It's cold out there HoneyCAt! Come on in and warm up with us.
Neil is giving out Free Hugs Today. Just as and you shall receive.
We have been listening to a lot of Tom Waits today. I feel this trend extending as long as possible. =I'm sure Alex can't only last so long without death metal.
Like a fish out of water, at some point you give in or he dies.

NEW NEWS
On Press!!! $5.00 + tax
Costa Rica Flecha Roja- There is nothing shy about Flecha Roja. This coffee is bursting with red fruit sweetness, citrus acidity, and an underbelly of caramel. Its finish is astoundingly crisp and clean… enough to make your lips smack!

Los Delirios, Organic Nicaragua- Delightfully creamy! Caramel and wild honey provide sweetness while dark chocolate, baking spice and a tinge of fresh cranberries compliment the finish. Well-balanced with a buttery mouthfeel.

Kenya- Kianderi Auction Lot- This is one of those coffees that can leave one speechless with wonder. It all begins with the aroma: intense and enticing. A gorgeous combination of floral and citrus scents provide a preview of what will be found in the cup. As the coffee cools, a classic black currant flavor emerges and resonates all the way through the finish. The sweetness is abundant and omnipresent, greeting one at first sip and trailing off serenely several seconds after swallowing. It all ends with a shadow of sweet currant lingering a few moments before disappearing cleanly and leaving a silly grin of pleasure.

If you missed the Hacienda La Esmeralda Geisha Jaramillo Especial last week you have one more chance to order it from us before you have to wait a whole year. This coffee has been top shelf for 3 years going on and we're bringing it Leslieville one more time. Just check out it's curriculum vitae:

#1 2004 Rainforest Alliance Cupping
#1 2004 SCAP Cupping #1 2005 SCAA & SCAP Cupping
#1 2006 SCAA & SCAP Cupping
#1 2006 Rainforest Alliance Cupping
#1 2007 SCAA & SCAP Cupping
Imagine That!

We'll be selling presses for a mere $25. What what? How dare you call that a "mere" $25? Well if you want me to break it down to you here it goes:

Last year this coffee was going for $50 a pound - green beans. On top of that you lose about 20 % of the gross weight after you roast it. But THIS year it's going for a record $130 a pound. Each press requires about 25 grams of coffee so $25 a press is about the gross price. WE ARE NOT MAKING A PROFIT! Yeah ok, I guess that's pretty cool of you guys. Damn skippy.

It's in homies! What do we have? Well sitting right now in our high-security safe we have one of the best coffees in the world that won the C.O.E. three years in a row! It's the heavy weight champion of the world and he's just chilling, waiting for his big debut in Toronto tomorrow around 2pm. So if you took out a second mortgage to try this once a year King of Commodity coffee, come and get it. Time WILL be working against you. Coffee like this waits for no man/woman. Get off your butt already!
Hacienda La Esmeralda Geisha Jaramillo Especial
"Words fail to properly capture this coffee. From the very beginning it mesmerizes your senses with its intense aromatics of jasmine and coffee blossom. The ethereal nature of this coffee will befuddle and captivate you – making each sip an urge for another. As you taste it, notes of lime, honeysuckle and tangerine undulate atop a crisp, citrus acidity. The potent sweetness transforms into a finish of white grape and jasmine flower. La Esmeralda is a truly unforgettable coffee experience. "

Alex:
Music has always been a predominantly noticeable feature here at Mercury (besides our kick-ass coffee of course) and upon walking into our humble corner you'll find yourself at the nexus of the universe where great espresso and cheesy 80's songs intersect to produce the greatest vibes known to Toronto. We started out with strictly rock 'n roll and have now evolved to encompass everything but classical and jazz. Let me tell you, there are endless possibilities.

Enough of that for now.

Coming in from Chicago on Wednesday will be:

Hacienda La Esmeralda Geisha Jaramillo Especial

"Words fail to properly capture this coffee. From the very beginning it mesmerizes your senses with its intense aromatics of jasmine and coffee blossom. The ethereal nature of this coffee will befuddle and captivate you – making each sip an urge for another. As you taste it, notes of lime, honeysuckle and tangerine undulate atop a crisp, citrus acidity. The potent sweetness transforms into a finish of white grape and jasmine flower. La Esmeralda is a truly unforgettable coffee experience."

There you have it. This was quoted from the Intelligentsia website and I don't think I could've said it better. If you have a moment on Wednesday, stop by... we'll be caffeinated...very caffeinated.

Damien:
In other Mercury-related news, we'll be allowing our customers to get to know a different side of our staff via some oh-so-righteous coffee bean caricatures. In representing each staff member as a personalized coffee bean on our window, resident Art Star Alice Berg has, with the unerring hand of a trained surgeon, cut straight to the heart of each Team Mercury member's soul, producing not only a shockingly accurate physical effigy, but also a disturbingly Real account of the very fibre of our respective beings. Plus, they are rather (to borrow the parlance of the young people these days) 'jokes.' I stand behind them One Billion Percent.

