Coffee, Your Way

The city is abuzz with cafés to suit every javaphile’s taste. By Simone Olivero.

Whether you like your morning jolt topped with artistically frothed milk, or the science behind the brewing is what really gets you into high gear, the perfect cup is waiting. Here’s where to find it.

Indie Aficionado

For you, coffee is a deeply personal experience. You want to know who’s making your coffee and the provenance of the beans.

Get your fix at:

• Chinatown’s Bond, which serves Bullet espresso from Oakville’s Reunion Island.
• Corktown’s Tandem, where co-owners Eugene Fung and Michie Yamamoto work the bar themselves, brewing from a rotating roster of local roasters, including Pig Iron, Cut Coffee and Detour.
• Etobicoke’s Black Goat, where sweets are baked in-house to accompany the fair trade, organic beans roasted nearby.

Avid ‘Grammer

Your friends—and your 1,000-plus Instagram followers–know you as the expert of the #coffeegram. Taste and good looks, your coffee has to have it all.

Get your fix at:

• Old Town’s Versus Coffee, a millennial mainstay for its rainbow-coloured latte art and perf natural lighting.
• Bloordale Village’s Baddies, which offers classic froth hearts and delectable snacks (like ’gram-worthy avocado toast) served on dishes speckled with fresh flowers.
• Summerhill Station’s Nutbar has a superfood-focused menu, but it’s the colourfully branded cups that have ’grammers scrambling.

Sleepy Parent

Single estate, artisanal…what? For you, coffee has become a lifeline more than a lifestyle. Bring on the rocket fuel, stat! (And room to navigate the stroller, please.)

Get your fix at:

• The Beaches’ Bud’s Coffee Bar, which has the perfect no-nonsense counter serving up double espresso shots from a classic La Marzocco machine.
• Old Town’s Neo Coffee Bar for its roomy, stroller-friendly interior perfect for new-parent meet-ups.
• West Queen West’s live arts hub/incubator, Theatre Centre, which has a quiet café with automatic doors and strong shots of Rufino beans.

Global Locavarian

You love it when global and local meet. And that’s a multicultural sweet spot that Toronto excels at, especially where coffee is involved.

Get your fix at:

• West Queen West’s Bu’na, where the Ethiopian coffee-brewing ceremony includes roasting fresh beans.
• Kensington Market’s Fika Cafe, a Swede spot in this multicultural foodie enclave.
• Uptown’s de Mello Palheta Coffee Roasters, which sources from farmers across the globe, offering new roasts by the season. A supplier to many local cafés.

Tech Geek

For you, life is about innovation. Coffee’s been around for over a millennium, but for you, nothing is tastier than the thrill of the new.

Get your fix at:

• The Entertainment District’s The Alternative Café, which boasts a Japanese cold-brew tower that resembles something out of a high-school chemistry lab.
• Pilot Coffee Roasters (multiple locations), where coffee is cold-brewed, transferred to a keg and served on tap with a blast of nitrogen to produce a frothy head at two of its locations: Te Aro and The Tasting Bar.
• Riverside’s Boxcar Social, where “flash” cold-brew involves blasting hot coffee over ice and then serving it up on tap.