I love coffee. I’m not addicted and usually have my first coffee of the day some time in the afternoon and I don’t usually have more than two a day. Some days I have none and that’s fine. But I really love the taste of a good coffee and in Barcelona I learned that my favorite way of drinking coffee is what the Spanish call a cortado (tallat in Catalan). It’s usually served in a small glass and in Spain at least half, if not two-thirds, of the glass is filled with espresso and then topped with steamed milk. I like it better this way because the coffee taste is not drowned out by too much milk as in the lattes and capuccinos commonly available in North America. In France I learned that the closest thing to a cortado is a petit crème. Here in Toronto it’s always a bit tricky. Technically, the closest thing is a macchiato, which is an espresso topped with some milk froth. So I usually order a macchiato and ask them to add steamed milk rather than just froth. Call it a wet macchiato. We used to have a perfect cortado every saturday at Ozzie’s but unfortunately he stopped serving them in the little glasses since they broke so easily. Now we have our cortados in half-filled capuccino cups, which is not quite the same.

But lately I’ve noticed that some of the baristas in Toronto know exactly what a cortado is and I can even order it that way – simply asking for a cortado and not explaining how to alter a macchiato. So far I’ve had great cortados at the Dark Horse, La Merceria, and Sam James Coffee Bar. The latest one – the one on the photo above – was from Manic Coffee. It certainly brought me back to Barcelona.

At b espresso

La Merceria
506 Adelaide St West (a couple of blocks west of Spadina)

Other reviews of the place:

Toronto Life

BlogTO

National Post

On the issue of making espressos at home, Sam says, “When people talk about buying a home espresso setup I tell them to save their money and just go to a coffee shop. To get a good home set-up it’s going to be about $5,000 for something that compares to a commercial machine, when you might as well buy a commercial machine and have it at home. For the two or three bucks you might pay every day for a good espresso, it’ll take you years to pay off that machine. You’ll be a lot happier if you go to a coffee shop.” He is absolutely right. Alan and I considered buying an espresso machine at one point. After much research on what makes a good espresso, we’ve decided it wasn’t worth it. We would never be able to pull something that was similar to what a well-trained barista can get out of a commercial machine unless we were willing to spend thousands of dollars. So we bought a good quality stove-top espresso for our occasional coffee at home and spend our time exploring the nice independent cafes the city has to offer.  Sam James is one.

The place itself was pretty nice and we weren’t disappointed.

I even had time to read some newspapers while we drank our coffee.

Next time we’re in the area, I want to try this other place we walked by…

This is what I had last time I was there. Usually I have either the Mezza plate, Yum Yum 1 or 2. This one is a new dish and it’s Fava beans with lemon garlic tehina & tomato sauce, a very Lebanese dish. It was VERY good and exactly what I needed in a rainy, cold day.

This is what I had on Friday:

Quinoa salad with Lentils, carrot & beet salad, kale salad, and red rice ball. The place inspired me so much that I bought some millet at Kensington the next day and made this for lunch: