Coffee Cup Stain

It’s not that Victoria, BC gets overlooked when it comes to any kind of lively discussion of coffee culture, it’s that it’s cool enough not to care.  Yes, the coffee there is that good, and yes, there are more than a few great spots to enjoy an espresso and enjoy the scene.  For coffee houses, the scene is always tangentially related to the beverage, so they say.  It’s about the conversations, the deep sense of curiosity and excitement that can only happen when young or hip people are gathering together.  There may be no age limit to hipness, and young is only as old as you feel, and this isn’t just the atmosphere in the cafes.

The local scene outside the shops is also particularly attractive to interesting people who are doing, or hoping to be doing, interesting things.  The popularity of victoria apartments isn’t just a passing phase, it’s been building for long enough now that there is something very elemental going on.  Perhaps that’s one of the reasons that the local coffee lovers don’t really mind that Canada isn’t completely on the map that way it’s sister hip city Seattle has been.

It might not make a whole lot of sense.  Looking at just the surface, the local coffee culture seems to be in pretty solid shape.  While most of the larger cities (and excluding the monsters of these) have their share of excellent coffee shops, the numbers are typically close to a dozen.  But here it’s a pretty staggering array of places to go.  There may be a bit of a lack in cafes that are open past ten, and that’s true in most any city in North America, but there’s a sense that this, too, will soon change.  There are more reasons for looking at www.rentstarlight.com than a good opportunity for one’s own career.  There is a genuine sense that things are on the rise.

There is also a great deal of history here, and that’s not excluding the coffee shops.  Roasters have been creating the kinds of coffee that made the boom happen since the early 70s, well ahead of the wave.  The knowledge does pass down through time, and this has played a part in paving the way for sleek places like Habit.  This one does tend to represent well for the area, as it is very bare bones in terms of trying to create an atmosphere that pleases.  The focus is on the steps of making coffee, and this is more than enough to invite the people that make the atmosphere themselves.  It’s a lot like how the neighborhoods work.  The infrastructure is already very strong, but demurs to the possibility that human experience can transform it to reveal its real potential.