It's Always Time for Tea

January is National Hot Tea Month, cause for celebration for dedicated tea-drinkers like me. While it’s possible to get a cup of basic English Breakfast or Orange Pekoe tea pretty much anywhere, it’s worth hunting down the places where you can indulge in a full-on tea experience. Generally, that starts with whole-leaf teas steeped for exactly the right amount of time (it’s always a bonus when your teacup arrives along with a timer).

Canmore Tea Company
737-7 Ave
If you’re looking to stock up and take home a supply of quality tea, you can’t do much better than a visit to the Canmore Tea Co. From rich, flavourful black teas to delicate herbal options, the selection is astonishing. There’s always something unique available for tasting, which is a great way to broaden your tea horizons.

One of the best parts of a visit to the store is browsing through the tea-pot selection. From pigs to tractors, moose and bulldogs to classic stout, round-bellied pots, if you’re looking to add to your collection of pots or in search of a unique gift for a tea-loving friend, you’ll find something cool here. The shop also offers a selection of tea accessories including strainers and cups… heaven for tea-lovers, really - and right here in Canmore! 

Danielle Findlay Pilates & Wellness
608 Spring Creek Drive

Natur’el Teas are just one of many delightful surprises that await visitors to Danielle’s wellness studio space in Spring Creek.

I popped into Danielle Findlay’s boutique pilates and wellness studio in Spring Creek (go, it’s beautiful) and was delighted to be offered a cup of tea. Wild Blueberry Rooibos - it was delicious. Danielle also offers a lovingly curated selection of items in her small retail area - including organic teas by Natur’el Tea blended by hand in Banff.

Black Dog Café
30 Lincoln Park #101

The Black Dog Café is a super place to drop in for tasty breakfasts all day long. They do serve a variety of other things (amazing cheesecakes come to mind), but the other day I was in there to enjoy a frittata washed down by a most excellent cup of tea.

Black Dog Café makes a point of sourcing locally whenever possible - including their teas, which come from the Canmore Tea Company.

Pop in and visit - you’ll quickly be made to feel at home - you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone friendlier than Brad and Leah and their lovely dog, Shadow.

Dip one of these in your tea… ooh la la!

Communitea Café
1001 - 6 Ave

Communitea in Canmore has a great selection of loose-leaf teas as well as tasty snacks (including vegan and gluten-free options) and amazing soups and salads. A real community hub, this is where the locals gather. Bright, cheery, and busy, there’s a happy tea-fuelled vibe here that’s welcoming and warm.

The Pulse Café at The Malcolm
321 Spring Creek Drive

Is it my imagination or does good tea taste even better in a hand-made mug?

The Pulse at the Malcolm in Spring Creek offers a selection of lovely custom-blended teas as well as an eclectic mix of gifts in their retail area. I’m a sucker for pottery and love these Island Stoneware mugs adorned with Celtic knots.

In the summer, there are few better places to enjoy a leisurely tea-sipping experience than out on the patio behind the Malcolm. With Spring Creek in the foreground and Ha Ling beyond, it’s hard to imagine a finer place in the world to hang out and drink my tea. 

What about you? Are you a rooibos or a white tea fan? English Breakfast or peppermint? Where are your favourite places to enjoy a cuppa’?  Share your thoughts in the comments - I’m always looking for new teas (or places to enjoy them). 

Easter Feasting!

In our family, Easter Sunday was traditionally the day when we sprang out of bed as soon as we woke up and rushed outside in search of chocolate eggs. We suspended disbelief and quite happily imagined a bunny rabbit doling out chocolate eggs, even though none of that makes much sense no matter how you try to find some science to back it up. Bunnies don’t lay eggs. Eggs come from chickens and definitely are not in the least bit chocolatey. 

We didn’t always prepare a big Easter dinner (my mother was just as likely to take us all on a family outing somewhere and treat us to a meal at a restaurant), but when we did, I seem to recall that both ham and cornish game hens made an appearance on the family table. 

Much later, after I developed a taste for lamb, that became my go-to celebratory meal at this time of year. 

Let the Chefs Cook for You

This year, several local restaurants are putting together some delicious-looking feasts to grace your table this Easter. Here are a few that I’ve found, but please share if you have found an offer others might enjoy.

