The 3^rd Annual Beanstock Coffee Festival was held over 2 days at Performance Works on Granville Island in early November where coffee enthusiasts filled the room tasting Pour-overs, espressos and macchiatos. Each day most of the vendors were different as they featured multiple coffee roasters from around the city as well as from other parts of BC and Canada. I attended the festival on the Sunday where I had a chance to meet some new coffee roasters as well as catchup with many coffee industry friends.

As a coffee lover I am always looking to sample the newest coffees and see the new roasters who better the industry; I met some new folks including Caritas 9 Coffee Roasters (Burnaby) trying their pour-overs, along with No.6 (Nelson) and their Full City Espresso, also loved tasting the coffees from Structure (Montreal) and trying some of the Mogiana Coffee (Richmond) Nitro Cold Brew.

I also enjoyed tasting pour-over coffees from Smoking Gun (Mission) Coffee Roasters as well as Vancouver based Timbertrain.

Each ticket holder received two tokens that could be exchanged for a 100 gram sample bag of roasted coffee from one of the roasters allowing everyone to expand their horizons and try something new. Everyone also received a souvenir mug that they were able to use during the event when trying the coffees at the various booths; as well as a tin of a special coffee made just for the festival to take home.

Some of the coffee equipment suppliers were on site making cappuccinos and macchiato’s from a variety of different coffee roasters, caught up with Danny of ECM – Espresso Coffee Machines (Burnaby) who made some delicious macchiato’s.

As Vancouver is widely considered North America’s epicentre for coffee culture, this is why the organizers of the coffee festival chose our city to host the 2019 coffee festival. The festival featured approximately 30 independent micro-roasters from all over the country. Keep an eye out for the next Beanstock Coffee Festival here.

By: Richard Wolak