The GrandWay x Elora Coffee Roasters – The perfectly caffeinated partnership

Community Connections with Louise Frost, Marketing Coordinator

When considering a coffee provider for our guests, we at The GrandWay knew we wanted to stay local and great tasting coffee. Elora Coffee Roasters had it all with their fair-trade beans, a community focus, and coffee roasted with zero emissions…that’s a win-win…and win!

You heard that right, Elora Coffee Roasters has brought a new way to roast coffee with zero emissions into Elora. There are only a few machines like it in Canada. They are truly making waves in the coffee roasting industry!

So, for The GrandWay (which is owned and operated by GRAS, with a deep dedication to supporting local agriculture and food) it was a no-brainer to partner with such a great company. Louise Frost, Marketing Coordinator for The GrandWay, got a chance to chat with Paula Allen, Co-owner and Master Roaster at Elora Coffee Roasters and learn more about this great new company.

Paula’s whole life has been around coffee. She started drinking coffee at the age of 16 and became obsessed.  After 8 years of University, she took a lot of her learnings from her Masters Study at the University of Guelph where she was able to focus her research on the aspects of Fair and Direct Trade coffee and the social and environmental impact it has on the surrounding community. 

After living in Peru to study coffee closely, she learned hands-on about what happens on a coffee farm. From this experience, Paula applied the tools to properly understand and research the whole process from soil and terrier details to harvesting to the farm ownership structure and social impact and reflect that here in Canada, using beans from the same farms she had the privilege of working on.

Paula and her husband Darryl opened The Elora Cafe 4 years ago with the hope of one day being able to apply her coffee knowledge through roasting. This came to fruition in 2021 with the launch of Elora Coffee Roasters Inc. One of the main goals in starting this venture was to provide the most eco-conscious coffee possible and the combination of Paula’s coffee knowledge with Darryl’s marketing background came together well. With the Zero-Emissions roaster they installed, the compostable packaging Darryl sourced and the eco-bucket program they created, those goals are seeing incredible growth right now.

Paula loves that in addition to sourcing ethical coffee from farms she’s been humbled to visit, she can now craft-roast those beans and using the technology of Zero-Emissions roasting, create an unlimited number of flavour profiles. She’s begun partnering with other local businesses making profiles unique to their brand.

Elora Coffee Roasters’ success was propelled through their online sales, and local markets like Dar’s and Fraberts carrying their full line of coffee from Tooth of Time to Badley Bridge, Lover’s Leap to Quarry – all coffee is named after a local spot the couple loves to frequent with their daughter Olive. Trailside Pharmacy partnered as well with a kiosk of fresh coffee daily for their customers and that same model was successfully applied at Groves Memorial Hospital where Elora Coffee Roasters is served in their busy cafe, every day. Their unique flavour profiles and responsible roasting techniques are obviously gaining traction within the community. Being located steps from Elora Mill certainly has added to their visibility in the past year as tourists want a taste of Elora and what better way to bring that home than a bag of Elora’s Coffee?

The GrandWay is proud to partner with Elora Coffee Roasters, because Paula and Darryl are making waves in the community by building strong relationships and maintaining delicious high-quality coffee for their customers. Once The GrandWay heard what they were creating, it was an easy and deliciously caffeinated decision! We are proud to serve Elora Coffee Roasters coffee in our lounge and at all of our events. Stop by Elora Coffee Roasters on Mill St or drop into our lounge to watch live horse racing, either way, you’ll be getting a great cup of joe!

Check out The Elora Coffee Roasters online here:  http://eloracoffeeroasters.com/