Salt Spring Coffee Co. is a micro roaster over on Salt Spring, obviously. Salt Spring serves Fair Trade and Organic coffee:

Salt Spring Coffee Co.â„¢ is dedicated to the art of fresh roasting top-grade specialty arabica coffee beans. These beans are specifically sourced from smaller farms and farmer run co-ops in the world’s finest organic and shade grown coffee producing regions

Presently, we have one café on Salt Spring Island and roast all our coffee at our main roasting facility, also located on the island. Our fresh roasted coffee is distributed off island to Victoria, Vancouver Island, Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, across Canada and internationally.

It’s not too far distant from that of Ethical Beans. The quality is definitely on par. They are perhaps more settled in their business model, but that has no effect on the coffee beans themselves. There was no espresso-based beverages to try, but I was impressed with the quality of the drip. It’s hard to have a good drip and to keep it fresh tasting while stored.

Their website is nicely done, and includes a great little e-commerce module. When I visit Salt Spring this summer, I hope to set up a visit to the roasting house.

I love those tiny little cups. So adorable. Once again, a display that just blew my mind. I love that they took so much time on the details and really set it out like a mini cafe. Tons of branding going on. Way to go!

Senses Bakery & Restaurant, aka Sen5es, is a small little shop well known for its amazing pastries. I figured a place with amazing desserts would want to pair that with amazing coffee. I was sadly mistaken.

Although I think the coffee probably had good roots, I believe the “baristas” are trained more for pastry than for coffee. And the machine they use for coffee attests to this. The coffee was made with the WMF Bistro - it’s all push button. Automatic coffee. From Americano to cappuccino. Sounds so wrong.

The funny thing is, I was feeling some hesitation at the bar after noticing the “talent” of the barista in pressing the button. But I was there and on my way to work, so I said what the heck. Noticing also that the price list has different prices for “coffee” vs. “americano” but knowing it was exactly the same for this machine, I opted for the lower priced version of the same drink.

My impression of the coffee was that it was likely not so bad. It had a good flavour to it. But it was not as strong as it should be, and was quite watered down.

Sigh. The life of a reviewer. Can’t expect them all to be good.

Coffee: 57%
Atmosphere: 80%
Service: 85%