Tag Archives: sam james

By far, the greatest cappuccino I ever had in the city of Toronto

Posted on by
4

darkhorse

I never was a big fan of the steamed milk side of espresso-based drinks; maybe it was because I was more familiar with the “big pile of foam” style of capps than I was the richer sophisticated “microbubble” form that finer baristas are capable of. Sure, when I was in a decent coffee place like Dark Horse or Mercury I’d grab the occasional latte, but I would generally gravitate to straight up double shot or Americano.

When the second Dark Horse opened up on Spadina, I visited on my way to work as often as I could, just enjoying the slow pace that is rare at the shop these days. I had a chance to chat with Sam James, who was one of the guys involved in launching the new location, when I went in, and eventually he asked me why I’d order an Americano all the time (Little did I know that SJ was one of the city’s most lauded “celebrity baristas.” Furthermore, I found out this past September at a friend’s wedding that one of our mutual friends knew Sam from his skater/male model days. Small world).

So I told him that I just felt like I was just drinking a lot of milk whenever I would usually order a latte or some other variation… he said that I must have never had a “really good” cappuccino before, and told me the next time I came in, that he would make me the best capp I would have ever had in my life. So I took him up on his offer… and he was right. A good capp is light, sweet and compliments the espresso in a very delicate way. It’s not meant to be a giant heaping of milk, but just a small amount to almost aerate the espresso into a whole other drink.

Thankfully, SJ is not the only guy who can pour a decent latte: both Dark Horse locations in the city continue to have baristas in their employ that make fantastic drinks, along with folks at Mercury Espresso, Manic and even at Sam’s own “Sam James Coffee Bar” (mostly Sam, but not always). (FYI: His are the best).

And for anyone intimidated by snarky baristas: don’t be. Or at least, don’t go back. For example, despite the reputation of the owners of Bulldog Coffee on Church having a reputation of neighborhood nice-guys, I recently met one of the jerkiest baristas ever one Sunday afternoon. The short of it is, after asking him if there was anything special about the cafe’s signature drink, (the Bulldog), he gave me attitude while demonstrating that it was merely a run of the mill steamed-milk-and-espresso drink that was slightly larger than a cappuccino and slightly smaller than a latte (yeah, their “medium.” Wonderful). So with that said, if it’s not your neighborhood place, I wouldn’t suggest making the trip down to Church for a trip to the Bulldog.

Instead, make a jaunt to either Dark Horse location, or better yet, Sam James’ place. Life is too short to have lousy coffee (or lousy service for that matter).

Simple coffee: The beautiful Chemex

Posted on by
2

chemexYet again, thanks to Boing Boing and it’s awesome power to expose the most amazing things in the world, I’ve gained another instrument in my coffee arsenal: The Chemex brewer.

A generous gift from a friend, who had a tip from someone who watches me gaze over the Intelligentsia website with a sense of awe and desire, I received the pot, along with a couple boxes of filters a couple months ago, and it has become my exclusive brewing method ever since.

The coffee it makes is very similar to the “clean” brew that the vacuum/siphon pot makes, except it’s virtually free of any sort of bitterness or acidity. So much so, that it’s far to easy to gulp down an entire pot… and amazingly, if you let the coffee sit in the fridge, when you go back to warm up a cup, it still is free of any bitterness.

It’s almost as demanding as the vacuum pot; there’s a multi-step process of starting the “bloom” before manually pouring your hot water on the grounds, and a very careful pouring method that must be observed.

While everyone raves about the design of the pot (it is quite beautiful really, and I’m partially to the vintage “wooden collar” style), the nature of the coffee is truly sculpted by the special Chemex filters. It’s a square filter folded down into a cone shape, and is made of a specially treated paper much heavier than your usual filter.

It’s a pretty common theory amongst baristas and most hard-core lovers of the bean that any form of espresso, alongside steaming milk, is something best left to the professionals who pour thousands of cappuccinos and lattes a week. They say, don’t bother with your home machines… they might pay themselves off in a few years (if you got a decent one), but you should really stop drinking your lousy home capps and leave it to the experts.

So while I agree, it’s also interesting to note that most decent cafes won’t brew “drip” coffee, just for the fact that it’s hard to keep it from going stale in a matter of a year or so. It seems a lot easier now to get a French Press to go, or let an expert like Sam James make you a vacuum pot of coffee (which if you do it yourself, can be pretty hit-or-miss sometimes).

That’s what makes the Chemex pretty cool; this is the simple, affordable instrument that allows you to make coffee like the experts do (as long as you are grinding up your freshly roasted beans, natch). For example, when Toronto Star food writer Corey Mintz had Stumptown Coffee roaster Duane Sorenson over for a meal, he brought a Chemex with him.

So while I’m not a coffee expert by any means, it pleases me to know I’m not too far off the mark of perfection with my usual morning cup.

Want to get inspired? Check out the most high-energy coffee brewing how-to video you’ll ever see here.

Previously, my post about the siphon method.