Mofer Coffee, Toronto’s hotspot for single origin Ethiopian coffee, has opened their third location just steps away from Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue.
The company began when owner Milkyas Tefera started exporting and importing green coffee beans from his home country of Ethiopia, for distribution across Canada. He then had the idea to open a retail space where he could share his love of Ethiopian coffee.
The name "Mofer" comes from an ancient Ethiopian word for the plows used to create furrows for planting coffee and other crops. The café is branded as the "birthplace of coffee" and is known for roasting all their coffee beans in house.
This location however, is equipped with state of the art cooling technology, that sends the roasted beans flying through an intricate clear tube system that is hooked up to the ceiling, so you can watch the beans travel overhead from the roaster, straight into the large rose gold vats.
The interior space has a rustic, modern feel to it with gorgeously carved wooden tables and soft exposed bulb lighting. The walls are lined with bags of whole bean Ethiopian coffee, as well as intricate artifacts, like a collection of vintage telephones and other beautifully painted ceramics, all purchased at auction by Tefera.
The café offers an extensive beverage menu, so you can enjoy all the coffee, espresso or tea-based classics, with your choice of caffeine level and milk. Other notable items on the menu are the cold brew, and the hibiscus iced tea, both made in house and steeped for 24 hours.
The steep and filter method however, is the cornerstone of the shop, and comes highly recommended by Tefera. The coffee is steeped in water and then poured through an organic cotton filter, enhancing the flavours and smoothing out the acidity, often found in stronger blends. Because of the nature of the glass carafe with which the coffee is poured into, this option is much better when have some time to sit, and savour.
Though bags of pre-packaged and pre-roasted beans are available for purchase, if you have a few extra minutes, you can have your beans of choice roasted to your preference of light, medium or dark, right in front of you.
As they settle into the new space, they will be adding barley waffles, juice and smoothies to the menu, and should see the opening of their side patio in the near future. Tefera also plans on opening a fourth location in the Yonge & Eglinton area, with the hopes of having over ten more become operational across the GTA.
The new Mofer Coffee is located at 1025 Queen Street West, and is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., with the option of placing your order through Uber and Ritual. The other two locations are situated at 1040 St. Clair Avenue West and in the east end at 1577 Danforth Avenue.
