Grab a Book and Try Not To Enjoy Various Blends at Blenz Coffee

One of my regrets of my time in Vancouver so far was not checking out the various coffee places. I guess being a born and bred Toronto area person transplanted to Ottawa, my loyalty to Tim Hortons is ingrained.

To make the most of my time, yet to remain fairly sane looking to passers by on the street, I decided to try a couple of different places spread out over a couple of days.

The first place I'd seen multiple locations of was Blenz Coffee.  At the Vancouver Public Library's Central Branch (345 Robson Street, Vancouver) there are a variety of small coffee and food places lining the library building's atrium. One of them is a Blenz.

Blenz Coffee Entrance at the Vancouver Public Library

I visited just before the Vancouver Public Library's Central Branch opened at 10 a.m. to find two Blenz employees behind the counter and a couple of customers gradually having their orders assembled or finishing up their coffees in the restaurant's seating area.

I was able to order right away but took a minute to review my options.  Blenz is similar to a Second Cup of Southern Ontario with different flavoured coffees available on top of their regular medium or dark roast offerings.

I settled on one of their special blends of the day, a Medium sized Columbian Sunrise which is apparently a "medium blend".

I waited for the gentlemen behind the counter to not only ask, in an up-selling way,  if: "would you like something to eat with that?" and my polite decline.  Next, he finally poured my coffee and brought it over to the counter.

I headed out to the tables in the library building's atrium where there are several tables shared amongst the stores and the library patrons.

Medium Columbian Sunrise

The Columbian Sunrise coffee straight up (black) was a disappointment.  It was almost coloured water.  I went back later to add cream to it which help add a little more taste to it, but still for $2.25 it's not worth it and I would choose another blend.

But all is not lost, I've previously visited this Blenz location for a regular run of the mill black coffee.  It was a decent straight up coffee that rivaled a Tim Hortons Original blend but a little pricey again at $2.25 for a medium.

Overall, this Blenz Coffee location needs to watch it's coffee consistency.  Serving up flavoured water weaker than a green tea is not accepted in the coffee world.  Staff though were friendly but more interested in trying to up-sell rather than just getting the coffee and serving the customer.  I may try another Blenz Coffee to see if this is a continuing theme or I may not as there are several other coffee shops I'd like to try.