Trees Organic Coffee

Bakery: Trees Organic Coffee 
Address: 1598 W Broadway, Vancouver BC 
Website: https://treescoffee.com/
Style: Cheesecake
Price: $$$-$$$$ 

Trees Organic Coffee, the Vancouver coffee shop chain with their "famous" cheesecake, has been on my list of pending places to try in Vancouver for a couple of years (!) now. The first time I spotted the sign that's on the window of probably each location: the best cheesecake in Vancouver, I knew I had to go. After all, anyone claiming to be the best anything is putting out a challenge. Set out by a rather cocky business, if you ask me. We make great cheesecake. Our cheesecake is amazing. You can go the subjective route, but "best cheesecake in the city" is a concrete fact, so you better be sure that's the truth!

A few years back, I stepped into Trees, intent on grabbing a cheesecake to go - and immediately walked out. Not only do they make boastful claims, but they value that cheesecake pretty highly. I figured that I'd save it for a more celebratory event. On my last visit to Vancouver, I realized that I'll never have anything happen to me that's worth celebrating, so I just went for it.

Trees sells a few varieties of cheesecake slices that include plain NY-style - the cheapest - and all other "premium" flavours that include classics and seasonal specials. Or at least rotating flavours. I was just going to take the plain, because neutral is best when comparing, but when I saw NY-style attached to it, I backed down and went instead for the raspberry white chocolate ($7.50).

 The slice is served with optional whipped cream and decorated in varying degrees of loveliness (LOL - hey, it's true! take a look at online photos, some are so much better done than others!) - and mine was especially lame. Whenever you get white chocolate raspberry anything, it's super sweet with some sort of raspberry syrup. I loved their concept of fresh pureed raspberries mixed into the cheesecake and then poured on top. The cheesecake was not sweet and the slight sourness of the cheese was perfect with the sourness of the raspberries. I was pleasantly surprised. On the other hand, the white chocolate was nonexistent, taste-wise and visually except for a few shards along the crust. I would have liked more... maybe even drizzled over the slice? It was good.  Just not the best. Claim debunked!

Rating: ***