Joël’s passion for coffee goes back many years. He started out roasting coffee in a pot on a tiny cookstove in his tiny apartment. What started on the stovetop continued with a small popcorn machine (which, incidentally, caught fire!) Next step was the BBQ (which also caught fire…), before finally trying his hand with a domestic countertop coffee roaster. This really got the ball rolling – this had potential!

Meanwhile, Louis was on the other side of the globe, in New Zealand, doing his thing. Louis took advantage of the time abroad to start a small IT business. Learning the ropes, you might say. Enough to catch the entrepreneurship bug, and to want more.

Back in Canada, Joël was by then roasting on an Ambex roaster in the garage. Five kg per batch was more coffee than even Joël could drink, so the coffee business was born! Friends and family all raved about Joël’s coffee. He really had a knack for roasting delicious beans. Why not move to a larger scale? SURE! Those who knew and loved the coffee at home also went to work, so why not sell to small businesses as well, he thought? Done deal. A booth at Cumberland Farmer’s Market and in regional events was also a huge hit and was the big step towards opening the Café. 

Louis was back home by then, and since Joël was overbooked, started helping out. Festivals and events, markets and parties – Joël’s coffee was becoming well known!

The discussion came up on a very cold winter day, when Joël and Louis had to roast a gazillion pounds of coffee in that very cold, unheated garage: “We need to open a roastery.” And what is the best way to showcase our freshly roasted coffee? A café.

Then we both blinked (and worked really hard) and here we are today! Joël’s Coffee shop opened in June 2011 and we are still growing.

Our goal is to roast, and prepare, the best coffee in Eastern Ontario. There are a lot of components to a great cup of coffee: quality beans, careful roasting, the knowledge to put it all together, and a sprinkling of ethics to top it off. We buy top quality coffee beans, organic and fairly traded, and directly traded where possible. We use a custom-built San Franciscan SF-25 roaster by Coffee PER, in our opinion the best roaster on the market, and manage consistent roast profiles through the use of a proprietary roast logging software.

At the coffee shop, our belief is that every person has their ideal cup of coffee. By asking a few questions, we usually manage to find everyone’s favourite, whether a caramel latte with an extra shot of espresso, or one of our customers’ current favourites, a Canadiano (an espresso topped with brewed coffee).

Here at Joël’s Coffee, we strive to be THE reference for anything coffee in the area. That means if you have any questions, drop by the shop and talk to us. If we don’t have an answer right away, you can be sure that we will find one! From tips on cleaning your machine, to how much water to use and what temperature is best, to finding a favorite blend, you can be sure that we will be there to help you!