Our Roots

Where we come from.

Robbyn and Mickey - Owners, Salt Spring CoffeeWhen Robbyn and I first moved to Mansell Farm on Salt Spring Island in the early 1980s, it’s true we may have been a little naïve about agriculture. However, what we knew for sure was that we didn’t want to use pesticides or artificial fertilizers on our farm. It just seemed like the proper thing to do – and it still feels that way today.

We started with a large market garden in our greenhouse. Next, we opened a farm stand along the side of our road and soon after we found ourselves selling our locally grown, organic goods at the Saturday farmer’s market in Ganges on Salt Spring Island.

When did coffee come into the equation? It’s definitely Robbyn that gets to take the credit. She grew up in California and brought with her a bit of urban savvy combined with a thirst for the freshly roasted good stuff. In the 1970s we spent a lot of time together at Caffe Trieste in San Francisco drinking their classic Italian coffee and before we knew it, we were roasting and grinding organic beans back on Salt Spring, brewing them on the homestead’s old woodstove.

Salt Spring Coffee - Circa 1998Robbyn, my brother Ross and I opened the doors to our first roasting café on Salt Spring in 1996 - turns out there was a sizable demand for freshly roasted, organic coffee on the Island and after three days of crushing line-ups, we had to close for five days simply to regroup and catch our breath. Between the roasting and the mopping of floors, we rarely got more than a few hours of sleep in those days.

Of course, Salt Spring Coffee has seen plenty of changes since then. We’ve grown a great deal. We are 100% organic, 100% fair trade and 100% operationally carbon neutral. Plus we get at least 100% more sleep. But we’re still all about what we’ve always been about - great coffee that doesn’t compromise the earth.