I have tried a couple of blends from www.everydaycoffee.com , but nothing remarkable.

I've been meaning to pipe up as well, but apologies for being late to the game. I've chronicled my espresso 2 cents around Toronto for the last year on my blog (Coffeestork) , so hopefully that might be of help. Tony has done an excellent job summarizing where to get coffee in Toronto, of course, personal taste varies and changes in my experience.

Local roasters I've liked beans from : Social, Te Aro, and Detour. Lately, I've been favouring out of town roasters more as I've been loving their coffee: Stumptown, Intelli, 49th, Terroir, and Counter Culture are my usual faves. I worry more about quality and taste, rather than whether the roaster is local or not.

Moving on - today I received:
Stumptown - Hairbender
Social - People's Daily, People's Liberation

Looking forward to trying them tomorrow. Any tips?

jarviscochrane wrote:I'm happy to live in a city with excellent availability of all the major US roaster blends that are frequently discussed here... but what about true Toronto roasters?

I recently came across http://darkcitycoffee.com/ which supplies Cherry Bomb on Roncesvalles. Any experiences out there with the H5 blend? I'm planning to give this one a try next. I'm searching for a fresher more local alternative to Hairbender.

Some others that I have tried but failed to impress (at home and in store);
http://www.idealcoffees.com/
http://www.balzacscoffee.com/

And some that I have never tried;
http://www.tancoffee.ca/
http://www.everydaycoffee.com/

I don't see how you would need a "fresher" alternative unless it's simply for the sake of being local. These shops get the coffees in usually 2-3 days post roast. I recognized that what Steve was asking for may have been due to his limited knowledge of the availability of great coffees in Toronto that are highly regarded as top blends from highly regarded roasters. Going local doesn't mean getting fresher coffees, it would be out of preference. Wouldn't you rather the real thing that gets delivered twice a week to Lit Espresso bar 2-3 days post roast? However, I'm also not a fan of much espresso that is local. Social is a great roaster and Te Aro can be.

Steve, the 'stork planned and attended a seminar on pulling hairbender at home. Check his blog and find out what he thinks.

Pulled 3 doubles this morning with Social's People's Daily... Terrific blend, and I'm sure I can do better with it. I tried an 18g dose, 196t, 25s to pull a little pup with a lot of crema and wonderful array of flavor.

Thanks for the tip on Hairbender, Tony. Do you have a link to that blog? The chap that sold it to me yesterday gave me detailed instructions and indicated that very small changes parameters would radically affect results.

Steve - my blog is at http://www.coffeestork.com ... hope you enjoy ... love all feedback and suggestions for improvement

That's a great blog. Only problem - I missed the Lit Cafe workshop!

Dogshot wrote:Last time I checked, the Greenbeanery roasted coffee because they have green beans and they sell coffee roasters - however, they don't really have any expertise in roasting, nor did they carry much by way of high quality greens. Maybe things have changed since 3-4 years ago. Your description of their blend sounds appetizing.

I visited Greenbeanery this morning; bought an espropress and red cup of single shot espresso. The guy at the counter, when asked what kind of roast they serving was cought off guard by my question, and could not describe it. I could not compare the drink to what I had in Italy, because my recollection failed me, but cup was OK, and certainly better than what most of other places sell. Tonnes of bags with green coffee were laying all over the place.

Ya Milan,

I saw an interaction with another customer where they had asked the guy who was putting the FRESH ROAST on the SCALE to weigh, what type of ROAST it is. His answer was, "We'll see." LOL I don't even know what that means in response to that question. The answer could have been a little more informed than "We'll see." and off he went into the roasting room.

I'm thinking of the Espro press, but I have too many knick-knacks I don't use... we'll see..

I want the Pharos...

Really enjoyed the Yirgacheffe from Detour. Able to pull nice fruity shots at home, found a distinctive lemon flavor.