Did you know that September 29 is National Coffee Day? To celebrate we were invited to Summer Hill Event Boutique for a masterclass with Mr. Coffee. I was so excited to go and learn more about coffee since I drink it every day.
I walked into the venue and instantly got a whiff of coffee as people were brewing and making specialty coffees. The room was set up with two tables that had different grounds of coffee at your seat as well as several Mr. Coffee coffee machines for us to try out and make our own drinks.
To start the event we had a full breakfast that consisted of eggs, pastries, parfaits, fruit salad, overnight oats and a ton more so of course I had to load my plate up. Obviously, I needed a coffee to have with my breakfast so TikTok creator Barista Brian showed me how to use the machine and made me a latte. He even drew a bear on my latte that I didn’t even want to drink it because it was so cute.
After breakfast, we had a brief introduction about the Mr. Coffee and then started our workshop. Caitlin from Street Brew Coffee taught the master class. We learned how to smell the different types of roasts of beans. I tried to see if I could get the different notes but to me, it all smelled similar.
We then learned how to do coffee cupping. If you’re like me and don’t know what that is, it’s how coffee is tested. Hot water was poured into our cups filled with coffee grounds and we had to wait for a few minutes until a crust formed before we could scoop out the grounds that were floating to the top. To taste the coffee, we had to take a big spoonful and do a big slurp to have the flavour coat our tongue.
I was able to taste the difference between the roasts, how one of them had more acidity, and one was earthy and had some chocolate notes to it. It was cool to try to explore the different notes to coffee, it also made me realize I don’t like light-roasted coffee and definitely enjoy a good dark roast.
After our coffee cupping course, we moved on to learn about the new Mr. Coffee 4-in-1 machine that makes either hot or cold lattes and cappuccinos. Barista Brian showed us how simple the machine was to use but also gave us a crash course on how to create latte art.
We all had a chance to try making a latte ourselves and creating our own latte art but of course, Brian showed us up and nonchalantly drew the Toronto skyline in a cup. Meanwhile, I was trying to do a simple apple and accidentally made a blob so my I didn’t end up making any cute latte art.
Overall I had a fun time learning so much about coffee and the workshop has given me more appreciation about coffee as well as given me tricks and tips to create a good cup of Joe at home.
Want to check out and learn about more local Toronto spots? Check out our previous blog posts here.