Iron Goat

Phone : (403) 609-0222
703 Benchlands Trail

The Iron Goat in Canmore has turkey and ham on the menu. Choose one or the other or a bit of both. Mashed potatoes, pan-roasted carrots, green beans, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and rolls round out the dinner. Pick-up or, depending on demand and availability, have yours delivered. 

Image @sagebistroandwinelounge on IG

Sage Bistro

1712 Bow Valley Trail
(403) 678-4878

Sage Bistro never fails to deliver the tasty goods! Order your heat-at-home Easter Dinner ahead of time and then decide when it’s most convenient for you to reheat the dinner for your family.

Order by Friday at noon so you don’t miss out on Sage’s three-course dinner, which includes Sage-roasted turkey and Valbella ham with all the trimmings.

Don’t forget the wine! There’s a full list posted on the Sage website. After you’ve had a chance to browse the wine list, send your order off to Todd by email (todd@sagebistro.ca)

Cornerstone Catering

1988 Olympic Way
(403) 678-2400

Cornerstone Catering is also offering an Easter feast for Canmore locals. Like Sage Bistro’s meal, Cornerstone’s dinner arrives cold and can easily be reheated. For $35 (plus tax) per person, the meal will be delivered curbside in Canmore for free. 

Fully-cooked and ready for reheating, the Cornerstone Easter Dinner includes:  

• Maple glazed spiral ham

• Buttermilk mashed potatoes

• Grilled asparagus

• Strawberry poppyseed salad

• Roasted rainbow carrots with honey orange glaze

• Homemade gravy

• Roasted Maple Yams

• Apple Sauce

• Homemade apple pie

With delivery date options of Good Friday, Saturday  or Easter Sunday, there’s lots of flexibility in terms of how you plan your weekend. The meal will arrive at your place via safe, no contact, curbside delivery.

All eating establishments are following Alberta Health Services Regulations and recommendations to help keep everyone safe and healthy.

Le Chocolatier

701 Benchlands Trail
403) 679-3351

In my book, Easter is not complete without chocolate eggs. Here in Canmore, we’re lucky to have our own creator and purveyor of fine chocolates and as long as you plan ahead, you may be lucky enough to be able to hide some fancy, schmantzy Belgian chocolate eggs from Le Chocolatier.

Note that the shop is only open limited hours and that Easter stock is also limited. (Note: Vegan options in dark chocolate are available, but call ahead as quantities are limited). 

Whether you prepare you own meal or order in (and, every time you do, you are supporting a local business and helping to ensure your favourite eateries will be around when restrictions are lifted), take time over the holiday weekend to appreciate this gift of time with those who live with you. Connect with your wider circles of friends, family, and loved ones via online options. Stay home. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Happy Easter, everyone!

Tips and Tricks for Eating Out With the Kids

Growing up, we often ate at restaurants. It wasn’t because we were super wealthy - we weren’t. But my parents enjoyed dining out and didn’t believe in babysitters. That meant either they didn’t go out for dinner, or they took us along. 

My mother’s strategies for dining out with the whole family revolved around protecting everyone’s right to enjoy a pleasant meal together without disturbing anyone else at the restaurant. We were all drilled about table manners at home - you know, the basics - no elbows on the table, how to hold (and use) a knife and fork, not speaking with our mouths full of food. We chewed with our mouths closed and asked politely for someone to pass the salt rather than reaching across the table and helping ourselves. There were drills about appropriate pleases and thank yous and we didn’t get up and walk away when we were done - we waited until everyone at the table was finished before asking, “May I please be excused?”

We looked scarily like the kids in this photo when we sat down for dinner. We sat up straight, kept our elbows off the table, and our hands where they could be seen at all times… Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash

If all of that sounds like something out of a Dickens novel, for us it was second nature and we didn’t really think anything much of it unless someone else pointed out our good manners. Those basic ground rules were firmly established before any of us were allowed to eat in public. 

When two younger siblings joined my brother and me (there was a ten-year gap between the oldest and youngest kid), they made full use of highchairs and booster seats when they joined the family on restaurant outings. The special seating kept them contained and at eye level with the rest of us. When one of the youngest began to get fidgety, one of the older kids was assigned to take the younger outside for a walk while everyone else finished up. 

Paper and pencils were entertainment kit essentials whenever we ate out as a family.

