun chatting the other day with the radio guys from Evolution 107.9FM about what makes organic coffee awesome and how you feel after you’ve had a slice of our famous cheesecake. Have a quick listen to our interview below!
Here’s our favorite part, right near the end, with Trees Organic owner Doron Levy giving his impression after the interviewer bites into his cheesecake:
“That is Belgian chocolate… Now you are in heaven. For one hour at least, you can’t stop smiling.”
Cinco de Mayo is a day of celebration of Mexican heritage. It evokes pride over a great victory early in the nation’s history. Today, this holiday is celebrated throughout North America. It is a happy time to savor great food and drink and good company. This week, we’re joining in the celebration.
From April 30 to May 6, you can purchase a 200g bag of Single Origin Organic Mexico Coffee for just $6.99! This a great deal for a coffee with great flavor; this coffee boasts a dark to medium body with a unique dry chocolate taste.
These Mexican coffee beans are already fan favorites among our cafe aficionados and we know you’re going to love it. Join in the celebration at our cafes!
Last night, I heard a line on TV that made me laugh out loud: “No one under 25 drinks coffee anymore,” says a 1960s-era accounts executive in the second season of Mad Men (I’m just catching up on DVD). “Just Pepsi. They pour it on their Frosted Flakes.”
How times have changed.
It’s hard to believe that there was a time when coffee and café culture wasn’t part of the overall cultural bedrock of our society. According to a 2010 Ipsos Reid study on coffee consumption trends, “88% of Canadians surveyed claim that they drink at least 1 cup of coffee in a typical day, with those coffee drinkers averaging 3.2 cups per day.” (more…)
Have you tried any of our teas from around the world at our cafes? Or to put it another way, did you know we even served all kinds of great teas from around the world?
There’s a great scene from the delightful film, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World that portrays very well the gulf of understanding between tea drinkers and, um, people who don’t drink tea (yet):
Ramona V. Flowers: What kind of tea do you want?
Scott Pilgrim:There’s more than one kind?
Ramona V. Flowers: We have blueberry, raspberry, ginseng, sleepy time, green tea, green tea with lemon, green tea with lemon and honey, liver disaster, ginger with honey, ginger without honey, vanilla almond, white truffel, blueberry chamomile, vanilla walnut, constant comment and… Earl Grey.
Scott Pilgrim:Did you make some of those up?
Don’t get us wrong. We enjoy our coffee. Latte, espresso or just a regular drip cup of coffee gets us going in the morning and helps us get through the rest of the day. But tea takes a backseat to no vector of caffeine and health benefits.
Here are some of our favorite exotic kinds of tea:
Moroccan Madness Tea. Black tea with a refreshing and invigorating touch of Moroccan peppermint. This one’s tasty. We could have called it our Moroccan Insanely Awesome Tea, but we wanted to keep the M-M thing going.
Sencha Kyoto Cherry Rose Tea. A blend of high quality green tea, sweet cherry blossom and morning rose flavour. It’s like you just woke up in a Japanese garden. Serenity now.
Vanilla Rooibos Tea (herbal). Sweet vanilla notes. Mmmmm. Vanilla. Enriched with nutrients such as iron, potassium, calcium and fluoride. And there’s no caffeine with this beverage, so this is a good, aromatic tea for when you just want to mellow out.
What’s your favorite kind of tea? Take our poll and let us know.
At Trees Organic, we roast our own organic fair-trade coffee beans. How do we do it? Café owner Doron Levy roasts beans right in the café on Granville Street several times a week. He shows how it’s done.
Trees Organic uses a commercial-quality Probat coffee roaster to ensure that the best beans get the treatment they deserve. After all, we work hard to source organic coffee beans from around the world that meet our customer’s standards.
First, Doron puts fresh beans into the top of the roaster in a part called the hopper. He sets the temperature he wants and when the thermometer gage says it’s ready, he drops the beans in by turning a lever.
Once the coffee beans are in the roaster drum, baffles turn the beans so that the roasting will happen evenly. This is important to ensure a uniform taste for the batch. Think of it the same way as clothes tumble in a dryer.
Doron can see the beans through the sight glass, but it’s a bit tough to really get a sense of what’s going on inside the roaster. To get a better feel for the process inside, he can pull out the tryer, which holds a few of the roasting beans. He can look at the beans, smell them and decide when the beans are perfectly roasted. Timing is really important, as even just a few seconds either way can mean the difference between too light or too dark of a roast.
