FAQ

We've put together some answers to frequently asked questions. Have a different question?
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Frequently asked questions

Do you do local home deliveries? Depends on what your address is. Please click here for maps of local delivery boundaries, regular routes and local delivery schedules.

We offer free local deliveries for orders over $30 along our regular delivery routes (see maps below) and on our scheduled delivery days only (see delivery schedules below). We deliver from St. Joseph Island to Sault Ste. Marie every two weeks, and from St. Joseph Island east to Thessalon once a month. Delivery dates are subject to last-minute changes due to order volumes, inclement weather, etc. We will email you to let you know what day to expect your order to be dropped off.

2024 Sault Delivery Schedule

2024 EAST to THESSALON Delivery Schedule 

Regular Delivery Routes Explained

In order to efficiently serve our wholesale customers, we are unable to veer off our regular route. Maps of our regular routes to Sault Ste. Marie (and boundaries within Sault Ste. Marie) and east to Thessalon are below.

If your delivery address is not on our regular route you can choose (on the Cart page under shipping options) to pick up your order either at our location (3902 A Line Rd) or at another location of your choice (use the order notes box to tell us where to drop it off. Make sure you tell the people there that we will be dropping it off for you). We also ship with Canada Post/Purolator/Canpar/FedEx (flat fee of $12.50 and free on orders over $150).

If you are unsure whether or not your address falls within our local delivery boundaries please contact us. Thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

How do I add something to or change my subscription? Pause my subscription? Renew early? change my account information?

Make sure you’re logged into your account.

To add something to your subscription:

Choose the coffee you want to add to your subscription. Make sure you select the size and bean/grind you’d like, then click on the type of subscription you have (once/month or once/every two months). Once this is selected, a box will open up called “Add to an existing subscription”. Click that and your subscription will show up. Add the new coffee to your subscription. 

To change your subscription:

Follow the above instructions to add the new coffee to your subscription. Once it has been added and your subscription has popped up, you can delete the coffee you no longer want by clicking on the red ‘X’. Your subscription is now updated.

To pause your subscription, reactivate a paused subscription:

If you’ll be away or are getting a stockpile of coffee at home you can pause your subscription before your scheduled renewal day. When logged into your account, click on “Subscriptions”. Your subscription(s) will be displayed. Click on “Cancel” to pause. You can click on “Reactivate” when you’re almost ready for more coffee. Your order will go through the day you click on “Reactivate”. This will be your subscription’s new renewal date. In other words, your subscription will renew again on this day the next month (or two months later if you have a bi-monthly subscription).

To renew your subscription early:

If you’re running low on coffee you can click “Renew Now”. Your subscription will renew early for that month only and will be back to the regular renewal day the next month. If you would like to change the date your subscription renews every month, please contact us to make a request.

To change your account information:

Click on “Addresses” to edit your billing and shipping addresses.

Click on “Payment Methods” to edit, delete or add a credit card.

Click on “Account Details” to change your email, user name or password.

Clicking on “Subscriptions” will show any subscriptions you have created and “Orders” will show a history of your orders. 

What stores, cafes and restaurants sell your coffee ?

To find a retailer near you click here.

How should I store my coffee?

We highly recommend you keep your freshly roasted coffee out of sunlight in an airtight container to help preserve its flavour and aromas. If you’re buying enough for one week at a time, then keep it in your coffee cupboard. If you buy your coffee in bulk consider taking enough out for the week and storing the rest in the freezer. That’s right. We are on “Team Freeze”. As long as it’s stored in an airtight container (glass jars work great) we believe you will be pleasantly surprised at the results. If it’s not in an airtight container, the freezing process will also draw the moisture out of the coffee (think of those shrinking ice cubes that have been in your freezer for too long).

As soon as coffee is roasted it starts to “gas off”, in other words, go stale. When you freeze it, the gassing off process is interrupted and the coffee will stay fresher longer. We personally keep a jar of our decaffeinated coffee in the kitchen freezer for those evenings we feel like having a cup of coffee.

What does hand roasted and hand packaged mean?

Nothing in our roasting and production process is done automatically. In other words, the green coffee is weighed by hand, loaded into the roaster by hand, and the roaster (and roasting process) is controlled by hand. Shane modified our Sivetz air roaster so that the temperature and length of the roast can be manipulated based on the ambient temperature and the weather outside.

After the coffee is roasted and cooled, we weigh, grind (if necessary), package, and seal the coffee by hand, too.

We think of this as a continuation of the farmers who harvested and sorted the coffee by hand.

Can you tell me more about omnidegradable bags?