Entertainment Kits to the Rescue

This rarely happened, as it turned out, because my mother didn’t expect us to sit quietly listening to the grownups talking about mundane adulty stuff. We didn’t arrive at restaurants empty-handed. Each of us brought what we called ‘an entertainment kit.’ We all had our preferences - I often brought a book, my brother loved comics, and we all liked to draw. We packed along a selection of drawing paper, coloured pencils, crayons, and felt pens as well as puzzle books - search and finds, mazes, and dot-to-dots were favourites. Colouring books were popular and we always took full advantage of whatever the restaurants had for us - paper placemats and crayons were well-used at our table! 

New Generation, New Entertainment Tools

When my youngest brother’s kids came along years later, the colouring books and pencils were largely replaced by iPads and phones - but the strategies remained the same. The next generation of kids in our now extended family are rarely left out of the dining out experience. They know how to entertain themselves while the adults are chatting and everyone - from youngest to oldest feels part of the eating out experience. Nobody feels dragged along (or left out), and the adults don’t feel rushed through their meals and conversations. 

Most restaurants these days have kids menus, but if you have a youngster with a smallish appetite, it’s also easy enough to ask for a side plate and take a little from the adult portions to create a small, custom meal.  

Is there a time and place for an adults-only meal out? Of course. But with a little planning and forethought (those entertainment kits were fabulous!), eating out with the kids doesn’t have to be an ordeal. Au contraire. Those family meals we shared in restaurants became our equivalent of the traditional Sunday dinner. They were a time spent together in one place, catching up on each other’s lives, and maintaining the close bonds of family over a good meal. 

Share Your Family Dining Tips

Do you have some good tips to help make sure the dining out with kids experience is a pleasant one? Share your thoughts in the comments below - that’s one easy way to earn menu hunter points and be eligible for some fun foodie prizes! 

Looking for family-friendly restaurants in Canmore? Have a browse through our online menus right here on the TasteMagazine.ca website (just click the orange ‘EXPLORE’ button on the homepage).

Eating Local - What's the Taste that Defines a Place?

Fish tacos in San Diego are just a little different to those I’ve eaten in the Bow Valley…

I find it fascinating to see how many travellers head straight for the familiar when they arrive at a new destination. McDonalds. Starbucks. Burger King. KFC. The big brands are everywhere and it’s easy to seek out something we recognize when we arrive in new territory. 

I do it myself. I know where to get my favourite beverage. Where to find good wifi. Who is likely to have clean bathrooms. 

You know you’re in Paris when you sink your teeth into a freshly-baked baguette…

But as soon as I’ve acclimatized, I make a point of seeking out whatever it is that the local area is known for. As I write this, I’m at a conference in San Diego - a town known for fish tacos. As soon as I’d dropped my bags in my hotel room I set out on a quest and half an hour later I was settled in at an outdoor table, listening to a reggae band, and chowing down on fish tacos and corn tortilla chips. 

In that first moment as I sank my teeth into the lime-drizzled deliciousness of crispy battered fish, soft tacos, shredded lettuce and picante salsa I knew that I was no longer in Canmore. 

There’s nothing like local cuisine to firmly establish exactly where you are in the world. 

A fish taco in the Bow Valley doesn’t go down in quite the same way as one consumed near the ocean in San Diego. 

You won’t find too many of these in San Diego… [@TheGrizzlyPaw on IG]

How Do You Define Canadian Food?

As I was sitting outside in short sleeves, marvelling at the fact that only a few hours earlier I’d been tip-toeing my way across the icy parking lot to get on my shuttle bus, I thought about the food of home. What dishes from home were likely to be scarce down in California? Poutine came to mind. Pancakes with real maple syrup. Bison burgers. Juniper-flavoured anything. Craft beer from Sheepdog Brewing Co. I had a pang of homesickness. It didn’t last too long - San Diego is a fabulous city. But it did make me realize that in exactly the same way that food experiences can define our travels, it also defines the place we come from.  

What Does ‘Home’ Taste Like?

Here’s a challenge for you. This week, eat something that’s distinctively Bow Valley. Post a photo. What does southern Alberta food mean to you? Tag us @tastecanmore or #tastecanmore and let us know what you think of when you think of local food.  

Necessity Breeds Innovation - Rocky Mountain Refresh Meals at Your Service

Rocky Mountain Refresh provides top quality, locally-sourced meal kits delivered to your door.

