Edmonton writer explores our city's love of bad coffee

New coffee shops are popping up all over Edmonton. On every corner, it seems, you can find an array of freshly ground, organicallysourced java.

But if you prefer your coffee strong, muddy and served in a paper cup, you're not alone.

Not everyone is sold on high-brow brew.

Edmonton writer Lizzie Derksen has been working as a barista for five years. During her time behind the espresso machine at Transcend Coffee, she faced her fair share of perplexed, even angry customers.

Many would storm out, preferring instead to get their caffeine fix from a diner or a corner store.

It had nothing to do with the service, and everything to do with the brew.

"People would come in and be angry with me because I could not give them regular coffee. Transcend doesn't have drip coffee and some people were very upset by that. They would often walk out."

From what Derksen has seen, this preference for bitter, less-than-fresh coffee is not uncommon in Edmonton.

Derksen set out to explore the phenomenon, and documented it all in an article she wrote for Sprudge, a coffee news and culture magazine.

She reached out to fellow baristas, writers and regular joes to see what made them love bad brew.

"Some people talk about the taste of it, a lot of people talk about things surrounding bad coffee, the context of where you buy it, issues of nostalgia, drinking bad coffee because you have a hangover, the cost was a big thing, too, and convenience."

During an interview on CBC's Edmonton AM morning radio show, Derksen said her research taught her that many Edmontonians takepride in drinkingquestionable coffee.

"People talked a lot about needing coffee. There's an interesting working-class pride in needing coffee, in viewing coffee as something you use to get through the day, instead of something that you sit back and enjoy."

Derksen doesn't think the city's love of 'bad brew' is going anywhere.

"For the record, I love good coffee," she says. "Sometimes that means an espresso pulled by a provincial barista champion, but sometimes it means an unmeasured, overbrewed French press to fuel me and my partner's attempts to solve world peace over breakfast."