Elora-based coffee roaster opens storefront downtown

A zero-emission coffee roaster based in Elora is opening a storefront to give caffeine aficionados an opportunity to be the roaster.

After having their fair and direct-trade organic coffee beans sold and brewed at shops around town, Elora Coffee Roasters is opening a storefront on West Mill Street on Saturday. 

Paula Allen, master roaster who co-owns the company with her husband Darryl Allen, explained this shift allows people to get to know the beans a bit better and move into a high-end tasting experience where they can experience being a roaster and go home with their own roasted coffee.

“We do zero-emissions roasting, we’re one of the only ones in the country. What that means we have an almost unlimited ability to change profiles,” Allen said. 

“They come in, do a custom cupping with me and then they select their bean and roast profile, which is just time and temperature, and we create their own coffee for them.”

Allen said she thinks anyone who’s really into coffee would enjoy this but they have had good experiences doing this with wedding parties who create their own blend to give as favours. 

Allen explained their sustainability profile is on route to being the strongest it possibly could be as one of the few in the country doing zero-emissions roasting. 

She said it may just sound like words but the impact to the environment is massive. 

“Ours (roaster) is a self-contained clean electric-based unit, so it actually works like a type of dragon engineering where it repowers itself,” Allen said. 

“So it’s a very, very low electrical draw and no CO2 emissions.”

These tastings will likely begin later in September, as Allen said they’re looking to get their bearings before opening into the full building. 

To start, the shop will offer the beans but also espresso-based drinks in the high pedestrian-traffic area near the Elora Mill. 

Some of the current blends themselves are a tribute to the town with names like Quarry Espresso, Tooth of Time Medium and Badley Bridge Dark. 

“We love Elora, my family’s roots are extremely deep here,” Allen said. 

“These are just parts of the town that we’ve always loved and enjoyed and want to continue to promote for people to check-out and we thought this was probably the best way to do it. There’s a nice deep history here and it would be great for people to be walking by drinking a Tooth of Time while they’re at Tooth of Time.”