Mercury Photos

 

 Happy Birthday! Five Years in Leslieville.
Creating the scene for Local Independent Cafes -
Mercruy Espresso Bar opened theirs doors on March 20, 2006 - it's been growing ever since.

Major Barista Jam on Saturday night filled the 400 sq ft. location to the brim, with local barista from the GTA. We had Detour, Social, Capital, LIT, TeAro, Crema, SJCB/CP, Terrior all in representation last night.
A great turn-out for the neighbourhood, and a great scene for Toronto to thrive off.
As a coffee geek, it was just a lot of love going around.
Great to see so many familar faces.
(more photos and details after the jump)

Matt was Chemexing some lovely coffee from Terroir:
Kenyan Kangunu
Hawaii - Ka'i (Rusty's Farm)

The Ka’u area is on the slope of great volcano Mauna Loa, as is Kona, but facing south as opposed to Kona’s facing west. This is by far the sweetest Hawaiian coffee I have ever tasted, an instant classic.

Having been on the Big Island I can honestly say that being South of the volcano is quite a vegetative rich area. Very hard to access without a range rover, but rewarding views at the same time.
This coffee is by far the sweetest coffee I've tried from the Hawaiian islands, bursting with floral tones and tropical fruit cup. Such a stark contrast to Intense, earthy Kona coffee.

La Esmeralda Baru Lot, Boquete, Panama, 2010 Crop! - Highly Coveted, and simply Delicious

Tasting Notes :
A lush fruit basket of peach, blueberry, and gingered lemon candy accented with tropical fruit.

Here is very comprehensive photo-barrage of the Latte Art Showdown that occurred on Saturday night

Thiago - Te Aro

Thiago

 

Aerin Fogel - Mercury

Lawrence - Crema

Matt Davies - Capital

Steve - Crema

Neil - Mercury (background: Jeremy - Terroir )

Neil - Mercury

Andrew - Crema

Andrew - Crema

Kaelin - Detour

Kaelin - Detour

Alex Tran - Capital

 

Alex - LIT College

Sophie - Detour

 

Sophie - Detour

Marcie - Unattached

Marcie - Unattached (Swan action!!)

Katie Davis - Capital

Taryn - LIT College

Bruce - Crema

Bruce - Crema (Phoenix)

Hugh - Detour

Hugh - Detour

Joshua - Mercury

Joshua - Mercury

Robin - Mercury

Tyler - TeAro

Tyler - TeAro

Maggie - Captial

Geoff - Detour

 

Geoff - Detour

Nolan - Mercury (Avant-grade)

FINALS: 3 Baristas, 3 Cappuccinos.

 Up First: Katie from Capital (former Mercury)

Katie Davis - Rosetta

 2nd up, Lawerence from Crema (Junction)

Lawerence Tulip

 

3rd finalist: Josh - Mercury (New School creation in the back)

 Winner of the Latte Art throw down: Miss Katie Davis (Capital/Mercury crew is quite content)

 Thanks for creating such a Rock n Roll badass indie cafe for everyone to enjoy.
As a coffee geek, it was interesting to watch barista's figure out the Synesso machine. It can be noted that the top 3 have been trained on Synesso and are particularly more familar with the beast.

3 Cheers to all that made it out this weekend to all the birthday celebrations.

(Friday - Crema Bloor (1 year) , Sunday: the TAMPERed Press (1 year))