Toronto - Mercury Coffee and Toronto Islands

[Keeka]

Just a little brief on my stay back home with the folks, and progressing my newfound coffee obsessions.

Learned about Mercury from CG site, have a couple more places to check out before I return. Just opened in April of this year, east end of town, Queen East at Logan to be precise, forget the new name of the 'village' as all these old parts of town get revamped.

Sparsely decorated corner cafe, lots of glass fronting, with about three small tables and sofa and chair, patio hadn't been set up. The proprietor has come from another coffee venture, so from what I've read he's a mover in the quality coffee revolution happening in this town.

Newish, compact, silvery 3-group Elektra machine holding forecourt, with a groovy barista being trained by the owner while I was there, and a friendly girl to answer all my touristic questions. Beans are supplied by Toronto specialty roaster Dark City ( I've done an order with them this aft - you ring them with your order and you should get a fresh roast delivered to your door the next day day ).

Had a double espresso to start - no guts to ask for ristretto (but I'll be back) - and had to rush it as my 5 year old started early boredom gestures, was wonderfully sweet, no trace bitterness, thickish crema, and somehow provided more to drink than I would have thought for the size, probably because I was rushing. More chat with the owner and then a double machiato, this time with Dark City 'Zen' blend, the other coffee available which, described as 'hard', was recommended to partner with milk. This was magnificent as well. Came out with a pound of Zen beans and that almost-drugged feeling of having had two great espressi in your veins to lubricate the afternoon.

This has gotten too long to report my day on Toronto Islands - will do so after. Might even bring my camera with me next times...

Anyway, I'd highly recommend a trip here if you were ever about.

/K

[CakeBoy]

Sounds fantastic mate. I am so "homesick" for Toronto now

[Keeka]

By the way, correct name for the cafe was Mercury Organic Espresso Bar.

Got my two pounds of Dark City beans delivered as I returned from cottage country this aft, roast date stamped 30 Aug, one was Cherry Bomb, a popular blend of theirs, and the other my first ethiopian Harrar, which the man said would knock my socks off.
Unfortunately no espresso machine to contend with here, nor an aerobie (yet) so it's all drip-thru filter. Har-Har!

[Beanie]

Mercury uses Intelligentsia beans now... I just don't know if they do so exclusively though. I was in when they had Kid O and damn that was a good capp!! Consistently good place for fab coffee. I've only had to return one drink once out of 20-30 times. Great coffee, great people, but the music gets a little too loud sometimes.

This place was my refuge when I just came back... free wifi helped too

[Beanie]

After the wicked storm this wknd, today was a gorgeous sunny totally blue-sky day So, off I went to Mercury again. I usually go after 5pm which is perfect cause it's my fave barista, Alex's shift Another damn good Kid O capp. But after chatting for a bit about ristretto... up came my double ristretto macchiato...bloody hell! An absolutely fabulous pull... far better than all my previous ones... halfway through my drink, Alex mentioned that the machine's been readjusted. I asked if they cooled it down and that's precisely what they did. Hurray for that because it was THE best ristretto macc I've had outside of home Kid O was roasted 03-Mar btw

Oh... and just before leaving, he told me there was a Barista Jam and Latte Art throwdown happening at Manic the same evening.... Of COURSE I went!!! I'll post a new thread on it ...later... for now, I'm gonna try to sleep... damn daylight savings... lost an hour's worth of sleep this wknd

Oh and update of previous post... it's not exclusively Intelly... but mostly The 'espresso' blends are fairly darkly roasted (if I roasted to that level of colour in my Hottop, it would've been just shy of rolling 2C). The SO's he showed me looked to be either just before 2C or just at, which is what I'm used to