This is where it all began! Back in 1993, our president and founder, Diana Olsen, started Balzac’s Coffee Roasters as a coffee cart at Ontario Place! In 1996, Diana opened her first café in Stratford, Ontario and, from then, Balzac’s has grown to 15 different Balzac’s locations, we are celebrating 25 years of great coffee! We’ll be celebrating all year long and showing you more throwback images of Balzac’s throughout the years!

We are going to start by talking about our Namesake, the great Honoré de Balzac’s himself. Written by our president and founder, Diana Olsen, in Summer, 2011.

Honoré de Balzac’s coffee pot (cafètiere), which he commisioned in 1832, is among the most treasured of the artists personal objects that exist today. One can find this celebrated artifact, carefully guarded behind glass, at the ‘Maison de Balzac’ Museum in Paris (Village De Passy). It is in this pot, monogrammed with his initials and ornamented with a crown motif, that Balzac prepared his “décoction savante, subtile, divine qui était à lui comme son génie” (Léon Gozian). Balzac mixed himself a blend of 3 rare varietals: Bourbon, Martinique and Moka which he purchased from three different merchants. In honour of our namesake, we based our Balzac’s Blend on this original recipe. We also borrowed, the ”B” and crown motif from his coffee pot for our own logo and graphics. Balzac wrote of his relationship with coffee in his treatise The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee. His most famous quote on the subject has become our company’s personal mantra:

“Coffee is a great power in my life…it chases away sleep and allows us the capacity to engage a little longer in the excersize of our intellect.”   –Honoré de Balzac, 1832