Starting at DOSE Coffee Company with views of the river and walking trails, it boasts an urban bohemian elegance.
Like wine aficionados, they capture the experience of coffee with a sweetness, complexity, and distinctiveness in each of their brews.
As a “third wave” coffee company, their flair is a way of appreciating the distinctive quality of their imported organic coffee beans and the way they present the coffee. It is a connection with each guest’s palate and a number of coffee selections at all times.
Next door at Purearth Organics, I found my favorite elixirs: hot Coco Mint with Spirulina and E3Live elixir and Salt Spring Island shots, Moonshine Mama’s Elixirs and Tonics. Made with organic ingredients and customized for health benefits, elixirs are a way to put natural medicines back into your body. Each elixir is customized to nourish, heal, or restore the body.
Just around the corner, the newest coffee shop to the Capstone location: Meeting Waters Coffee and Roastery. Co-owners, Kelsey and Dave, who roast innovative coffee flavors on site, created a robust, community-oriented Nova Scotia flair to Red Deer’s coffee houses. I wanted to stay for hours in this laid back, bright, airy atmosphere. The large pieces of local art work and stage set up for live music brings me to the heart of their coffee shop: the community. The loft also offers a children’s play area set up with books and a chalkboard. This coffee house is an experience to be shared.
Facing east is Pursuit Adventures Basecamp and Café featuring hot chocolate with a hint of cinnamon and homemade fluffy marshmallows in three flavors: regular, peppermint, or Bailey’s. Their Basecamp and Café items rival any highly acclaimed mountaineering lodge and that is just how they seem to want it. Come on in with your snow gear and have a great cup of hot chocolate or Kicking Horse coffee with a hearty homemade meal, breakfast or lunch served hot. You may want to check out their Tuesday night ‘Snowshoe in the City’ as well.
Two doors south is the popular Wild Brewing Co., kombrewery. This taproom brews up beverages that are tea based, fermented, cold and refreshing. Made with organic fruit their flavors offer an unconventional flair to an incredible cold beverage. Their kombrewery is where production takes place and ships product out to over fifteen retailers. If you are looking for a refreshing healthy beverage, stop in. Oh, and wish them a Happy Birthday, this January they celebrated one year in this location.
Last stop was sipping a cocktail at Troubled Monk’s taproom. I walked in for their newly released and locally distilled Vodka or a beer on tap but that particular day I was lucky enough to sample the Sour Cherry cocktail. Their taproom was a lively bunch that is for sure, as I sat at the bar and was included in a couple’s conversation about movie trivia. I noticed the award on the wall, a 2016 silver award for Brown Ale at the International World Beer Cup held in Philadelphia. Shortly after answering, “Princess Bride” to a question, I was asked if I would like to participate on a tour of the distillery in the back. From hops to the end result, I was hooked on the experience. It was late afternoon and I didn’t want to leave. The fun in the taproom and the story behind each beer or spirit was fascinating. The experience in each of these locations is a combination of education, knowledge, hospitality and full on community.
Sharlyn Carter lives in Red Deer preparing a feast or loving the outdoors. You can find her on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter as Market Gypsy.
