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Caffeine Crawls are the brainchild of Jason Burton of the Lab in Kansas City, Mo., which take industry professionals and coffee enthusiasts to a number of cafés, coffee companies and related shops in a given city. Previous events have been held in Denver, Colo., and Kansas City. At each business, Crawlers have a chance to sample coffees, hear about what makes each place unique and socialize with their fellow coffee geeks. The Vancouver Caffeine Crawl was the first one where the Crawlers were free to travel on their own to the different participating shops around the city, so that they could go to the cafés in any order. Thus, running into other random Crawlers across town was a given. Previous versions of the Crawls have used buses or had all the shops near one street or section of town. The Vancouver Crawl began at the Main Street café of Salt Spring Coffee, where the always friendly Stamatis Papadopoulos, a barista trainer for the company, was excited to meet people, tell them a little about the history of Salt Spring Coffee, show off some of the company's newest lots, and then entice them to try a signature drink: a spiced VANCOUVER, LIKE THE OTHER CITIES OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, IS ABSOLUTELY BURSTING WITH INTERESTING, NEW CAFÉS, AND SINCE CRAWLERS WERE FREE TO EX- PLORE THE CITY IN THE ORDER THEY SAW FIT, IT WAS EASY TO DROP IN AT OTHER SHOPS ALONG THE WAY. orange mocha developed by the café's baristas specifically for the Crawl. Sitting at a table, examining a map and enjoying their coffees were Yvonee Fong and Eric Beland of Vancouver. Both are coffee enthusiasts who discovered the Caffeine Crawl on Facebook and decided to sign up. "We're just getting into coffee, " explained Yvonne, noting that she'd recently bought a Chemex. "We've been to some of the shops (on the Crawl)," she said, "And some we haven't." The Crawl was a good way, they decided, to discover more about the specialty coffee scene in Vancouver. Five cafés and a chocolatier were on the day's agenda including Salt Spring, Momento Coffee House, Salty Tongue Café, Caffé Artigiano, and Prado Café. Vancouver, however, like the other cities of the Pacific Northwest, is absolutely bursting with interesting, new cafés, and since Crawlers were free to explore the city in the order they saw fit, it was easy to drop in at other shops along the way. One of the cafés that drew the most attention was the recently opened 49th Parallel shop on 13th and Main just a short walk down bustling Main Street from the Salt Spring location. A brand-new space incorporating eye-popping design, a lot of reclaimed wood, a fireplace, and an integrated donut bakery, the 49th Parallel café this day boasted former Canadian barista champion Kyle Straw working the pour-over bar, Vince Piccolo at the striking Spirit espresso machine, and longtime World Barista Championship (WBC) judge Hugo Neuproler at the cash register. It was kind of like walking into a WBC café. I was overcome by a similar sensation when we visited the cozy Prado Café and found owner and multi-time national champion barista Sammy Piccolo behind the machine, his wife and seasoned WBC judge Andrea Piccolo manning the register, and a live feed of the Euro 2012 soccer tournament playing above the bar. Along the way to Prado, a short detour brought up another new café and roastery, Matchstick Coffee. A simple, uncluttered space, with a heavy vault door along the back wall (a remnant from the building's former days as a bank), Matchstick had the feeling of a Nordic café with emphasis on natural materials, clean lines and smooth workflow from the counter to the rear of the shop where the roaster stands in an out-of-the-way spot. As is the Barista Nation tradition, the daylong event ended with a friendly competition: for this event, the task was for teams to devise a summer drink for a café menu. The winning team, pictured here, took home coffee-themed gift bags made from actual coffee bags, not to mention bragging rights. After hosting the first Vancouver Barista Nation last fall, Salt Spring Coffee couldn't wait to take the reins again for another event. This one brought even more local baristas and café owners together to play with coffee, cup with expert importers, build community, and learn from one another. www.baristamagazine.com 29