During this most unusual of times, some businesses have found ways to pivot, to modify their services so they are able to continue to operate and provide services while maintaining appropriate physical distance and exercising extra care when it comes to sanitary standards. 

Rocky Mountain Refresh Delivers to Bow Valley Residents

Karly Sovereign, owner of Rocky Mountain Refresh Meals usually provides baskets of tasty meals to Bow Valley visitors. Those who stay in Air BNBs or hotels with suites or kitchenettes can pre-order baskets filled with tasty, locally-made foods they then prepare themselves. The kits are a great idea - they contain everything you need to make a lovely meal without the stress of first having to go shopping. 

Of course, at the moment there are very few visitors in the Bow Valley and it doesn’t look like that trend is going to change any time soon. Karly’s infrastructure and supply chain are still intact, so she’s offering her delivery service to locals. Here’s your chance to support a small, local business and eat whole, locally-sourced food. 

Karly works with vendors like Kombucheers, Le Chocolatier, Grizzly Paw Brewery, Uprising, Valbella, Edible Life and Canmore Pasta Co. So, in fact, order one of Karly’s beautiful baskets and you wind up supporting several other local businesses as well. 

Delivery is either curb-side or to your door and Rocky Mountain Refresh will deliver free to Lac des Arcs, Dead Man’s Flats, Harvie Heights, and Exshaw as well as in Canmore and Banff. 

Each basket of food is themed and there are options for a cooked breakfast or a grab and go meal, dinners for meat-lovers and variations for gluten-free or dairy-free customers. Depending on how large your appetite is, the baskets will make a meal that will serve three. 

Taking a page from the slow food movement, this is not ‘dial now and get it delivered in 20 minutes’ take-out. The baskets take time to assemble - plan ahead and order early in the day for an evening delivery or the evening before for a breakfast drop-off. 

All the details are on the Rocky Mountain Refresh website. If you do order one of Karly’s fabulous baskets, snap a photo and tag both of us (@tastecanmore and @rockymountainrefresh) so we help spread the word and let others know about the service. 

Let's See Your Take-Out Meals! Save a Restaurant Today!

“From soup to sushi - let’s see photos of your takeout meals! Share widely on social media so we don’t forget that local restaurants are still providing food for our communities. ”

I wasn’t at all sure what to post today - you don’t need another reminder to wash your hands, cough into your elbow, or stay home if you aren’t feeling well. This is a blog that talks a lot about the joys of hanging out in restaurants, but that’s obviously not a suitable subject given most of our local restaurants are scaling way back, offering take-out or delivery or closing altogether. I’m keeping an eye on who is doing what, but things change by the hour, so there’s no point in even attempting a ‘who is open today’ type of post. 

What’s Your Favourite Take-out Food?

This new (temporary) reality did make me think that we can all help out the restaurants who are still providing take-out and delivery options by snapping photos of the tasty meals we are ordering in. There’s something kind of exciting about taking that bag of Chinese food or the pizza box (or, these days, pretty much anything you could imagine ordering in a restaurant) and unpacking it at the kitchen table. That first scent of deliciousness wafting out of the bag never fails to make my tummy rumble in anticipation! 

Whip Out Your Phone and Snap a Photo - Then, Enjoy Your Meal!

So, here’s a challenge for you. When you order in, snap a photo of your food arriving, or maybe a picture of everything dished out on the kitchen table. Or, do a ‘plating’ video (kind of like an unboxing video) and post that. Maybe get all arty and take your best food photo ever. The most important part of this exercise, though, is not just to distract yourself and show off to your friends that you are still eating… but rather to TAG the restaurant to remind others that our small businesses are still open, still trying to provide us with services, and still in need of our support. 

Then, tag us (@tastecanmore). We are doing what we can to let the community know who is open, who is delivering, who is serving what… We are active on Instagram and Facebook, so use your platform of choice and help us get the word out and support our neighbours. We’ll repost your posts to our stories and feeds and make sure the restaurant is tagged as well. 

We love our local restaurants, coffee shops, and pubs and want them to be around when the dust settles and life begins to return to normal - this is an easy way for us all to help out. 

Thanks for reading! And, now more than ever before, thanks for sharing!

[Images from left to right: Crazyweed Kitchen (Canmore), Pizza Hut (Canmore), Banff Sushi House (Banff), Chez Francois (Canmore)