MAN but it got chilly. Mornings are dark and cold these days as we get nearer to winter, and the only way I make it through is with a toque, a sweater or two, and a steady supply of cappuccino. Fortunately, we are now open even earlier during the week-- at 6.30 in the A-M, Monday to Friday. You know, just in case you're one of those poor souls who has had to drag themselves out of bed at an ungodly hour so they can make it in to work at a profoundly blasphemous hour, and have had to cope with profane office coffee because we were still snuggling in bed-- all of us, together, warm and safe-- while you drove by in the pitch black morning drear. Aye, now we join you in companionable misery, five days a week.

Well, I don't. I don't have to open during the week! Bahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

--Ben, the jerk.


I'm a bigger jerk!

--Neil, the bigger jerk.


It's true. I hardly seem a jerk at all, compared with Neil.

--Ben, who really isn't a jerk at all, not like that Neil.

Hey Kids. This is a photograph of Damien and I back in the day. Man was he a fox or what?!?

Here is some more great COFFEE NEWS from Mercury...
We will soon be featuring the Hacienda La Esmeralda Geisha Jaramillo Especial as a press. This will be taking place on the 18th of October. We will be doing this pressing by order only, so email/ call/ or come in and sign up. The pressing will be $25.00 a pot (I know it's a bit on the steep side, But SOOOO worth it!). Here is what Intelligenstia is saying about the Esmeralda:

Words fail to properly capture this coffee. From the very beginning it mesmerizes your senses with its intense aromatics of jasmine and coffee blossom. The ethereal nature of this coffee will befuddle and captivate you – making each sip an urge for another. As you taste it, notes of lime, honeysuckle and tangerine undulate atop a crisp, citrus acidity. The potent sweetness transforms into a finish of white grape and jasmine flower. La Esmeralda is a truly unforgettable coffee experience.

So if you are into unforgettable experiences then you will have to try this one out. I would say it has to be like spending the night with Damien Dancing.

Some more coffee buzz. Our next feature for pressing will be the Las Temopilas, Nicaragua Cup of Excellence: Fourth Place.

From one of the same producers as our Organic Los Delirios, this 4th place Nicaragua Cup of Excellence winning lot is impeccable. The coffee introduces itself to you with an abundant sweetness that indicates just how careful Sr. Canales was in ensuring the selection of fully ripe coffee cherries during harvest. Notes of fresh raspberries and lime blossom on the back of a crisp acidity as it finishes into a clean milk chocolate denouement.

NEW STORE HOURS!!! We will now be open at 6:30am all weekdays. So from Monday- Friday come in extra early for your cup of joe. If you feel so inclined you could drop in and start your conversation off with "Boy it sure is early!"

I'm sure the staff will love you for it.

That's all the news that's fit to print. So have yourself a wonderful evening, and pop in if you feel like it. We love the pop in.

- Damien "looks great eating a apple" Zielinski and Alice "don't mind if you hack a dart, dude" Berg

Haha! Fooled you. You thought you were having the best coffee in Toronto all this time? As if. We've been saving it for ourselves. But we've repented, we've changed our ways: we're ready to tell you everything we know.

We are now offering featured French Press*-prepared coffees for your tasting pleasure. Right now, you can choose between two Latin American single-origin beans: Tres Santos, a Colombian micro-lot, and Los Immortales, from El Salvador. We'll grind your beans fresh to order, and give you the low-down on how long to steep it for, how to taste it, and what wonderful aromas you'll be experiencing. It brings coffee drinking to the next level. But hurry! We're already running low.

*Get it? Huh? French Press! Huh? Huh? Get it?

Damien sez:

"Well dudes, if these snuggly unicorns don't make you all warm and fuzzy-feeling (you soul-less scoundrel), then don't worry cause I got some fancy news that will make you all happy and stuff:

Mercury is an unstoppable crazy train of incredible savage goodness, and it's getting more off-the-rails every day. Evidence? Glad you asked:

1) Intelligentsia has landed. We're currently brewing the Black Cat and Kid-O around the clock (while we're open, anyway), and both of them are outstanding. I'm drinking a delicious shot of the roasty and refined Black Cat as I write this dribble, and am I enjoying it? You betcha!

2) We got a new refurbished Ditting grinder that absolutely grinds anything we put into it. If that doesn't sound exciting, then you haven't seen this thing. Oh, buddy.

3) Robert Farmer's astonishing artwork is now hanging on our walls, and I pretty much don't care where you live- it's really worth the trip out here just to see it. A surrealist romp through a dizzying postmodern world of symbols, Farmer's technically stunning Last Supper series reconfigures everlasting icons within the context of an era characterized increasingly by transience and interchangeable cliches. The result is a fascinating and wonderfully fun juxtaposition that proliferates new meanings while calling into question the very connections we tend to force between the signifier and the signified.

Well, that's what I get out of it anyway. Come see the pieces already, so we can wax art.

4) Alice Berg still works here, and she gets better every day. So you need to come back every day even if you already think you know how awesome she is.

I love Mercury. It makes me really happy. Thanks for reading what I have to say."