Talking to Sara we got a sense of what it is like producing some of Toronto's best coffee.

Everyday Gourmet Coffee opened in the St. Lawrence Market in 1979, specializing in coffee, tea and spices. In 1997, coffee roasting came to Everyday Gourmet with the addition of a Toper drum roaster from Turkey. This gas fired coffee roaster can do 20 pound batches of coffee at a time

A coffee bar is built around a classic old Gaggia two-group and the on-site drum roaster anchors one of the corners of this delighfully warm space. Sara and her small crew of coffee lovers offer fairly traded and organic coffees, roasted daily, from a wide variety of estates.

Everyday Gourmet stocks 20 single origin or varietal coffees. With varied roasts from light-to-dark and blended, Sara creates over 50 different selections of quality Arabica coffees, including a full line of flavoured coffees and custom roasts. She also offer fair trade organic coffees as well as premium SWP(Swiss Water Processed) Decaf.

At the coffee bar, they brew six different coffees daily, as well as all the espresso based beverages, made with their signature espresso blend.

Life in the St. Lawrence Market is one of diversity with a colorful mosaic of produce, meat, seafood, arts and crafts. There is a sense of community unlike anything else in downtown Toronto.

The St. Lawrence Market, open Tuesday to Saturday, is home to 55 of the best food shops in Toronto. The Market also features the St. Lawrence Farmer's Market with over 49 Ontario farmers every Saturday year round and a Market Carts program with over 30 arts and crafts vendors selling one-of-a-kind collectables, unique crafts, custom-designed jewellery and ethnic imports.†

Here you will find the largest selection of cheeses from all over the world, some that you will not find anywhere else, 6 bakeries with over 300 types of breads, 8 butcher shops with exotic and everyday meats, a variety of fish stores, delicatessens, coffee stores, etc. The Market has been in continuous operation at this location since 1803 and is the preferred food shopping destination of Torontonians.

At left, Sara prepares to load the Toper Roaster with some Organic bean. Sara is a hands-on kind of roastmistress but encourages her clients and customers to understand all the dynamics of great coffee... from farmer to cup.

Sara Spector, roastmistress of Everyday Gourmet Fresh Coffee Roasters of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has generously sent us some of her coffee for testing, tasting and appraisal by the coffeecrew team. This "taste-snapshot" is going to become a regular feature on the coffeecrew.com pages. Why do this? There are a myriad of undiscovered or underexposed roasters around North America and we want to find out where they are.

Let's get to the coffee!

Sara sent 3 "mystery" coffees in whole bean, her "private" blend as well as the house espresso. The delivery of 3 mystery coffees serves several purposes. One: It tests our mettle. Two: It makes us work for our coffee. Three: It keeps us from pre-judging the samples.

We brewed up a sample of Mystery-sample #1 to start with. Our first guess upon taking a few lungs full of the fresh and fragrant and fresh whole bean was Sumatra Mandheling. More on how this guess went later.

We were informed that this was an Organic and/or Fair-trade coffee. We guessed kiln-dried and wet-processed. It had a hibiscus (floral) aroma around the cup with a very clear and undistracting coffee flavor across the center of my palate. No bitterness or resonating earthiness was present. We picked out some light-duty tobacco flavors as well as some very soft sugar notes, and a little caramel or chocolate in the cup. This was a very good example of a slightly undeveloped Sumatra, perhaps by about 2 or 3 minutes within the roast cycle. As a sample of "sumatra" goes, I would rate it at about 80 - 82 points out of 100. Better than 80-90% of other similar varietals.

Mystery-sample #2 had a medium sized body in the cup, a fairly light duty aroma, with very little astringency in the first sips. There was an oddball fruitiness at some depth within the taste profile. We pegged it as a Monsoon Malabar and we were right. It was lightly roasted at a second or two beyond first crack. It would have or could have benefited from another couple of minutes in the roast cycle.

Mystery-sample #3 had a citrus quality that jumped out of the cup like a cluster of whole lemons. Some people love this flavor profile which is common in Kenyan quality arabicas. There were wonderful singing notes and berry fragrances that danced around the mouth in this cup. I suggested that this bean was from Uganda. Sara told me it was from Malawi. Keep an eye on this bean!

House espresso: The taste crew found the house espresso pleasing and distinct. There were a variety of twangy flavors in the profile as well as deep dark chocolate notes. A hint of bitterness resonated in the finish. The coffee, as brewed fresh, had a good head of crema that hung in for about 30 or 40 seconds before it started to dissipate.

Our final test was of "Sara's Private Blend". We suspected, and it was not confirmed, that there was some Sumatra and Mexican coffee in this blend. It had a pleasant soapy aroma with medium-dark chocolate notes without any jarring acidy notes in the cup.

Summary

Sample-1 Sumatra Mandheling Rated 80% of some of the best SM Coffees that I have ever had. Very fine. Two thumbs up.
Sample-2 Monsooned Malabar Rated 75% of some of the best MM Coffees that I have had. Needed a longer roast period. Very good.
Sample-3 Malawi organic This is a great coffee for those who love the citrus high-life flavors of great Kenyan coffees. 80% rating. Great!
Sample-4 House espressoRated 75% of some of the best we have had.
Sample-5 Sara's Private Blend We liked it. It was a nice cup of coffee.

Conclusion: Sara's Everyday Gourmet Coffee Roasters at the St.Lawrence market in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in in a city of 5 million. This is a city that is short on great coffee. Sara is changing that. Head down to St. Lawrence market on the lower level and tell Sara and her gang that Colin sent you! ††