what makes a great latte

I love coffee. For me, it's the epitome of a slow, relaxed moment. It's delicious, brings people together... And also happens to be a socially acceptable excuse to take an unreasonable number of breaks at work.

Like a number of my friends, I really appreciate a great latte. Some major chains constantly toot that they have the 'Best Premium Lattes' around, which just makes me as happy as:
1. to hear that 'Our company is about synergy and innovation'.
2. lame pick up lines, like "Hey baby, yes or no?" (A really awkward moment for me last week)

Indie coffee shops have the absolute best lattes. It's best to go when there are no lines, but good cafes are consistent. 

Stumptown is a famous roastery from Portland Oregon (on par with Intelligentsia beans from Chicago)

So what makes a great latte? Tanya, from Lit Espresso Bar, says the following:

This is actually Jane from Lit Espresso. All the baristas here are super cool

 1. Whole milk (because let's be honest, fat is delicious)

2. A well balanced shot. Not too metallic or sour. Just flavorful. 

3. Espresso topped with delicious micro foam.

The foam should be thick enough to support a stir stick if you put it right through the milk

I highly recommend Lit Cafe in Little Italy and Roncesvalle for some good coffee.

<3, 

Jen.

distillery district - a day with my friend Tiff

My friend Tiff and I took a day trip to the Distillery District! I loved that it was filled with artisan goods, and other treasures to explore. We were incredibly lucky that it wasn't crowded, so no lines at cafes for iced coffee, microbatches of chocolate, savory goods at bakeries, or 20 bridal parties around every corner trying to get photos. I felt like I was in Europe during a heat wave. The world was an oven, but it didn't take away from the beauty and rarity of walking on cobblestones in Toronto.

This is my friend:

 

Check out this old school charm in downtown Toronto.

 

We got iced coffee at Balzac. Not going to lie - it tasted great but did not help cool us down. Heat 1, Iced Coffee 0. 

 

People were walking away from a public piano! There are a ton of pianos all around Toronto for public use as a city-wide community initiative for the Pan Am games.

 

Tiff can play a few tunes, like All My Life by Boyz II Men. This also happens to be an amazing picture for an online dating profile.

 

Then we went into an air conditioned building, Soma Chocolate! It's the only chocolate company in Toronto that buys microbatches of beans, and makes chocolate from start to finish. We tried a bar of the luxury chocolate line, and delicious truffles.

 Delicious hazelnut truffle, and sea salt caramel with dark chocolate truffle.

This is a microbatch with tones vanilla, brownies, and an "astringent" finish. It was like fine dining - a nice treat but I like my hole in the wall foods.

 

Regardless, this pretty much represents how much I love cafes:

We hopped over to Brick Street Bakery - a tiny place, but they make a solid chicken pie:

  

Such a beautiful place to be:

Hope you're having a sweet summer, 

Jen.

grange park - summer roses

Every year, the same rose bush under a berry tree blooms at Grange Park.

 

Canada Day!

I spent Canada Day last week with my friends watching the Eurocup (... not going to lie, almost every time Spain scored, I was busy talking to someone and watched all the epic moments in the replay. Diehard fan, indeed.). We then tried to find the Pride parade, only to find out that it ended before the game did. But the day was not lost! We headed over to Woodbine beach, which in my 10 years of being in Canada, has been one of my favorite ways to spend the day.

The most magical part is the fireworks that filled my whole view of the night sky. We also played volleyball, pushed each other into the cold Lake Ontario, and attempted small human pyramids,which my friend affectionately refers to as the slave drive.


AND did you know that we do cool displays in Toronto? There was a gigantic fountain in the day time, and at night, the Canadian flag was projected onto it, so it looked like it was a holographic flag waving in the breeze.

I don't usually feel extreme patriotism (I think this is a mark of being Canadian, no?) but I was quite content to be Canadian.

Fountain during the day.

Fountain during the night. Cool, right?