Off the Bar: Hello September!

This is a brand new blog series: personal notes and views from me, your neighbourhood roaster, Patricie!

Every month, I’m giving you a quick peek behind the scenes. We’ll cover the most memorable shop moments, the inside scoop on what we’re actually dealing with, a quick catch-up on the coffee market, and my absolute favourite bean sitting on our shelf right now.

Back to the Hustle

So, let’s dive right into it. September is easily our second busiest time of the year. The whole city comes back from vacation, everyone is back hustling, and the vibe is pretty much: we want coffee, and we needed it yesterday.

On top of our regular local business orders, online orders literally doubled overnight. The shop is buzzing! Honestly, though, I love these chaotic, busy days. We get to see all of our regulars again, catch up on everyone's summer stories, and the shifts just fly by.

Tetris at the Airport & Fresh Africas

Even with the shop madness, we had to pull off a massive clean-up at our warehouse. (Fun fact: our main storage isn't at the Kensington shop, we keep our main bean stash in a lot near the airport!). YoungJi and Lech spent hours hauling, organizing, and tetris-ing bags just to fit another 5 full pallets of green coffee.

The reward? We finally got our promised Africas! Super unique, super limited microlots. We’re actually doing a pre-launch for these as a new tasting flight exclusively for our newsletter crew first, so keep an eye on your inbox before they hit the shelves.

Weddings, Custom Blends, and Ink Stamps

Speaking of fun projects, we also sent out a very special custom order this week for a wedding! The couple actually reached out to us back in the winter with this lovely idea of leaving a little 100g bag of coffee at every guest's seat.

We ended up crafting a unique custom blend just for them. On our recommendation, they got a custom stamp made that fit our brand aesthetic so nicely. Jenni used her amazing penmanship to handwrite the name of the blend on each bag, and then we filled and sealed every single one. They were picked up this week, and tomorrow those bags are waiting on the tables for all the wedding guests!

This was so much fun to put together. If you ever want custom coffee bags for a wedding, party, or any special event, reach out to me! We would love to work on something custom for you too.
contact: roasterieshopify@gmail.com

A Global Changing of the Guard

While we’re all reaching for our favourite cozy sweaters here in Canada, the coffee world is going through a massive changing of the guard. As you sip your morning brew, thousands of miles away, the harvest calendar is spinning.

In Brazil and Peru, farmers are in a mad dash through the final days of their Arabica harvest, racing the rains to dry the last of the crop. Meanwhile, new harvests are kicking off across the high-altitude slopes of Jamaica and Colombia, stretching all the way to Ecuador and Bolivia. Over in Africa, picking is underway in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda’s Mt. Elgon, and on the volcanic soils of Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro, while half a world away in Papua New Guinea, farmers are hand-picking their freshest cherries too.

It takes months of washing, drying, and crossing oceans before those beans reach our roaster. Your morning cup isn't just a routine, it’s literally a snapshot of a global seasonal shift happening right now.

What I’m Drinking Right Now

Speaking of beans, my absolute favourite coffee on our shelf right now, my total gem, Bolivia.
Red Caturra variety, grown at 1,700 meters up. It’s this incredibly smooth, balanced cup with notes of chocolate, almond, and a subtle chamomile finish on the tail end.

It’s basically made for these dark mornings. (Which, let's be real, I don't fancy at all, but the seasonal shift is coming whether I cry about it!). I’m just desperately praying for a few more warm, sunny days so we can grab a cup to go, frolic through Prince’s Island Park, crunch through fallen leaves, and watch the squirrels hoard acorns like crazy.

Can you tell I miss summer already?

Catch you next month!

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