Vancouver Coffee Roaster, Proudly Local

CuppaJoe Coffee Roasters is a Vancouver local roaster of specialty and organic coffee. We have been retailing and roasting some of the best coffees in Vancouver for over 25 years.

The West Coast Coffee Culture

CuppaJoe is proud to be part of the West Coast coffee culture. Our roots go way back to 1994, when our founding partner, Gord Schmidt, opened his first coffee and espresso bar on the University of British Columbia campus. At the time, specialty coffee was in its infancy on Canada’s West Coast, finding its inspiration from cities like San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. In fact, the West Coast of BC just seemed to lend itself to coffee culture: cool, rainy weather in the winter, is so conducive to gathering with friends and sipping warm drinks in coffee bars. Add to that, our laid-back lifestyle and a culture of well-prepared food and drinks, and you get the core elements of the West Coast coffee scene. Absolutely, we are more than happy to have found our place in that history.

WE ARE CONNOISSEURS, LIKE YOU

As the West Coast coffee scene has proliferated worldwide, there have been massive changes in sourcing beans, roasting techniques, and brewing procedures. Think glass-pot percolated from coffee bought in a can at your local supermarket to perfectly brewed pour overs from ethically sourced Nicaragua Star Lot roasted to perfection.

Nowadays customers know the differences between washed, natural, honey, semi-washed, pulped natural, wet-hulled, which means customers understand which hulling process creates their most favoured preferences.

From homes to sophisticated coffee shops, coffee connoisseurs pay attention to every detail in order to make the best, most flavourful CuppaJoe. Savouring a cup of hot, fresh-roasted coffee has become a celebration, akin to discovering the nuances of a glass of wine.

FINDING PERFECTION

With so much expectation going into a cup of coffee, at CuppaJoe Coffee Roasters we aim to source, roast, and brew the best coffee in town.

Strict consideration goes into finding our coffee beans. Our green bean suppliers have direct relationships with coffee producers all over the world. This ensures fairness and equity that we take pride in. There is satisfaction from knowing where our green beans were harvested, as well as the region’s conditions and climate.

We roast in small batches with the use of advanced roasting technology that ensures consistency and the ideal flavour profile for the particular region or variety of bean. Even with the use of technology we still use our senses to observe colour changes and aromas, and listen for the distinct cracking of the coffee beans, during the roasts.

Through it all, our goal is always to find that sweet spot in the roast. We balance the delicate acidity of the coffee, with the sweet rich body developed through caramelizing the natural sugars in the bean. The result is a rich, flavourful, and complex coffee, that has incredible depth of flavour and long finish.

We never roast too light where the acidity dominates and overpowers like most third-wave coffees nowadays. Sour, citric, lemony, and tart are just not in our vocabulary…nor our coffees. Conversely, we do not roast to the opposite extreme, to the point where the coffee has roasted out all the acidity and complexity. Carbonny notes and smokiness dominating the cup? Hard pass! We like our coffees in our Goldilocks zone, that is in the medium/City to Full City range.