Antiques Blog

Category Archives: Beverage

chocolate makes you happy

True, right? Chocolate does make you happy. It makes most of us happy, I think.  Today was particularly chilly in Vancouver, and snowy, and just the perfect kind of day for hot chocolate. At Bel right now we’re making this hot chocolate, with 70% Valrhona Guanaja Dark Chocolate, orange oil and fresh zest, and roasted green cardamom. It’s aromatic, chocolate-y and not too sweet. You should come in soon, if you’re in the neighbourhood, to have a cup and warm up a little. We’re making this particular hot chocolate until January 24th, for Vancouver’s 2nd Annual Hot Chocolate Festival. What is really sweet about this is that funds raised from the Festival are donated to the food services program of Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre. Now that’s warming.

From January 25 – February 3 we’re making a Rose and Raspberry hot chocolate with Valrhona Ivoire Chocolate, rose oil, vanilla and freeze dried raspberry. Sometimes I’m surprised when I like white chocolate, it’s not my first pick. But I love raspberry, and I love rose. I think this will be lovely and, one afternoon soon, I will forego my espresso for a pretty cup of chocolate, roses and raspberries.

Of course we’re going to make a milk chocolate hot chocolate. We’re using 36% Valrhona Caramelia Milk Chocolate, organic hazelnuts and hazelnut oil, and chai spice from February 4 – 14. You should bring someone with you that you like, someone who makes you laugh, and who likes hot chocolate (well, obviously, or you wouldn’t like them) and come in and be cozy and drink hot chocolates and eat cookies. If you snap a photo of your hot chocolate at your party for two, you could submit to win. If you win, don’t be surprised if there are suddenly more people who like you, what with your Hot Chocolate Festival Pass for next year and all. Free chocolate makes people more likeable. And happier.

Coffee Geek

There are espresso machines and there are espresso machines. The cornerstone at Bel Cafe, quite literally, is our gorgeous, sexy, fancy Kees Van Der Westen Mirage espresso machine. Some would say there is no better machine in the world, that it’s the machine. And that’s fine, good for us. But having an exceptional piece of equipment means nothing when it’s not used properly. Kind of like a great car owned by a lousy driver. You know the one? There’s an illusion that if you have a great espresso machine you will make great espresso. There’s so much more to coffee than that. You need talent and a whole lot more.

Our sexy Kees

Talent in the coffee world gives us the coffee geek. But first you must begin with well-sourced beans that have been perfectly, carefully roasted. And those beans must be ground flawlessly and then scaled or otherwise measured and skillfully tamped with juuust the right amount of pressure to result in an excellent extraction for the precise amount of seconds at the correct temperature and should one pre-infuse or just go with a straight infusion and should you use a portafilter with spouts when all the kids are talking bottomless? What’s a portafilter? Uh, you think you know what bottomless is.

David sent me this video a couple of months before we opened and, while we take our coffee seriously, we are, at Bel, geeks not snobs when it comes to coffee and service. We agree with milk in coffee and some are even laced with homemade caramel. And, by the way, unlike the video, our baking is very, very good. I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to baked goods.

Espresso made with a bottomless portafilter

PS – Bottomless, defined by a professional barista aka coffee geek, is a portafilter with the spouts chopped off. Otherwise known as naked or chopped, they became popular five or six years ago. It allows the bottom to be visible as the espresso runs through, so that the barista can see what’s happening with the extraction. It sounds dirtier than it is.