Local Coffee

We’ve been taking more walks lately. For us this is a new endeavor, and were not nightly walkers by any means yet. But I grew up in a family where the after dinner walk was the norm so it does feel familiar. I don’t remember complaining about these walks the way my own children do, but maybe my parents remember things differently…

On one of these walks we ran into some friends a few streets away from ours and I noticed the smell of roasting coffee while we were talking. I commented about this and was told that in fact one of the houses we were standing near is the place where Contrabean Coffee is roasted and sold. I was delighted to learn this and the next morning ordered a bag of coffee (we went with the decaf as that’s kind of our main coffee these days).

Kitchener-Waterloo is already home to several great roasters, my go-to being Smile Tiger (which I tend to buy at Vincenzo’s). Also very close to our house is Stock Yards Coffee (formerly Red Circle). But I just love the idea of a passionate coffee lover roasting coffee to sell right from their own house (maybe because it seems like the kind of thing I might do).

My order was ready within an hour, so I hopped on my bike and found my coffee in a bin on the front porch of the house. It had been roasted 2 days prior (which is very fresh in case you didn’t know).

I brewed it up when I got home and it was great! I’m not good at coffee flavour descriptions, rather I judge coffee by whether or not it tastes good black and this coffee tastes excellent without anything added to it.

So, it’s fun to learn about new little local things in your neighborhood and I hope to keep finding more! Got any suggestions for other neat local businesses you’ve discovered this year?