Brûlerie Élixir — Restaurant in Gatineau

The single best shop for fresh coffee beans in the Gatineau area, bar none. I know, I've looked. Granted, I don't spend a ton of time in the Hull/Plateau/Aylmer area but still, you'll be hard-pressed to find a specialty roaster of this caliber anywhere else on this side of the Ottawa river.

It has all the makings of 3rd-wave specialty: the coffees are quality, affordable, traceable, with the roast dates on the bag, not to mention I've yet to have one that hasn't tasted excellent.

Most of the offerings are medium roasts, but he does offer one lighter roast (called "Breath of Life"), and his most popular blend, "Panacea", is a medium-dark which, I'm glad to say, lives up to the name.

That said, I must encourage everyone to try the other coffees. Just now, I made myself some of the single-origin from Peru, and let me just say it was excellent: nutty, sweet, and pairing deliciously with steamed milk (just as the shopkeeper told me it would!).

If I had to nitpick (only because I want nothing but the best for this place), I do find that the espresso brewed in the shop can occasionally come out tasting stronger, more bitter than I would like. But besides that, I have to say the quality of the products and services on offer here is far, FAR above the standards I've come to expect from living in this city.

Needless to say, 5 stars. Coming here has forever changed my experience of coffee, and...

I had been trying well known coffee roasters across Gatineau and Ottawa and something was missing. Either their coffee wasn’t fresh, or it didn’t taste that great. We tried all kinds of beans, and we weren’t satisfied. I kept seeing Brulerie Élixir coming up in Google searches but was thinking it was the same as all the other roasters.

Well, it isn’t, it’s so much better! Their Decaf is the best in the city hands down, and their regular coffee as well, absolutely delicious! It’s what we were looking for in terms of freshness, roasting profile, and flavour! They write the roasted-on date on the bag which is very important for the freshest coffee and the most amazing crema! We have found our roaster/coffee and will never look back!

One of my co-workers was going to a very well known roaster in Gatineau, told him to try Elixir and he’s not looking back!

The owners are fun to chat with and don't have bad attitudes like some of the other places we have...

I drove by this adorable spot on my way to get take out this Friday. I decided to come back today to give their coffee a shot! I’m forever looking for a great coffee in Gatineau. I walked in but they were actually closed on Sunday; they were just having a meeting. I left but the owner came out and said he’d be happy to make me a coffee either way as the machine was on!! Which I thought was very kind considering they were closed today!!

The service was friendly and the Latte was in fact delicious! I will definitely be back again. Thank you for the fabulous customer service and amazing coffee!! This spot is definitely worth a visit if you haven’t...