When the coffee beans are ready, Doron opens the little door at the bottom and drops them into the cooling tray. He moves the stir arms to keep the beans moving and ventilated so they cool quicker, sealing in the smell and flavor of the coffee oils. Fast cooling ensures the beans do not continue roasting from the residual heat. Then the beans are collected and when the time comes, they are ground and served to our coffee-loving customers.
Have you tried our holiday-featured Ethiopian Sidamo Coffee? We love this coffee bean. It delivers an earthy aroma with just a hint of chocolate – a very pleasant coffee for the consummate café aficionado. Ask for it when you come in – and yes, the Granville café is open on Christmas day from 11 am to 5 pm. Drop by and say hello!
This year we wanted to get you something special for Christmas. We’re excited, because we got our hands on some beautiful Sidamo coffee beans from Ethiopia, where coffee was first discovered by a 9th-century Ethiopian goat herder.
The beans came in on Tuesday and we roasted our first five-kilo batch on Wednesday in our Granville Street Roasting House Thursday we had our first coffee cupping. We fell in love. It has medium body with some subtle brightness and chocolaty tones. It’s got great balance and nice length. Our Ethiopian Sidamo beans create a cup that is hard to put down.
What does single origin coffee mean?
Coffee is like wine, origin matters. These beans are from Sidamo in Southwest Ethiopia. Of the Arabica varietal.
How did we roast the Ethiopian Sidamo coffee beans?
This batch was roasted medium dark to make sure we don’t cover up some of the beautiful fruity notes or the chocolaty notes. The beauty of small batch roasting is that we can make a slightly different roast in our next batch a few days later. Variety is the spice of live. Roasting is an art.
Why are we highlighting Ethiopia Sidamo beans for the holidays?
Christmas is a time of giving and Ethiopia sure needs some help. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. When we buy fair trade organic coffee from Ethiopia, we support local growers and their families.
Where is Sidamo?
Sidamo was a province in the southern part of Ethiopia. It was named after an ethnic group native to Ethiopia, called Sidama, who are located in the south-central part of that country. Their major political state was the ancient Kingdom of Kaffa.
How can I try some of the Sidamo coffee?
We’re selling the beans in our Granville, Richmond, Gastown and Yaletown stores. (This is a premium bean so it is a bit more expensive). One little secret. Load the Clip Mobile App on your phone and enjoy a great coupon deal. Our gift to you.
You may also see the Sidamo as one of the two coffees of the day. Keep and eye on it and give it a try.
French press is a popular and gourmet-style way to make coffee. Fans of the French press will swear by the boldness and flavor it brings out of coffee beans. While it’s seen by some coffee aficionados as a fancy cup of coffee, making it is actually a pretty straightforward process!
Here’s how you make French Press coffee:
Preparing for a French Press Coffee Brew. Using a French Press (Press Pot) is one of the easiest and best ways to get truly excellent coffee at home.The keys to getting good results are: using high quality fresh beans, grinding the coffee correctly for the brewing method, and timing the process.
You’ll need a Press Pot, coffee, a grinder, a spoon, a timer, cups, and thermal carafe if you make more than one cup if your press isn’t insulated.
Grind the Coffee. It is important that the coffee be ground coarse. Ideally use a quality burr grinder because it will provide an even grind. A blade grinder produces a somewhat inconsistent grind, so if you’re serious about coffee, start saving.By grinding the coffee coarse, you’re allowing for a slower and more even extraction, which results in a fuller bodied and more nuanced cup.
Blade grinders chop the coffee rather than grinding it, resulting in uneven and unpredictable particle size. This leads to an uneven extraction, creating increased bitterness. In addition, the lack of consistency in particle size results in inconsistent and unpredictable results from pot to pot.
Add Coffee to the Pot. You’ll need one tablespoon (7 grams) of coffee for every 4 oz of water.
Feel free to adjust this amount based on your own personal tastes. Make sure the pot is clean and dry.
Boil water and add it to the pot. Bring the water just to a boil. Pour it aggressively into the pot so that it saturates the grounds. The key is to saturate all the grounds evenly. Move the stream around as you pour to facilitate this. Do not fill the pot entirely.With many fresh coffees you will see significant expansion of the coffee in a sort of foam at the top of the liquid once you add water. This is known as bloom and is the result of the off-gassing of CO2 from the coffee.
Set the timer to count down 4 minutes. Using this standard steeping time is essential to getting consistent quality coffee.
After 1 minute stir the Pot. Add water to fill the pot.
Stirring the pot guarantees even and optimal extraction of the coffee. It also breaks down the bloom and allows you to add water without spilling.
Put Press-Top on Pot. Make sure you line up the spout and the corresponding opening in the lid. Wait till the timer goes.