TekPak Solutions has developed bags made with the only omnidegradable materials in the world.  They remain shelf-stable indefinitely and will decompose in a home compost pile, or biodegrade anywhere there are microbes present—in or on soil, landfills, forests, rivers, lakes and oceans. We recommend a home composting bin. Remove the tin tie and labels, then shred the bag for best results. OmniZippers and omniValves are also omnidegradable, so they don’t need to be removed before composting.

TekPak Solutions is the registered owner of the term Omnidegradable. Please their FAQ page for more information about their packaging.

Is your coffee bird friendly? Shade-grown?

The birders in your family will be happy to know that all of our coffees are shade grown. All our coffees are organic and, but for the rare exception, organic includes shade. 

We feature migratory birds who summer on St. Joseph Island on some of our Latin American single origin coffee labels—a scarlet tanager on our Bolivia Yungas, an indigo bunting on our Colombia and Colombia Organica, and a rose-breasted grosbeak on our Guatemala and Guatemala Huehuetenango coffees.

The bird images on the labels are from paintings that Heather Hoffmann created to illustrate the global connection between St. Joseph Island and these coffee growing countries. It’s a small world we live in. Maybe that bird we see in the summer spent its winter on or near one of the coffee plantations we support.

What is terroir?

Terroir, from the French word for earth (la terre), is a term traditionally used in describing the subtle flavour notes found in wine. It has now been adopted for use in other agricultural industries including coffee. Terroir encompasses all environmental factors where the coffee was grown that affect the final taste of your cuppa; things like rainfall, climate, soil conditions, farming practices, the amount of shade or sunlight, and the topography of the land.

Can you tell me more about Flavour Notes in coffee?

Coffee flavour is affected by all sorts of variables including the bean variety, terroir, the way it was farmed and processed, the roasting method, the roast profile, the brewing method, and even the water used to make the coffee. 

Flavour notes help describe the subtle tastes and aromas that give a coffee its unique characteristics. Even though these descriptors can seem confusing or even like hoity-toity nonsense used by coffee snobs to over-complicate the art and science of coffee, they actually can be a useful tool to help you, the coffee drinker, become more aware and notice the nuances of flavour in coffee.

We’ve kept our flavour note descriptors quite general in the filter. e.g. “fruit” covers any coffee with a fruit-like flavour note. After you’ve filtered the coffees to fruit, you can look at each individual coffee description to find more specific notes, like “blueberry”, “black cherry” or “berry”. Our brighter tasting coffees can be found under “citrus”.

Of course, it’s not necessary to understand all of this flavour stuff to simply enjoy a cup of coffee—just ignore it all if you aren’t interested—but for those of you who are interested, happy cupping!

To select from our fresh Fairtrade coffee by flavour notes, click here.

 

 

 

What is the "bloom" in coffee brewing?

The “bloom” is the bubbling action of carbon dioxide and other gasses being released when hot water comes in contact with freshly roasted coffee. The bloom becomes less pronounced as the coffee ages. The best brewing practice is to pre-wet the grinds with a tiny amount of 96 degree C water until the bloom is complete and the gasses are released.

Who took the photos for your website?

All professional photographs on this website were taken by Jenn Kelly of Jenn Kelly Photography. You’ll see her work on some of our marketing materials, too. Jenn was in some very interesting positions for some of the shots—including flat on her stomach on a gravel road and on a dock at the Richards Landing marina during a cold and blustery day. Jenn’s warm personality makes it easy to have your photo taken and she was wonderful to work with. She shot our products at her studio in Blind River, Intreegue Studio, where she also sells unique, Canadian made items, including our coffee and tea.

 

Where To Buy

Buy online, order by phone 705-246-7093 or shop at a retail location that sells or serves our coffee.

Subscriptions

Sign up for a subscription, and we will ship your choices to you every month.  You'll never have to worry about running out of your favourite St. Joseph Island Coffee Roasters coffee!

Green Beans

Want to roast your own?  Contact us for pricing and availability.

Wholesale

We have several partners who distribute our coffees in their retail establishments, or proudly serve our coffees in their restaurants and coffee houses. Want to become one of our wholesale partners? Contact us!

Fundraising

Yes, we want to partner with your school, church, sport team or not-for-profit organization to help raise funds!  Contact us to pursue this win-win opportunity.

Contact Us

Order By Phone

(705) 246 7093

E-Mail

info@sjicoffeeroasters.ca

Mailing Address

St Joseph Island Coffee Roasters
RR #1 3902 A Line,
Richards Landing, ON P0R 1J0

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