by Joey Armstrong | Matchstick Coffee Roasters recently held a free public coffee tasting of Tim Wendelboe coffees at their Chinatown location. Since Wendelboe is from Oslo, it’s a rare thing for the beans to make a Vancouver appearance, so members of the local coffee trade – who usually only get together in competitive settings – were invited to partake.

If you’ve never been to a “cupping” before, it’s similar to a wine tasting. There are stations set up for people to smell the freshly ground beans. Then hot water is poured in and you wait. After that you break the crust of the coffee with a spoon and take in the aroma. Once the coffee is cool enough, you go around slurping spoonfuls. You swallow the coffee or spit it out in a cup, rinse the spoon in a cup of hot water, and repeat until you feel you’ve gotten the full measure of the bean. Esoteric fun. It was nice to see the crowd gather in a relaxed setting and nerd out. Oh, and there was beer flowing, with proceeds going to improve worker housing at the El Diamante farm in Guatemala.

Matchstick (Chinatown)

Neighbourhood: Chinatown

213 East Georgia St.

604-336-0213

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