Why Your Favourite Coffee Doesn't Always Arrive on Time

Every now and then someone walks into the Roasterie and asks a perfectly fair question.

"Didn't you say this coffee was supposed to be here last month?"

Yes.
We did.
And we're still waiting.

Twenty years ago, buying green coffee was easier. If we liked something and wanted another bag, chances were pretty good we could get one.These days, things don't work quite like that.

Coffee follows harvests, not calendars

Coffee isn't produced year-round. It follows seasons.

Some countries have one harvest. Some have two.
Some regions harvest at different times than others.
Every crop is a little different, and the weather doesn't care what day we'd like our shipment to arrive.

After picking, the coffee still has a long trip ahead.
It needs to be processed, dried, milled, sorted, exported, shipped and cleared before it ever reaches Calgary.

Sometimes everything lines up beautifully.
Sometimes it doesn't.

The coffees we get excited the most about are usually the hardest to replace

A lot of our coffees are produced in very small quantities.
Not because someone decided to make them exclusive, but because that's simply how much was harvested.

Maybe a farmer set aside a few bags from a special lot.
Maybe the crop was smaller than expected.
Maybe a particular process turned out exceptionally well.

A Winey Geisha isn't something you stumble across every week.
The same goes for many microlots. Once those bags are spoken for, that's the end of it until another harvest comes around.

And even then, there's no guarantee the coffee will return.

Sometimes we buy coffee that hasn't even landed yet

This has become pretty common.
Importers show us coffees that are still making their way to North America.
We reserve them months ahead because we know they'll disappear quickly.

And then everyone waits.

We've experienced this ourselves recently.
One microlot was supposed to arrive at the end of April.
Then May.
Then June.
As of writing this, we're still waiting.

Nobody is hiding the coffee. Nobody forgot about it. It's simply moving slower than expected, and every update seems to bring a new arrival date.
If you've ever wondered why we're sometimes vague when customers ask exactly when a coffee will be available, this is why.

We're often asking the same question ourselves.

More people are chasing the same bags

Specialty coffee has grown a lot.

Roasters around the world are looking for remarkable coffees, and many of us are talking to the same importers and buying from the same harvests.
When an exceptional lot becomes available, it doesn't sit around for very long.
Some coffees are sold before they even reach the warehouse.

That's especially true with microlots and unusual varieties.
The really memorable coffees rarely come with unlimited quantities.

We'd rather wait than settle

People sometimes ask why we don't just bring in something else while we're waiting.

And sometimes we do.
But sometimes we'd rather hold out for the coffee we originally wanted.
Because if we're excited enough to tell you about it, it's probably because we genuinely think it's worth roasting.

There have been stretches where new arrivals slowed down simply because we couldn't find something that made us say, "Yep, that's the one."
Not every year offers the same choices or same quality, and not every coffee deserves a spot on the shelf just because it's available.

What this means for customers

If a favourite coffee disappears for a while, it's usually not because we stopped carrying it.

More often, it's because:

  • the coffee is still somewhere between origin and Canada;
  • arrival dates have shifted again;
  • the lot sold faster than expected;
  • demand was higher than supply;
  • paperwork, inspections and logistics move at their own pace;
  • there simply weren't many bags to begin with.

Specialty coffee has always been seasonal.
What's changed is that these delays have become more common, and finding truly exceptional coffee has become more competitive.

Which makes it all the more satisfying when that long-awaited shipment finally shows up.
Usually after we've said "it should be here next month" three times already.

So, where's the coffee?

Probably the question we've answered most this year.

Trust us, we'd love to tell you it's arriving next Tuesday. Life would be easier.

Instead, we're tracking containers, waiting on emails, asking importers for updates, and occasionally hearing, "Looks like another couple weeks."

That's specialty coffee these days.

But after almost 40 years behind the roaster, one thing hasn't changed: we'd rather wait for something great than rush something forgettable onto the shelf.

So if we're telling you we're excited about a coffee that's still somewhere between origin and Calgary, we're not trying to tease you.

We're just waiting for the truck, same as you.

And when it finally pulls up, we'll probably be more excited than anybody.

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