About Us

Northern Front Coffee started with a single question: where does this cup actually come from?

In 2019, I was traveling through southern Ethiopia, walking through coffee farms in the Yirgacheffe region at 1,900 metres above sea level. Farmers were picking ripe cherry by hand, sorting them on raised beds, and processing them with care that most coffee drinkers never see. The gap between what happens at origin and what ends up in your mug back home felt enormous. I wanted to close it.

How We Started

I came back to Calgary with a notebook full of contacts and a used Probat sample roaster. The first batches were terrible. Underdeveloped, scorched, inconsistent. But the green coffee was so good that even my worst roasts hinted at something worth chasing. Within six months, I had a process. Within a year, I had customers.

Northern Front launched officially in 2020 from a small warehouse in southeast Calgary. We started with three single-origin offerings and one blend. Today we carry between eight and twelve coffees at any given time, sourced from Ethiopia, Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya, and Peru.

What We Believe

We believe in direct trade over certification stamps. Fair trade is a floor, not a ceiling. We pay above fair trade minimums because the coffee justifies it, and because the farmers we work with are producing exceptional lots that deserve exceptional compensation. We visit origin at least once a year. We know the names of the people growing our coffee, and we think you should too.

We believe in transparency. Every bag lists the farm or cooperative, the region, the altitude, the processing method, and the roast date. No vague "South American blend" labels. No mystery.

We believe in small-batch roasting because it gives us control. We roast in 12-kilogram batches on a Loring S15 Falcon. Every batch is cupped before it ships. If a roast does not meet our standard, it gets pulled. This happens more often than we would like to admit, and that is the point.

Community

Calgary is home. We supply several local cafes, attend farmers markets in the summer months, and host public cuppings quarterly at our roastery. Coffee is better when you share it with people, and we try to create spaces for that whenever we can.

We are a small team. We answer our own emails. We pack our own orders. And we are not in a hurry to change that. Growth is fine, but not at the expense of the product or the relationships that make it possible.

Thank you for supporting small-batch, direct-trade coffee. Every bag you buy keeps this thing going.