Behind the Name: Saskatoon's Road Coffee Co.

How Saskatchewan's premier single-origin coffee roaster decided on its name

With a background in international development, Saskatoon-based entrepreneur Alisha Esmail has used her global experience to work alongside coffee farmers abroad since 2016. From Brazil to Laos, her company Road Coffee Co. offers a wide variety of coffee roasts all of which are single origin.

With multiple awards under her belt including a WESK Innovation Award (2019), Esmail's single-origin coffee company is a perfect storm of innovation, quality, ethical sourcing, and humanitarianism. She explains that the word "road" implies both celebrating one's passions and her farm-to-cup coffee bean sourcing mantra.

"At Road, [we think] people should live a life pursuing their passions. Whether it’s a musician, lawyer, entrepreneur, stay-at-home parent...whatever you are passionate about, do that," she says. “Coffee has a big journey between farmer and coffee drinker and we wanted to build that 'road' to empower more coffee farmers [to gain] independence,” she said.

Road Coffee Co. is open for takeout from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m.- 1 p.m. Coffee orders can be made online, with complimentary Canada-wide shipping on orders over $49.