Back in 2003, two longtime Canadian friends, Nik Green and Edan Marshall, originally thought of visiting the best coffeehouses in British Columbia and making a book out of it. (Back in 2003, we had the exact same idea for San Francisco.) They’ve recently come back to the idea, but this time as a Web-based TV series documenting their road trip across all of Canada to find their favorite independent coffeehouses.

The result is Common Grounds TV: Across Canada in A4 for best coffee. The episodes are hosted on YouTube and published on the Common Grounds TV Web site.

A TV program focused exclusively on the coffee can be a little limiting, so we very much like the concept of a coffee show infused with a major road trip/travel theme. But while some elements of the show work, we can’t help but feel that the series would improve a lot with tighter editing.

The team has finished Season One in Canada, which includes 20 segments. They are already planning to do a second season that should focus on the U.S. West Coast. In one of the better episodes from Season One, here they interview Sevan Istanboulian of Montreal’s Cafe Mystique:

Today’s Toronto Star featured an article on the growth of Toronto area independent coffee shops (many of which call themselves “espresso bars”, per the article): TheStar.com – living – Toronto’s love affair with espresso bars heats up. Toronto now has a mixture of established independent espresso bars and a growing array of newer ones. (A little over a year ago, we wrote about a Toronto local who lamented the common over-extraction problem. Hopefully this new crop of indie espresso bars has helped.)

While some credit Starbucks with paving the way for consumer interest in these indie coffee shops, the co-owner of one of them notes, “They’ve [Starbucks] taken away the art of the barista with what I call their robo-espresso machines.” The article suggests that much of the success of these independent espresso bars comes from how they cater to a customer’s desire for “individual service and wanting to feel special”.

Me? I don’t need to feel special. I just want good espresso.

101 Ways to Make Your Coffee Unrecognizable

On that note, the rest of the article tours a number of Toronto espresso bars with Susan Zimmer, a Calgary-based author of a new book called I Love Coffee! Over 100 Easy and Delicious Coffee Drinks. Which leads me to another observation. Despite the specialty drink “ring” of the three-ring circus that is the barista championship, I have yet to meet a coffee expert with an opinion I respect who focuses their energies on the variety of coffee drinks rather than the quality of the coffee per se.

Sure, a single espresso every time might sound like a monotonous death sentence to some people. But who in their right mind needs over 100 coffee drinks? That smacks of Starbucks’ coffee-flavored milkshake approach, primarily aimed at people who really don’t like coffee but still want to play along as if they do.

And while I’m sure Ms. Zimmer knows her stuff — even if her other book has the red-flag title of Cappuccino Cocktails & Coffee Martinis — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been disappointed by coffee books that suddenly turn into pages and pages of recipes by the end. These books are no more about coffee than The Betty Crocker Ultimate Cake Mix Cookbook is a book about sugar.

Is it really so hard to understand? Coffee is not wine. It is not a martini either.

Yesterday Scott Beale, of SF’s Laughing Squid fame, posted on his visit to The Elysian Room in Vancouver: Laughing Squid » The Elysian Room. I too hear they make a mighty fine espresso (boy, am I overdue for a Vancouver espresso trek). They not only have a Clover, but they’re also a dealer.

According to an article today published by the CBC News, more than one million pounds of coffee sold in Canada with “Fair Trade” labels last year were fakes: Fair trade supporters seek federal regulation. Lacking certification from the Canadian organization that independently audits and certifies Fair Trade goods, many of these certification labels on the market are bogus. Some supporters of Fair Trade products are calling for federal regulation of the certification; the Canadian government currently has no such plans.

Before consumers can even question whether Fair Trade is an ethical, socially responsible, and effective solution to the global coffee problem, they currently have to question whether their coffee is correctly labelled Fair Trade to begin with.

Yesterday’s Toronto Star featured a few interviews on what it takes to make a great espresso — including the opinions of Stuart Ross, an award-winning barista and co-owner of Bulldog Coffee in Toronto, and Coulter Jones, the 2006 Canadian barista champion from Vancouver’s Caffe Artigiano.

However, only Mark Prince, of coffeegeek.com, was able to answer their questions about reasonable espresso machines for home use: TheStar.com – Espresso yourself.

