It may be common knowledge that the human olfactory sense is firmly tied to memory, but sometimes I still get positively bowled over by the intensity of remembrance evoked by an aroma.
Such is the case with Murchie’s, the tea and coffee merchant that has earned the distinction of being one of our province’s longest-operating specialty food purveyors.
While today’s incarnations of Murchie’s are more polished and posh than they were when I visited them when I was very young, the shops still reveal hints of the powerful and heady scents of flavoured teas, coffee bean oils and exotic spices that exist just beneath the pristine veneer of 2016’s minimalist interior design esthetic.
These scents immediately transport me back to childhood, to a period of time in the late ’70s and early ’80s when my father lived in a stunning two-bedroom flat in the West End on Thurlow Street, between Davie and Burnaby streets.
The kitchen, which was separated from a gorgeous dining room by French doors, had a massive pantry in which my father kept delicious sundries like pistachios, chocolate-covered espresso beans and tins of smoked oysters.
When I stayed with him on weekends, it was not unusual for us to walk down Thurlow (northbound) to Murchie’s, which was situated on the 1,000-block of what was commonly called Robsonstrasse then. In those days, Robson Street wasn’t the fashion runway it is now; there were many more family-run, independent and eclectic shops.
Walking into Murchie’s today provides a much more restrained version of the sensory assault that it offered nearly 40 years ago. Accordingly, I find the experience of shopping there to be at once comforting and melancholy; comforting in the business’s continued familiarity to me, melancholy in its longevity, which has borne witness to so much change, including the wholesale reinvention of central Robson Street as a corporate retail haven more than a community-oriented thoroughfare.
A new Murchie’s shop has recently opened on Lonsdale Avenue and is a small outlet, neat, impeccably ordered and maybe even a touch austere.
The shop is populated with elegant tea paraphernalia, from strainers to cups and saucers, as well as a wall of loose teas, shelves of tea bags that celebrate the company’s Commonwealth heritage (Prince Charles, Balmoral, and Golden Jubilee are among the blend names), ground and whole bean coffees, and boxed confection such as biscotti.
As the new location is located right next door to the iconic Canadian coffee and doughnuts giant Tim Hortons, it is not licensed to sell ready-to-drink coffee to consumers. Instead, it serves various tea-based beverages and, primarily, high-quality teas and coffees for home brewing.
I emerged from my recent foray into the Lonsdale location with a handful of teas and a bag of Murchie’s Best whole bean coffee, this latter priced quite competitively for small batch, locally roasted java at just $13.95 for a 400-gram bag.
The 100 per cent Arabica blend is subtle, with earthy, nutty notes and a hint of smokiness. On the topic of smokiness, the Baker Street blend of Ceylon, Keemun, Gunpowder, Jasmine and, in an unavoidably dominant role, a touch of smoky Lapsang Souchong, proved to be complex and rich. However, despite my unflappable love for Islay malts, I cannot warm up to the intense wet campfire, blue smokiness of the Lapsang. I would rather cure salmon in this tea than drink it on its own.
A lush Ginger Chai powder, to which one adds milk, sugar and a teaspoon of strong black tea (in my case, loose leaves of Murchie’s malty, tannic Scottish breakfast) yielded a spicy and eminently delicious cup of milky, frothy goodness. Roasting spices for a cup of Indian-style chai can be a time-consuming process, so Murchie’s ready-to-go solution is a great alternative.
The Editor’s Blend, selected in honour of my esteemed colleagues who keep this publication ticking, elicited a very favourable review from my English wife DJ, my go-to morning tea aficionado whose practiced palate does not suffer mediocrity gladly. She described the tea as tart but firmly tannic, balanced and bold. A final selection of Caramel Rooibos was like crème brulee in a cup. Round, creamy and decadent sugary notes overlay the Rooibos’s well-known floral, almost medicinal flavour.
These various tea blends and bag of coffee were $40. Murchie’s is located at 1525 Lonsdale Ave. murchies.com. 604-924-0846.
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Dine Out Vancouver is back for its 14th installment. Running until Jan. 31, the annual festival that encourages locals to get out and try their neighbourhood eateries in what is typically a slow, shoulder season for dining, boasts the largest participation ever this year with a record-setting 288 restaurants signed up for the event. To put that number into perspective, when Dine Out started back in 2003 there were just 57 participating restaurants.
Participating restaurants offer set menus designed to showcase their culinary style, with options available at $20, $30 and $40 price points. Typically, the set menus offer exceptional value to the diner as the intention is to expose the restaurant to new clientele that will come back and revisit the menu at some point again over the course of the year. On the North Shore, there are 19 participating restaurants. These are: Anatoli Souvlaki, Arms Reach Bistro, Bravo Cucina, Cactus Club Café (Park Royal), The Cheshire Cheese, The District Brasserie, Feast
Neighbourhood Table, Fishworks, Hurricane Grill, The Lobby at the Pinnacle at the Pier, The Observatory, Olive & Anchor, Pier 7, Salmon House on the Hill, Troll’s, Vaades, The Village Table, The Village Taphouse, and Zen Japanese.
More details, including restaurant contact information, are available on the official festival website dineoutvancouver.com.
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. North Shore News dining reviews are conducted anonymously and all meals are paid for by the newspaper.
