Since 1996, the Coffeecrew.Com website has been Canada's caffeinated creative coffee culture team - reviewing equipment, coffee, trends in the business and covering special events.
Photo Right - Victoria Carpenter-Rigger-Raconteur and man about town - Tom Heemskerk joins us as the new "Eyes on the street" Coffee Scene editor - Tom has years of experience in the Victoria coffee and food scene and is a welcome addition to the CoffeeCrew group of associates!
Tom has been a senior staff member at the Royal and Macpherson theatres as well as an event staging specialist at the Save On Memorial Centre. Tom can be seen downtown daily with his fluffy Chow chow "Tuva".
Our team is spread out from coast to coast in Canada. Your editor and creator of the website, Colin Newell and his wife Andrea (Associate editor and chief financial officer) are located in Victoria, B.C.
Ottawa area Senior Contributor - Dave Anderson has been writing non-stop from Ottawa for several years now, finally graduating from the dark and inhospitable recesses of the guest book.
Once a lonely coffee lover banished to the alcoves of frustrating Krups espresso servitude, Dave graduated to a gaggia pump powered machine in reward for his endless assistance and dedication to the cause.
Dave's day-thing is a world of software, hardware and ideas development.
Dave finds some extra time to dabble in the caffeine arts and these gifts he shares with the coffeecrew readership.
Island regional Contributing Editor - You could be our latest addition to the CoffeeCrew team
Live in Canada? Interested in writing for CoffeeCrew.com?
Send me a note.
Vancouver area rep - Dave Reimer. He is our youngest contributor to the coffeecrew web pages.
Dave is a geography graduate from the University of Victoria and holds a business degree from B.C.I.T Vancouver. Coffee and espresso are daily events in Dave's life and he takes the bean very seriously.
Currently, Dave is a frequent visitor to some of the best cafes in Vancouver and is working on a guide to great coffee, espresso and cafe food in Vancouver. He lives in the West End neighborhood of Vancouver, and frequents the cafes and bakeries of Commercial drive.
Down time includes rowing (for which he won a gold medal recently), hiking, culinary interests, listening to all styles of music and making the occasional contribution to the CoffeeCrew blog.
Dave will be bringing a lots of new ideas to the pages of the coffeecrew website.
In the photo at right, Dave Reimer enjoys a boat ride down the Mekong River in Vietnam. His favorite daily haunts in Vancouver include JJ Bean on Main Street and Commercial Drive, Prado, the Elysian Room and others. When we are in Vancouver, Dave Reimer is our primary guide to what is hot and happening in the Vancouver Food and Drink scene.
Toronto Cafe-Roaster Consultant - Sara Lee Spector is owner and roastmistress at EveryDay Gourmet Coffee (and Tea), in the historic St. Lawrence Market, 95 Front Street in downtown Toronto. In an ocean of bad coffee, Sara roasts the freshest organic coffee in Canada's largest city.
Her single-origin coffees are beyond compare and her espresso is superb. Sara and her friendly staff hold court at the market from Tuesday through Saturday. Sara can often be found tending her Deidrich gas fired roaster and between roasts, she is always open to coffee-talk however basic or advanced.
Sara is a regular supplier of lab coffee to the coffeecrew labs in Victoria as well as our Cafe and Roaster consultant. If you are thinking of getting into the roasting game in Canada, you might want to have a chat with her. If you are of the mind to open your own cafe, then you could talk to her as well.
You can meet Sara, talk coffee and walk away with some of Toronto's best fresh roasted coffee by visiting her at her cafe roastery - Every Day Coffee and Tea
Senior Editor and Creator - Colin Newell is the editor and creator of the Coffeecrew website. Colin started up his first internet-site, a gopher server, in late 1993.
By the Spring of 1994, the web was unfolding and he created his first few pages on a University IBM office computer running OS/2 Warp!
Let's flash back to 1975 when Colin had his first cups of coffee in his father's diner-cafe on Fort Street in downtown Victoria. Several bags of Murchies whole bean coffee later and the seed was planted for a future obsession. His first (really-bad) cappuccino was in 1979 at the Contempo Cafe on Yates Street near Blanshard.
His first coffee road trip was in the summer of 1986 on the road between Victoria and Regina, Saskatchewan searching out the best and the worst that coffee shops had to offer - and there were plenty!
In summary, Colin can count over 35+ years of experience playing with coffee in all its forms.
Colin is the CoffeeCrew's regular media contact and has done dozens of newspaper articles, guest interviews on national radio and TV: CBC, CTV, CNN, The National Post, etc.
Radio/TV/Newspaper interviews can generally be scheduled with as little as 24 hours notice.
All in all, the writers in the coffeecrew.com team have seen it all and tasted it all - So if you are looking for someone to talk about the specialty coffee environment in the 21st century, we are all available - Our writers are located in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, and Toronto.
The CoffeeCrew.Com team are available for radio, newspaper and TV interviews on very short notice - if you need to talk to a coffee expert, send us an e-mail.