Knowing the difference between a good and bad espresso can be a curse to many a former barista. Or so says a former barista in today’s Georgia Straight, a popular Vancouver free weekly: Straight.com Vancouver | Best Eating | Locals have much to learn about espresso.

The author writes that, “The espresso, as it is pouring through the machine, should squirt through in 20 to 30 seconds and have three clear features: at the bottom, the dark heart; in the middle, a deep brown body; and at the top, a thick layer of flavourful crema.” All basic stuff. But it gets interesting when she suggests, “a bitter-tasting latte should be sent back.” Who would pay for a corked bottle of wine, right?

The author says she sends back about half of her espresso drinks. It’s a habit I’m going to have to take up more often myself.

Also mentioned in the article is the Canadian National Barista Championships in Vancouver this weekend and an interview with Barrett Jones, an award-winning barista from Vancouver’s Caffé Artigiano — arguably my favorite place for an espresso in North America.

A guest column in yesterday’s Toronto Star concerned a European friend of the writer who feared travelling to North America for the dreadful coffee. She even packed her own espresso machine out of desperation: TheStar.com – A Eurocentric quest for espresso.

The writer was on a mission to convince her European friend that cosmopolitan Toronto had come a long way towards offering good coffee. They started out at Café Diplomatico (aka, “The Dip,” a local Italian café) and a local Starbucks — both that her visitor found dreadful. She reserved particular disdain for the latter:

Kati said that if anyone in Germany or Italy were served espresso in a paper cup, it would be refused — “thrown back” was the literal translation.

Have I ever been tempted to give an espresso shot a heave-ho back at the barista when it comes back to me in a paper cup — even after asking to have it “for here”.

Her visitor found the espresso more acceptable at La Maquette (a French restaurant no less) and particularly excellent at the new and upcoming Mercury Organic Espresso Bar. She also found Jetfuel Coffee to be quite average, Balzac’s Coffee to be a bit better, and gave very high marks for the restaurant espresso at Bar Mercurio.

The writer made no mention of Bulldog Coffee, however, which is a must-visit whenever I’m in Toronto.

Today Waterloo, Canada’s The Record published a lengthy article on Phong Tran, an aspiring Canadian barista champ from Matter of Taste in Kitchener, ON: THERECORD.COM | INSIDER | ‘Barista’ rising to head of Canada’s coffee elite.

Eastern Canada just started their own regional barista championships last year, and there’s one going on right now in Toronto. Author Colin Hunter documents some of the finer issues and challenges Mr. Tran faces in the competition.

Yesterday I came across a Toronto area blogger, StDan, who has picked up his own cause for finding some of the best espresso served in his fine city of Toronto: Espresso Hunt: Little Italy. Naturally, even at this early stage, he noted the following (familiar) problem: “most places put too much in it”.

Yes, the infamous overextraction problem. Making good coffee is as much a science as some of the finer points of cooking. To simplify matters a bit, brewing coffee is largely about the science of temperature and pressure… and time. The goal is to extract the most ideal flavor and aroma components from roasted, ground beans while leaving behind much of what isn’t so delectable.

• Old, stale beans? You won’t have much “good” coffee flavor to work with in your cup.
• Too hot? (Brewing temperature is ideally just below boiling.) You’ll scorch the beans and impart more of an ashy flavor.
• Not enough pressure? You leave too much of the “good” coffee behind — largely gushing water through coffee’s water-soluble elements that can taste quite nasty on their own. (This is perhaps the #1 problem with home espresso machines.)

On the other hand, pull too much water through your shot of coffee and it’s a little like using your tea bag three times too many. Except it’s far worse than just diluting your espresso. Letting more water pour through the coffee “puck” in the espresso machine, you draw out an excess of these water-soluble elements — resulting in more caffeine (contrary to conventional wisdom, a proper espresso has less caffeine than a typical cup of coffee), more bitter flavor elements, and yet a watered-down taste.

In my experience, overextraction is the #1 problem with espresso in most of North America. Hands down. In part, this is probably due to drink expectations from a culture accustomed to the Super Big Gulp®. So ironically, in the name of customer satisfaction, we are served more of something that’s far inferior. (“Smaller is better” has never resonated with our consumer culture.)

And if a café can’t get a handle on the extraction, any enjoyment of a thick crema that sticks to the sides of pre-heated cups is secondary…