Exceptional coffee from bean to brew.

Who We Are

For over two decades, we have provided Waterloo Region with countless varieties of certified, specialty, and conventional coffee beans sourced either directly from the grower or from Canadian coffee importers. EcoCoffee owns and operates EcoCafe in St. Jacobs, a dynamic and cozy coffee shop serving coffee, tea, specialty drinks and light fare, selling equipment, and roasted coffee beans. In 2021, we also opened a roastery in Waterloo that serves as our HQ, production facility, and cupping lab.

Operating out of our facility in Waterloo, EcoCoffee is proud to offer a no-nonsense approach to your daily cup of joe.‎ We have many types of coffee for you to choose from, from our standard offering of single origins which also form the backbone of our delicious blends, to more unique super specialty-grade single origins which are limited in quantity and often difficult to procure. Every coffee we source is sample-roasted and cupped by our team to determine which profile best enhances ‎the coffee’s natural, uniquely delicious characteristics. Our blends have been dialed in to a particular roast which bring out the best from the beans but we offer our single-origins in a range of different roast profiles. Whether you like bright and fruity, deep and chocolatey, or dark and roasty flavours, we have a single origin or blend that will satisfy.

At EcoCoffee we are committed to maintaing the freshness of your coffee by ensuring all orders get shipped out or put out for pickup within 48 hours of roasting.

We sell retail roasted and green coffees for those interested in purchasing coffee to drink or roast at home as well as wholesale coffee for offices, retailers, cafes, restaurants, and other businesses. In 2023 we launched a cafe supply program offering a range of tried-and-true foodservice essentials like cups, straws, teas, and Monin syrups. We have a range of coffee gear available on our website- everything you need to upgrade your coffee setup and we also offer white label services to help you create a ready-to-sell coffee product with custom packaging and labelling. Those interested in learning how to taste coffee can also now attend a cupping class at our roastery.

Whether you're looking to buy coffee to drink (or roast!) at home, to feature at your cafe or to create your own unique blend and bag, we've got something for you.

Meet the Team

Ed - The Head Honcho

Ed is the driving force behind EcoCofee, overseeing all the comings and goings at our Waterloo roastery. Endlessly curious and entrepreneurial, Ed is committed to getting our coffee where it needs to be - in your cup.

Tom- Business Partner & Advisor

Tom has been with Eco-Coffee since the beginning, before the Cafe in St. Jacobs became what it is today and well before the roastery was on the horizon. His strategic insights and hands-on approach continue to be key to Eco Café's growth and innovation.

Rolo- Senior Snack Inspector

Meet Rolo, the barkager-in-chief at Eco. With a keen nose for quality control, he ensures the snacks are always up to par and closely supervises the team, making sure everyone is on task (the "task" being giving him endless scratches).

Dan - Roastmaster & Operations Manager

A chef by training, Dan learned to taste and appreciate the nuanced flavour of coffee at an early age. He has a very systematic approach to roasting and tasting coffee and is constantly looking for ways to improve his skills.

Austin - Production Roastmaster

Austin started as a barista at out sister company EcoCafe in St. Jacobs where he quickly became a mainstay on the bar. His understanding of coffee as a beverage and his cupping ability has allowed us to ensure our coffee remains top-notch.

Kat - Product Dev Manager

Broadly in charge of all things new at Eco, Kat has been working on a green bean home-roasting program and establishing our coffee tasting protocols. She also writes blog content and contributes photos to our Instagram.

How We Got Here

The Evolution of an Idea

Ed Denyer's journey to becoming a coffee expert was anything but ordinary. Growing up in the United States and Spain, his relationship with coffee began as a curiosity and transformed into a calling. Ed's professional journey started in engineering but he quickly realized it wasn't the path for him. Switching disciplines, he graduated with a double major in Linguistics and Spanish Literature. No stranger to the foodservice industry, he worked from the age of 13 and throughout university. After feeling somewhat burnt out, Ed took a sabbatical to Colombia to be with his family. While working for a bank in Bogota, he began to understand the rich history of coffee in Colombia, how it shaped his culture, and its relationship with the rest of the world.

From Colombia to Canada: A New Chapter

In the early 2000's, Ed, now in Waterloo discovered there was a need for high-quality, freshly roasted coffee. Inspired by a friend in Colombia who was roasting coffee, a light bulb went off, and the Northern Roast Coffee, Ed's first cafe and micro-roastery, opened in the Kitchener Market in early 2004. While learning the basics of roasting and brewing was important to establishing the business, being in the market made Ed realize that coffee was more than just a beverage; it was about relationships and community.

As Ed puts it:

"It became apparent that coffee was simply our medium but that our business was about people and about relationships. I have always loved to converse, communicate and learn. What better way to do so than with others, over coffee? We want to educate others in the best processes which create the best results and create satisfaction for those interested in something better than the norm."
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-Edward Denyer

Transitions

The Northern Roast Cafe in the Kitchener Market closed in 2008 and the business transitioned into the wholesale office-coffee side of the business. After several years operating on the wholesale side of the coffee world, an opportunity arose to bring the business to St. Jacobs with one condition: Ed needed to create a new café space accessible to the public.

The transition to St. Jacobs was filled with challenges, requiring continuous adaptation and growth. In the midst of building and making the café work exactly how he envisioned, Ed found valuable support from Tom, a retired nuclear engineer who offered his help to finance the café. Tom's expertise in project management helped in defining and scheduling the transition, ensuring that the business could move locations without interruption.

Soon, Dan came on board as a roaster. A chef by training, his professional approach to roasting elevated Eco’s production quality, bringing precision and expertise to the process.

Creating EcoCafe: Challenges and Transformations

EcoCoffee started in the back of the St. Jacobs Mill but eventually it moved into the space it now occupies in the front of the building. Over the years, we built a bigger portfolio of single-origin coffees and established several direct trade relationships. Eventually, Austin joined the cafe staff and quickly became a mainstay behind the bar.

The cafe has become a gathering place for community members and locals and a attraction for tourists. The menu includes single-origin coffee, house-made blends, pour over, espresso drinks, teas, smoothies, and cold brew. They also offer a range of light fare including cookies, muffins, scones, empanadas, samosas, and breakfast sandwiches and lunch sandwiches. They use locally sourced milk and cheese and prioritize ethical and sustainable sourcing.

Building the Roastery

COVID provided an opportunity to consolidate our operations and plan the next move. Ed decided to take the opportunity to separate out and expand the roasting side of the business which had up to that point been steadily outgrowing the space.

The space at 584 Colby Dr. was leased, and over the summer of 2021, the Waterloo roastery took shape and finally opened it's doors to the public in September. Kat joined the team in May 2021, developing the new cupping protocols and the cupping classes we now offer to the public.

‍Over the last two years, the team has focused on expanding our offering of services and standardizing all of our protocols, adopting a much more data-driven approach to dialing in our roast profiles and creating flavour descriptors that actually reflect the experience of the average coffee-drinker.

Looking Forward

Eco Coffee is now focusing on growing its offering of wholesale services for roasted coffee, café supplies, and white-label coffee solutions. The ambition is to expand the selection of super-specialty single origins and to provide more exciting educational opportunities both in person and online.

To that end, in the spring of 2023, Ed and Tom traveled to Santander, Colombia. Inspired by their journey and the connections they made along the way, they planned an origin trip for those wanting to learn more about coffee at the source. We're set to go on our first trip in October 2023, allowing coffee enthusiasts and professionals to immerse themselves in the world of coffee, right from where it begins.