Drinks

Best Place to Buy Coffee by the Bag: Fixed

Fixed Sell Anchored Coffee. Anchored use a direct trade model for green bean purchases. “We work to build mutually beneficial and respectful relationships with individual farmers. Our coffee is purchased seasonally from small farms, allowing us to provide our customers with excellent beans. We roast single-origin, unblended espresso, and medium roast profiles that we’re damn proud of.”

Fixed – also winner of “Best Cafe in town” – attribute their success to quality of product. To quote a previously written article on St. John’s favourite cafe, “customers do really know a quality product when they see it.” So they’re happy to pay more for their high-grade coffee than most Canadian cafés. It cuts into their profit, but, the devotion of coffee-loving clientele is priceless, and helps alleviate their lower profit margins per cup.

“Our customers deserve the best — our city deserves the best! —and so we spend the extra dollar to get the best. We pay a lot for coffee, but we still only charge $2 for a cup.”

Co-owner Jon Howse has actually been in Colombia, getting his hands dirty in various coffee farms that he buys his coffee from, via Anchored Coffee. He’s met the farmers, tasted, scored, and chose from their offerings. “It is this kind of one on one, respectful relationship with the coffee farmer that will produce trust and a sustainable, quality coffee industry.”