My guess is there are more than a few HBers from Toronto area. What blends are you liking? I try lots of stuff but keep coming back to Green Beanery's Choco Vienna Roast. Lots of hidden flavors come out, great crema...just a fine full blend. What else are people using after a Blue Jays game?

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.

Regardless, you can get some much higher quality roasted coffee in Toronto. The first place I would recommend is that you actually go to Lit Espresso Bar, and purchase about 5 bags of Stumptown's Hairbender (you can read about the Hairbender in the favourite blends of 2010 thread here on HB). You can usually get it less than a week old (their delivery date is Wednesday, so time your visit accordingly).

Next, I suggest that you buy from Social Tea and Coffee. They do a great job, have high quality coffees, and get them to you when they are very fresh. I recommend starting with the People's Liberation and People's daily blends. After trying lots of area roasters, I have settled on Social for quite a while now - I think they are above the other Toronto roasters in terms of skill and attention to the beans they are roasting. Next day mail delivery around the GTA is no extra charge.

There are lots of other place to try - the people at Birds and Beans in Etobicoke are great, and have some very nice coffees. They also do mail delivery.


Mark

Lots of great ideas - I thank you...really appreciated. I'll be trying these places. First up I'm going to check out that Stumptown blend. My only issue is getting the stuff roasted the way I like it...vienna or full city... and getting it within a day of roasting.

Steve,

Greenbeanery is NOT an ideal place to get freshly roasted coffee because, in Toronto, there is much better coffee available than what they produce.

Lit Espresso Bar sells the Stumptown selection of coffees, so go get your hairbender there.

Mercury Espresso sells the George Howell selection of coffees, so go get your Addis, Alchemy there.

Crema - there's a small location at Yonge/Bloor and 2 others in Toronto, they sell the 49th Parallel selection of coffees - Epic isn't my fave, but that's what you can get there.

Lost & Found Clothing shop and espresso Bar - you can get the Metropolis selection of coffees there. Redline is a nice espresso

Manic Coffee sells the Intelly selection of coffees and also the Social Coffee & Tea Co. coffees.

Te Aro has two locations - one is called CRAFTED - they sell their own stuff. It's ALRIGHT I don't go there much at all, they've had some highly reviewed espresso blends, but their regular blends are pretty BLAH.

Detour coffee is sold at DARK HORSE ESPRESSO BAR, it's alright... I'm not a fan, but dark horse also sells the 49th coffee selections.

Cafe Pamenar - in Kensington - sells the Discovery selection of coffees - very nice. - They do not get their coffees within 2-3 days... more like 6 or so from what I've been told...

Communal Mule - get your Counter Culture selection of coffees here.

All of the places above get their coffees within 2-3 days of roast from the roaster.

Hope that's GOOD ENOUGH!!!
haha

Spitz.me wrote:Hope that's GOOD ENOUGH!!!
haha

No it's not.
Haw.
It's awesome.

If you're interested as well, Steve, me and a couple others from Toronto sometimes buy from out of town at good rates... GIMME for example is great and tasty and fun! haha

I wish I got up to Toronto more often, because I really enjoyed all the coffees I tried from US roasters at the tasting event at Social last year. Unfortunately, my sister moved back to KW so I am there even less these days I occasionally get my brother to bring back a few bags of Black Cat from Manic, but it's been difficult to coordinate getting US coffee from anywhere else in TO.

My thread Canadian sources for popular coffees from US roasters covers some of the Toronto locations mentioned in this thread, but a few are missing. Would you mind adding anything you can think of, Tony?

My go-to Toronto area roaster is definitely Social. I love being able to order in small batches and have it here the next day. I've also bought a significant amount of coffee brewing equipment from them since they carry all sorts of great stuff it's otherwise hard to find in Canada. I would have saved some money buying my VST basket from them if I'd known they were getting them in.

Made a special trip to Mercury and bought half lb of Alchemy. Had them pull me a shot while I was there and it was HORRIBLE. What a surprise. Really really sour. Hopefully when I try the beans I'll get to find out something positive. But seriously I've rarely had a shot that bad anywhere.

Tomorrow I'm going Manic.

innermusic wrote:Tomorrow I'm going Manic.

FYI, they get their shipment from Intelligentsia either late Wednesday or early Thursday (roasted Monday).