Press the Pot At exactly 4 minutes. Push the press (slowly) into the pot to force all grounds to the bottom.
Pour the Coffee. Do this as soon as you’ve pressed the pot. If you’re making more coffee than you can fit into a cup and want to hold some for later, pour the coffee into a thermal carafe. Do not leave the coffee in the Press Pot.
We hope these tips help you enjoy great coffee!
Maybe you have some tips for us. We’d love to hear from you! Drop by any of our Vancouver or Richmond locations and pick up some coffee beans for your French Press.
Trees Organic serves up coffee with beans from all around the world, from Latin America to the far reaches of Asia. The flavor you get in your cup depends on where it was grown and under what conditions. Just as wine comes in all kinds of vintages for you to compare, you can taste different kinds of coffee and enjoy a wide range of subtle differences.
Coffee Beans. A Matter of Taste
There are hundreds of different kinds of coffees available, but most coffee comes from just three main species: Arabica, Robusta and Liberica. The specialty coffees we tend to drink in cafes are typically Arabica, since this type of bean has the most delicate and popular flavors.
Although Latin America was the last region of the world to start producing coffee, it has also become one of the most popular coffee-growing regions due to its good quality. Sometimes beans from different regions are blended to produce distinct flavors.
Keep in mind that the flavor of the coffee you get in your cup is determined by more than which bean you use. For instance, a dark roast tends to produce a more bitter flavor. Even the way you grind the beans can affect how it tastes. A finer grind delivers a more intense flavor, since hot water touches more surface area of the beans while it brews.
Where Trees’ Coffee Comes From
Peru. The perfect medium coffee with full flavor, great body and aroma.
Guatemala. An exquisite balance of acidity and body with a spicy, smoky flavor.
Colombia. Considered one of the world’s finest with a full body, rich flavor and great acidity.
Mexico. A dark to medium body with a unique dry chocolate flavor. This is what we use for our espresso.
Sumatra. Famous for its intensity with a rich, bold and robust flavor.
Costa Rica. Rich and hearty with a well developed taste.
Our coffee is organic, fair trade, and roasted at our own Granville Street Roasting House.
You can also enjoy Trees Organic coffees at the home or in the office. All of our coffees are available in 200 and 400 gram bags as whole beans or ground to your specifications. Try some today!
As many of our regular café customers can attest, people love the smell and taste of fresh-roasted coffee — and for those of us who like to be at the top of our game, the caffeine boost from our signature blend. That distinct Guatemalan and Peruvian coffee aroma and body can be a pleasant pick-me-up on any morning, keeping you energized and alert.
But what if you want that great coffee taste and aroma without the caffeine? Maybe it’s already late in the day and you’ve already got as much caffeine as you can handle. Or you’re feeling a bit jittery after your morning espresso and want to mellow out now. For that, we offer our Swiss Water Decaf coffee at all of Trees Organic cafes in Vancouver and Richmond.
There are two ways of making decaffeinated coffee: with chemicals or through the Swiss Water method. We’re not fans of the chemical method. That’s why we like the Swiss Water Decaf Coffee method.
In the Swiss Water method, green unroasted beans are soaked in hot water, releasing the caffeine. The water then goes through a carbon filter. This absorbs the caffeine but leaves behind a green coffee extract, which – after adding more green beans, diffusing the caffeine and repeating the process — we can use to make decaf coffee.
The coffee that’s produced retains almost all the flavor of caffeinated coffee, without actually giving you the caffeine “kick” you may be looking to avoid.
When you come into Trees Organic cafes in Vancouver or Richmond, do you order regular coffee or decaf? Take our poll.
At Trees Organic, we roast our own organic fair-trade coffee beans. How do we do it? Café owner Doron Levy roasts beans right in the café on Granville Street several times a week. He shows how it’s done.
This year we wanted to get you something special for Christmas. We’re excited, because we got our hands on some beautiful Sidamo coffee beans from Ethiopia, where coffee was first discovered by a 9th-century Ethiopian goat herder.
Trees Organic serves up coffee with beans from all around the world, from Latin America to the far reaches of Asia. The flavor you get in your cup depends on where it was grown and under what conditions. Just as wine comes in all kinds of vintages for you to compare, you can taste different kinds of coffee and enjoy a wide range of subtle differences.
As many of our regular café customers can attest, people love the smell and taste of fresh-roasted coffee — and for those of us who like to be at the top of our game, the caffeine boost from our signature blend. That distinct Guatemalan and Peruvian coffee aroma and body can be a pleasant pick-me-up on any morning, keeping you energized and alert.
