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Sustainability starts with intentionality
  • Mar 06, 2023
Starting out as a single coffee cart in 1993, Balzac’s Coffee Roasters has scaled to 16 stores across Ontario and has a growing retail distribution...
Balzac’s Coffee Roasters announces new partnership with Califia Farms
  • Feb 01, 2023
The Canadian specialty coffee roaster and café chain says the introduction of Califia Farms’ oat and almond dairy alternatives will support its ‘affordable luxury’ offering...
The cost of great coffee at home
  • Jan 23, 2023
As for beans, I have a soft spot for Balzac’s, which in the mid-nineties helped bring French coffee culture to Canada. They also opened cafés...
Balzac's 25th Anniversary

Balzac's 25th Anniversary

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.

Balzac's Coffee Pot 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

Anniversary,Milestones

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Recent Posts

Sustainability starts with intentionality
  • Mar 06, 2023
Starting out as a single coffee cart in 1993, Balzac’s Coffee Roasters has scaled to 16 stores across Ontario and has a growing retail distribution...
Balzac’s Coffee Roasters announces new partnership with Califia Farms
  • Feb 01, 2023
The Canadian specialty coffee roaster and café chain says the introduction of Califia Farms’ oat and almond dairy alternatives will support its ‘affordable luxury’ offering...
The cost of great coffee at home
  • Jan 23, 2023
As for beans, I have a soft spot for Balzac’s, which in the mid-nineties helped bring French coffee culture to Canada. They also opened cafés...