Check out the pictures below for some of the interesting features of the new store!

We have excavated the concrete slab and removed many truckloads of slab and organic matter to lower the floor level. This will maximize height in our green bean storage. We’ve used crushed recycled concrete to provide fill underneath the new slab.

We’ve also been able to restore the original brick chimney and have sandblasted the painted brick walls so they can be restores. The next month will include pouring the cement footings for the mezzanine where our Support Centre offices will be!

Check out the Roastery site here to find out more about the ongoing project.

The chalkboard from our lovely staff at the Elgin store.

In an important milestone along the road to resolving the above dilemma, earlier this week we literally got our “hands” on the skeleton of what will be our primary production roaster in the near future.  We’re very excited to be installing at the Preston St Roastery a new Probat G60 drum roaster.  Here’s a little photo of our new friend in skeletal form, currently at a production facility in the greater Chicago area:

There is still plenty of work to be done on the roaster — the above photo only shows the “drum” component that is manufactured in Germany.  The remainder — housing, burners and motors for the drum as well as about a dozen other ancillary pieces of equipment still need to be fabricated and assembled. When all is said and done we’ll have quite a spiffy roasting plant to play around with.  This investment in modern, versatile equipment will result in a new, innovative roasting dynamic behind each coffee you enjoy.

At the Roastery itself you can look forward to an engaging experience observing and interacting with our Roasting/Quality Assurance team while enjoying a tasty coffee in a full-fledged coffeehouse right off the production floor.   We’re going to be operating on two roasters to begin with:  the Probat G60 and a smaller Giesen W15 (manufactured in Holland) for smaller, special batches and experimentation.  Outside the roastery itself we’ll be moving to more regular deliveries of ultra-fresh coffee and a more dynamic, seasonal oriented line-up of tasty and interesting coffees.  It’s going to be pretty awesome and we can’t wait to get started!

These increases are the direct result of the impact of record prices achieved on the international market for green coffee witnessed over the past year. The market doubled from its position at an historically ‘normal’ $1.50lb in June 2010 to an astonishing high of over $3.00/lb in May 2011.  As a premium specialty coffee buyer of fairly traded and organic coffees, we have always paid above-market for coffee, and this continues to be true in the current market.

The significant increases in the commodity market have largely been the consequence of heavy investment by in the commodity markets by financial institutions. One theory is that the bulk of the price increases are a consequence of investors favouring commodity packages, including coffee, over investing in the US dollar. The markets have begun to calm down somewhat over the past two months; however, they remain volatile and unpredictable.

The high prices for green coffee only started to affect us in July of this year, when we first began to receive coffees contracted under the very high market. By the end of September we had migrated almost entirely to coffees purchased under these market conditions. Through the remainder of the year we are expecting to see a sustained increase in coffee costs of approximately 18%-20% over the beginning of the year.

We expect the high price levels for raw coffee to be sustained in the long term as demand for coffee rises significantly throughout the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres. While we are always reluctant to move forward with price increases, there is some room for celebration here as higher coffee prices are resulting in significantly higher revenues for the vulnerable producer-exporters who supply the world with coffee both within the Fair Trade system and the conventional trade. These higher prices directly relate to the prices received by coffee farmers, who have seen the potential for profitability in coffee farming rise dramatically over the past year.

Thank you for your continued support.

Thanks to everyone who helped out in the decorating/set-up/clean-up and thanks to everyone who came out and made the night awesome!