The Rest of The Snobbies 2020
The Rest of The Snobbies 2020 will start in a second, but in case you’ve been living under a rock, the biggest media event of the year hit Canada happened over the last three days.
I’m talking about The Snobby Awards.
Now, while I can’t actually prove it’s the countries biggest media event, deep in my heart I know it to be true.
Oh wait, that’s cholesterol from surviving the last nine months on a diet of COVID ready meals and six beers every evening.
Anyway…
The Snobbies only recognize the Best New Shops, the Best Roasters and The Best Coffee Shops.
But there are so many more people in the coffee industry that need a nod.
This is my list.
This is my dedication to those that went unnoticed.
This is The Rest of the Snobbies 2020.
This list is bought to you by no one.
Given that this list is mostly just the insane ramblings of someone that’s drunk waaaaay too much Mezcal this evening, there’s no way anyone would want to sponsor this post.
The ‘Swiggity Swaggity’ Award
Winner: Slothee Coffee
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Fun fact: Jess aka Slothee is actually just small enough that she’s legally classified as a key chain. I’m allowed to make that joke because the height on my driver’s license says “street light”.
Anyway, this year Jess has created a line of adorable Sloth inspired apparel. She has t-shirts, sweaters and a kick-ass little sticker available in her webshops.
The ‘BRAIN REBOOT’ Award
Winner: Prototype Coffee for their steamed cold brew.
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It looks like nitro cold brew. It tastes like a bowl of fruit and it feels like hot milkshake in your mouth.
Nothing about this drink makes sense and it actually hard-crashed my brain. I got complete sensory overload and couldn’t understand what the fuck was happening.
It was one of the most mind-blowing coffee tasting experiences I think I’ve ever had and I loved every second of it.
The ‘Best Cup of Coffee I Had This Year’ Award
Winner: Craft Cafe pour over of Finca Hartmann (Panama), Gesha Microlot (Honey Process) from @gardellicoffees.
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This coffee was basically a glass of orange juice, it was so packed with citrus flavour. It honestly went down as probably one of the top 3 coffees I’ve ever had in my life.
The “Tax Man Cometh” Award
Winner: Alfred Drinking Coffee for his new business.
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Did you know that when Alfred is not drinking coffee he’s counting numbers? In fact, he can count to 167!
Seriously though, despite being my mortal Instagram, Blog and real-life enemy, I’m super proud of him for starting his own Accounting Consultancy company!
You can reach out to him at his website here if you’ve got numbers that need crunching by someone who’s bloody great at it.
The “Quick, Close the Border to Give us all a Chance” Award
Winner: Stacey from Harken
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As you may know, Stacey has a tendency to win all the coffee competitions that exist. It was recently confirmed that the border to the US was closed not for COVID concerns, but more to protect the egos of the other competitors that kept getting their asses kicked by her.
This year, sadly, we’ve not been able to host any competitions in Canada. So hopefully this award will make her feel better about winning the same amount of awards as me this year.
Well except for this one, which is one more than me.
Damnit. Stacey wins again.
The ‘Best Packaging’ Award
Winner: House of Funk
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Firstly they’re cans, not bags. Second, they’re fully recyclable. Third, they have a special cap that sucks up oxygen to make your coffee last longer. Finally, JUST LOOK AT THEM. Aint they perdy?!
The ‘Holy Trinity’ Award
Winners: Alyssa, Karla and Ben at Pallet Coffee Roasters
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I’ve got a bit of an inroad to Pallet, what with working closely with them on my Siply project. I can honestly say that watching how damn hard Alyssa, Karla and Ben in the management team work, has made me realize just how much of a higher level they operate on than most people in the coffee industry. I swear they must sleep in the office.
The ‘Saddest Announcement’ Award
Winner: Olive and Ruby Cafe.
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After three years in business, Olive and Ruby sadly closed their doors for good. Summer and her team were one of the first few cafes to take a punt on being part of my Siply app. The whole team were warm and always full of energy, plus the shop was amazing. It’s truly a loss to the coffee scene in Vancouver.
But I have it on good authority that Summer and her family are doing well in her other endeavours. What an honour it was to have worked with them.
The “Captain Planet SHE’S our Hero” Award
Winner: Jen from Perk Eco
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Jen is the Founder of Perk Eco, a company that has designed a process to recycle, get this, 90% of all waste from coffee shops. They deliver a bunch of sexy looking bins to your shop then you load up all your waste into giant duffel bags which they collect when you need.
They have connections into global recycle supply chains, which means they can turn more of your trash into great byproducts than anyone else on the market.
Learn more about Perk Eco here.
