SEELEY’S BAY, ONTARIO – While most small coffee roasting businesses rely on retail to drive their sales, the SHaBean Coffee Roastery uses wholesale as their primary source of business. Located in the small village of Seeley’s Bay, Ontario, SHaBean Coffee Roastery has their products in six different grocery stores around their area.
“Upon retirement, [I] converted my husband’s coffee roasting hobby into a business,” said Mary Whitney, co-owner of SHaBean Coffee Roastery. “John’s (husband) coffee roasting was a serious hobby. We’ve been in business for five years.”
The name “SHaBean” was created by Mary and John based on the acronym SHB which, stands for “strictly hard bean.” This phrase is a designation given to coffee beans that are grown slowly and at high elevation. This growing method creates higher intensity flavors which makes for a better cup of coffee.
“We make an Espresso Blend and all other coffees are single origin and high end,” Mary said. “We roast only after receiving an order and often deliver on the same day. Every bag of coffee has the roast date on the bag.”
Mary and John visited one of these high-altitude farms in February of 2019. They traveled to the De La Gente cooperative in Antigua Guatemala where they learned about the process of growing coffee and how it is harvested.
“We like tweaking our coffee recipes to get the best results we can,” Mary continued. “We keep records of every roast is that the tweaking evolves over time.”
Mary and John use our Artisan XL fluid bed coffee roaster.
You can find the list of grocery stores that carry their product on their website: http://www.shabeancoffeeroastery.ca/
