Blue Collar Coffee
It’s been well over a year since Blue Collar Coffee had their first roast. James Hillman, co-owner and operator of Blue Collar Coffee, grew up in the Cranbrook area in the early 90’s, lived in Victoria for a time and then decided to move back to the region to have his girls grow up in one of the most beautiful places in the world. After moving to Sparwood, James met the Benoy family and the rest is history. The Hillman and Benoy families’ idea for Blue Collar Coffee was born from the realization that while coffee was a tried and true motivator of hard work, it also offered a larger social connection. An absence of coffee shops in Sparwood was also noticed and there are plenty of coffee breaks, lunch breaks, people working night shift, and lunch boxes stocked with a full thermos. Around Sparwood, the hours are long, the work can be hard, and the coffee should be good and fresh. This was the gap and they saw an opportunity to help with the ‘good and fresh’ part.
Blue Collar Coffee aims to offer a premium specialty coffee to a market that traditionally drinks a lot of cheap brew. Mechanics, labourers, welders, shop foremen, truck drivers, electricians, accountants, pay-role clerks, office administrators, stock clerks, pretty much all the regular people that put in the long hours that quietly make everything go around. They’re not suggesting that these people don’t appreciate specialty coffee; it’s just that quite often what they end up drinking is what’s offered in the lunch room, or at the gas station, or on special at the grocery store. Blue Collar Coffee has one roast location and provides coffee to offices in Teck Coal and the district of Sparwood. Middletown Café, Chauncey Ridge in Elkford and Cincott Organic Market in Fernie sells their coffee retail. You can find them at the Fernie Mountain Market during the summer, and like all grassroots businesses, customer service is key - call them and they will deliver. They’ve also shipped coffee to the west coast and to Great Britain, but their primary focus is on the local market.
When the day job is done and the kids are in bed we hustle out to our banged up old sea-can, fire up the used Diedrich, and roast the best coffees we can track down. We never set out to sell coffee, we just couldn’t find any fresh roasted coffee locally, and like all good backyard mechanics we figured, “what the hell, let’s just do it ourselves.”
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