The ‘Most Innovative Coffee’ Award
Winner: House of Funk for their Mandarum roast
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This is a coffee that’s fermented with mandarin peels then aged in a barrel. It’s truly sensational, bursting with bright fruit citrus notes and a tea-like mouthfeel. I was honestly left speechless when I cupped this.
If you want to try it you can’t, they’re all sold out. But put the pressure on them and maybe they’ll order more in.
The ‘Talk Dark and Handsome’ Award
Winner: Leaderboard Coffee
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Leaderboard coffee is the brainchild of male models Grant Gamble from, well, everything and Suneal from Roasters Pack. It’s kind of a dark and mysterious version of a coffee subscription, only they’ve gamified it somewhat, so you compete against each other in your coffee tastings. I’m still not 100% sure how it’s all going to work, but they’re roped in some of the biggest names in coffee to be educators during the whole thing, so it’s bound to be pretty epic.
The ‘Straight Best Espresso’ Award
Winner: Harken for their Winter Blend
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I don’t drink a ton of straight espresso, but when I do, I like it rich, syrupy and most importantly sweet. The Winter blend from Harken is an intense version of all those things. But easily the sweetness was the star of the show. It’s like someone put sugar in my cup beforehand. Excellent.
The ‘Damn that was Fun’ Award
Winner: Habitat Coffee for their Holiday Coffee Advent Calendar.
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Five amazing roasters, 24 coffees and a super friendly Instagram group to discuss them all. This was one of the highlights of the Christmas period for me. Getting to try so many types of coffee in such a small period of time, really grew my palate. House of Funk takes the win for ‘most surprising’ addition, with their face-melting barrel-aged Peruvian addition to this box.
The ‘Best Sponsors’ Award
Winners: Tie: Earths Own and Roaster Central
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The Vancouver Coffee Snob blog got pretty expensive this year, with my server costs going up and the amount of traffic to the site pretty much doubling. So when I went out looking for sponsors to throw some Ad’s onto the site, I decided on these two companies.
Thanks to both companies for the financial contribution to helping me keep this site alive and free for everyone to read.
If you enjoy this blog, the best way you can support me is to click one of the ad’s above to either buy Earths Own Oatmilk (my personal favourite and the one I always buy at the supermarket) or to choose from a huge selection of coffee from amazing local roasters at Roaster Central.
The “Coffee Shop I Bet You’ve Not Heard Of Yet” Award
Winner: Craft Cafe in New West
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OK, so actually a bunch of you know them already, as they placed in the 10 Best Coffee Shops list, but I’m still amazed by how many messages I get with people saying “Oh wow, I just went to Craft Cafe for the first time, it’s amazing!”.
And there’s a bloody good reason it’s so popular.
Firstly their coffee selection is huge. They bring in roasters from around the world, as well as some of the best coffees from those roasters. We’re talking $100+ per bag style beans. Often they sell them at cost, just to allow people to try something they otherwise wouldn’t want to pay for.
Second, their grilled cheese selection is honestly the best I’ve ever experienced. My recommendation is to get the one stuffed with lobster, it’ll change your life.
The ‘Best New Coffee Account’ Award
Winner: @imnotacoffeesnob
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The @imnotacoffeesnob account is an aesthetically pleasing and fun account, from someone who’s clearly enthusiastic about the local coffee scene. Felicia gives little micro-reviews of shops as well as coffee beans. Plus she has started some “drink coffee with me” sessions that I really hope she continues.
WAIT ONE SECOND!
I just re-read the IG handle! Release the IP lawyers!
You can follow Felicia’s IG accout here
The ‘Photobomb of the Year’ Award
Winner: Gabe’s Mask
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Nuff Said.
The ‘Go Fuck Your Self’ Award
Winner: The year 2020
2020 I know it’s been an emotional relationship, but I think we should see other people.
Coming tomorrow…
I get to sleep in!
If you’ve made it this far, bravo! Thank you for reading the four days of chaos that is The Snobby Awards.
It takes well over 100 hours of effort to put these together each year. So if you enjoyed them please consider sharing them with your friends.
Here are the links to the posts:
The Top 10 New Coffee Shops of 2020
The Top 10 Best Coffee Roasters of 2020
The Top 10 Best Coffee Shops of 2020
The Rest of the Snobbies 2020
I have some pretty big plans for the Vancouver Coffee Snob blog coming soon, so if you’re keen to be the first to hear about them or you just want to be the first to read my reviews, lists and news, you can sign up for my Newsletter below:
As an added bonus, when you sign up you’ll be sent a four emails over four days, telling you the story of how an idiot like me became the biggest coffee shop blogger in Canada (including the story of how I got onto national TV with a brown paper bag on my head).
Good riddance 2020. See y’all next year!
