I’m proud of Montreal’s Cafe Myriade because Anthony and Alex both placed in the Eastern Regional Canadian Barista Championship several days back: Anthony in first place, and Alex in third. Both will represent Montreal in the national competition in Vancouver in October.

Myriade produces beautiful coffee – something that’s not, strictly speaking, impossible to do. It serves it with a smile and without attitude, and after watching baristas at Intelligentsia or Ritual sigh or roll their eyes at customers who unknowingly broke this or that cardinal rule of coffee drinkery, I had come to believe that these achievements were mutually exclusive. Not so.

1432 rue Mackay

photo: Chuck’s excellent macchiato, prepared by Anthony at Cafe Myriade on December 20, 2008.

I’m not all that great at talking about coffee using the special words that true coffee lovers use; I could certainly afford to study the beverage more closely. But I’ve had a lot of coffee, a lot of good coffee, too, and even if my appreciation of coffee outweighs my knowledge of varietals and brewing methods, I can say that the coffee we had at Myriade was the best coffee I’ve had anywhere, thus far. It beats Ritual, Intelligentsia and Blue Bottle – all of which are excellent.

But, coffee aside, the best thing about Myriade is the guy who is most often behind the machine. Anthony Benda is one of the most effortlessly customer-focused people I’ve met. Your visit to his cafe is about you, not about him, and in my opinion, that’s the chief reason why your choice of coffee, or brew method, or size of cup, isn’t an opportunity for you to be lectured in proper coffee etiquette at Myriade. If you want education, you have plenty of opportunities, with scheduled and, sometimes, impromptu tastings, if he’s not too busy.

Montreal is in the midst of a coffee renaissance. Cafe Myriade is the youngest offspring, but I think it’s the new leader.

the Cafe Myriade blog

Anthony is the latest sign of a true coffee culture in Montreal. After working at other people’s cafes, he’s now opening his own place. It joins Cafe Veritas and Caffe in Gamba, among others, and this can only be a good thing, as each cafe educates its clientele, which in turn, increases demand for the good stuff.

The first time I went to Montreal, I was bewildered by the Second Cups and the Van Houttes, and the apparent lack of any good coffee in the city. It turned out to be more an issue of scarcity and visibility, but that’s changed a lot in the past 4 years.

That’s great for the locals, but it’s good news for us tourists, too. We don’t have to be a slave to the chains when we’re visiting; chances are, whether we’re bedding down in the old city or downtown, there’s good coffee nearby.

Chowhound has a few threads – you can start with this one.

UPDATE: I heard from a couple patrons of Cafe Myriade on its first day, both of whom thought their cup of coffee was excellent. I also corrected the typo in Anthony’s last name. Sometimes, you can look at a post 20 different ways and not see somethng so obvious.

Cafe Myriade will be located on Mackay, between Ste. Catherine and Maissoneuve, which means it’s pretty close to that weird new Rice Pudding place (try not to confuse the two).

I’m excited because Montreal can use another good place for coffee, and the guy running the place is someone who cares about coffee. The other big thing about Myriade that makes me happy is the attention Anthony promises to give to drip coffee, which is something I care about a lot. You can go to places like Blue Bottle in San Francisco (it springs to mind because we’ll be there next week) and drink drip coffee that tastes, not like what you’d expect, but what you hope, drip coffee would taste like… fresh, rich, free of bitterness.

Even if you don’t get all frothy about drip coffee, you have to be heartened to know that this won’t be another shop with timers sitting on big pots of brew.

And now, a word about our next trip to Montreal. We don’t begin planning our next Christmas holiday in Montreal the day after we get back from the last one; we start the day we leave, when we book for the following year. This year, we’ll be at Auberge Les Passants du Sans Soucy from December 19-27. It will be our longest trip ever, and the best. Today, I bought the airline tickets, and that takes care of the second major element of our planning.

More to come on this, but with 129 days to prepare, we have some time to think about it.

I wrote about Veritas a few months ago. We went there practically the minute we got off the train in Montreal on our last holiday, hoping he would be working the machine, but he was on holiday. Nevertheless, we had great espresso then and on subsequent visits. Veritas is one of those cafes that looks just slick enough that you wonder if they really care about the coffee. The first sip confirms beyond the shadow of a doubt that they do.

I’m sure Veritas will retain its high standards – we’ll be back on our next trip in December to make sure. And we’ll be watching for news of the new cafe.

Veritas is located in Old Montreal, 480 St. Laurent, near the corner of Notre Dame Ouest. It’s a cool, modern interior… probably not a space where I’d curl up with a coffee for a few hours to work on the computer, but it’s smart, with a clean and utilitarian layout.

Chuck ordered a cappuccino; I, an espresso. I’ll say first of all that Anthony was away on holiday, but my espresso was the best I’ve had in a very long time. The 49th Parallel blend they use has bright, fruity high notes, but it’s also rich and deep, no bitterness, perfect crema. Chuck was impressed by his cappuccino. The owner was really cool about explaining the benefits of the Synesso machine to my former barista boyfriend, and chatting about the business in general.

The cafe was to be open the next day and then close for the holidays, so we got there in the morning for our second Veritas experience and it was brilliant again. With a fully manual machine like the Synesso, you quickly “taste” each barista and how he or she pulls the shot. So my espresso the next day had a deeper, darker texture with few high notes, but it was still good, and variation is a part of the experience of coffee.

Veritas was my best espresso in Montreal. There’s a lot of bad coffee in Montreal, as is the case everywhere, but the city also has some really good coffee - Caffe in Gamba and Caffe Art Java, to name two. The arrival of Veritas, in June of 2007, raises the bar even higher.

We hope not! The cafe/bar features good food and great jazz music… and in the summer, it opens its windows onto St-Paul Ouest.

We enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing hour there, sipping tea and coffee on a late Friday afternoon in December. On our next trip, we’re planning lunch there. Until there’s more tantalizing detail, either from us or from the Cluny web site, enjoy this review of Cluny from one of our favorite foodie blogs.

Cluny (257 rue Prince, 514-866-1213)

Camellia Sinensis, 351 Emery, 286-4002 (Quartier Latin)?The best teahouse and teashop in town, bar none. The fine people at Camellia Sinensis (the scientific name for tea) have been directly sourcing and importing the world?s very finest teas and serving them with loving care out of this tiny storefront on Emery since 1998. They specialize in the four most important traditions in tea?Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Indian?but they also carry tisanes and some blends and they happen to make the best Moroccan mint tea you?re likely to find here or anywhere. $