A Coffee Taste Test

Early on today, I made it down to Destination Cafe's drop in, which is held once a week on Thursdays from two to four in the afternoon. During this time, a cup of coffee is provided free of charge to patrons wishing to relax upstairs from the main area. Today they were serving Peruvian coffee.

While outside having a smoke, I spoke with Jeff Taylor, the manager at Destination Cafe. Jeff has been experiencing health problems of late and has been using a cane to get around. Jeff was telling me that he has been trying to convince upper management that there needs to be more ground-level signage in front of the cafe in order to draw in more customers from the street. As it is, most of the business has been coming from customers wishing to purchase freshly-roasted beans by the bag instead of drinking it by the cup.

Coffee barista Rob, an affable man with tattoos who also happens to own a license granting him the right to operate a master franchise for Subway Sandwiches, kindly provided me with some samples of coffee beans to try at home. One bag contained Bolivian coffee beans that were roasted two weeks ago. These beans retail (freshly roasted) at $14.00 a pound (which is comparable in price to the Kicking Horse coffee I purchased last week). Almost immediately upon getting home, I made some coffee from this batch.

The Bolivian coffee is more assertive in taste than is the Kicking Horse coffee, and seemed slightly more bitter. Nevertheless it has a robust effect on the taste buds, leaving one thirsting for more.

The next thing I did was to prepare a batch of freshly-roasted coffee from Destination Cafe. Known as the Signature Blend, the coffee's precise make-up is a trade secret of the cafe.

I was curious to see if there was any real correlation between how fresh the coffee was and how bitter it tasted. What I discovered was that there seems indeed to be such a relationship. In spite of the fact that the coffee was purposefully prepared by me to be on the strong side, there was very little bitterness associated with the other coffee blends. Indeed, the only comparable coffee that I can think of is Jablum's, the blue mountain coffee that I had the privilege of enjoying early last year. Signature Blend is bold yet subtle, with a pleasant aftertaste that reminds me of its organic origins.

Having tasted freshly roasted coffee, it is clear why Destination Cafe does such good business selling such coffee by the bag. It is truly miles ahead of the pre-ground coffee one can purchase at the store.