Our Commitments to You

We are an environmentally responsible coffee roaster

1. We live and work generating all of our electricity and heat from renewable resources. For 25 years we have lived unconnected to the electricity grid. We use solar energy for heating and hot water.
2. The coffee roastery is 100% powered by solar and wind electricity generated on site.
3. We deliver our coffee using a 100% electric vehicle that is charged from solar electricity we generate on-site. 
4. We use no water or PLASTIC in our coffee roastery, we generate near-zero garbage, we recycle everything and we compost organic waste such as coffee chaff and grounds.
5. Our smoke discharge and resulting carbon emissions are a fraction of typical gas-heated roasters due to our electric heating system and low operating temperatures.
6. All of our coffees are packaged in 100% biodegradable (compostable) materials manufactured in Canada.

We are a socially responsible coffee purchaser

We support and purchase Fair Trade, Organic and Rain Forest Alliance certified coffees. We also purchase from small-lot farms that are not part of these programs. In these cases we ensure growers use organic growing practices and do not clear-cut rain-forest areas (practice shade growing). We use a Direct Trade means of purchasing from these producer/partners and pay a minimum of 50% more than Fair Trade prices for the same product. 

We also support the Las Marias coffee co-operative of La Plata, Colombia. This co-op was founded by farming women who where overwhelmed by the lack of credit available to them. By committing to purchase coffees from the Las Marias women, financial support became available, allowing the group to plant coffee trees and install equipment to improve their production processes, profitability and quality of life.

Coffee Decaffeination

Our coffee beans are decaffeinated using the 100% chemical-free Swiss Water Process (SWP), which also happens to be a Canadian technology!  Other less costly processes use chemicals such as dichloromethane to remove caffeine. It is also widely used as a paint stripper.