Montréal coffee roasters
The proliferation of independent coffee shops in Montréal has been increasing in the past few years. Therefore, Montréal is now seeing an increase in micro and Nano coffee roasters. Most of these local roasters purchase their beans at the source by visiting producers or buying from private imports or cooperatives when it’s not possible. Below is a list of some of the roasters who are offering more depth and knowledge with every cup (and as a bonus, they sell their coffee online!).
Saint-Henri micro-torréfacteur
Café Saint-Henri is one of Montréal’s first independent coffee shop as well as one of its first coffee roasters. The pioneers behind this local institution roast their carefully sourced beans at the state-of-the-art headquarters in the Mile-Ex. The 6 Montréal locations are all different in look and ambiance, but the coffee is always excellent. Café Saint-Henri has partnered up with Breville and offers several coffee courses, from espresso 101to latte art.
7335 Mile-End Street (and other locations)
Le Brûloir
Le Brûloir has been roasting coffee in Ahuntsic since 2011. Its roasting “Labo” is dedicated to sourcing and roasting the best beans, with a focus on building strong, sustainable relationships with the producers. You can enjoy Le Brûloir’s coffee at its charming café-buvette as well as a few other spots around town, or you can purchase them online to enjoy at home. Keep an eye on its social media channels for community and coffee events.
318 Fleury Street West
Dispatch
What started out as Montréal’s first coffee truck has turned into a successful brick-and-mortar business with a flagship café in Montréal, its own roasting program, and a coffee subscription available through its site. Dispatch is committed to building a more sustainable future for coffee by supporting regenerative agriculture and small-scale farmers, with a particular focus on women-led initiatives. They also pay more for their beans and use compostable bags, recognizing that current demands and climate change are looking ominous for the plant and the people who grow it.
4021 Saint-Laurent Boulevard (and other locations)
Café Pista
Café Pista started out in 2014 as a mobile bicycle coffee service powered by human energy. It now counts a lab and three Montréal cafés serving sustainable brews and beautiful food. The team works directly with growers to select the best fair-trade beans and works with the same communities year after year. You can taste a selection of their beans at their cafés, at other spots around town, or you can purchase them online to taste at home. They also offer workshops and team building experiences.
500 Beaubien Street East (and other locations)
Paquebot Café and ZAB
Paquebot opened its first location in 2015 and has since grown into a local coffee institution, specifically after it partnered up with micro-roaster ZAB in 2017. Together they source, roast and brew some of the best coffee in Montréal. The carefully selected beans are prepared with perfection at all the Paquebot locations. You can also purchase their coffee on their website.
Several locations
Barista
If you’re a café aficionado in Montréal, you’ve probably already tasted Barista’s roasted beans. It specializes in white label, 100% custom made blends designed for coffeeshops. Barista also has a café of its own in Ahuntsic. You can purchase Barista beans, coffee subscriptions or a coffee course at the National Barista Institute.
111A de Louvain Street
94 Celcius
94 Celcius has been roasting specialty coffee in the Montréal area since 2017. Founded by a biochemist and pharmacologist, the team selects traceable coffees from growers who share its commitment to quality, transparency, and responsible practices, while also exploring more experimental coffees and techniques. The 94º Celcius coffees are available at more than 250 cafés and shops across Canada, as well as online, where you can also find subscriptions and compostable capsules.
Kittel atelier de café
Named after founder Guillaume Kittel-Ouimet, Kittel has been roasting specialty coffee in Montréal since 2011. From its Hochelaga atelier, the team carefully selects quality beans and builds long-term relationships with producers, with a focus on sustainability. Its coffees are available at several Montréal shops and cafés, as well as online. Watch its social media channels for announcements of public cupping and tasting events.
5500 Fullum Street, Suite 105
Balance Torréfacteur
Located in Verdun, Balance Torréfacteur has been around since 2017. This small batch roaster’s mission is to offer accessible quality coffee to everyone. Its Verdun location has a takeout coffee bar with a selection of equipment and accessories.
1100 De l'Église Street
Binocle
Binocle is a Montréal micro-roaster with a big mission: to make exceptional, climate-positive coffee while staying intentionally small. It works with small and medium-sized producers, aiming to build long-term relationships and pay above fairtrade prices. Its mission is to offer exceptional, fair-trade coffee, roasted in a zero-emission electric roaster, packaged in biodegradable bags, and delivered in eco-friendly ways. And so far, they’re accomplishing all that and more!
Humble Lion
Humble Lion is another establishment that started as a café in the downtown core and has evolved into two coffeeshops and a roasting venture. Their espresso blend Résilience and one varying filter coffee roast are available on their website as well as at their coffeeshops.
904 Sherbrooke Street West and 1204 McGill College
Komma Rosta
Komma Rosta is a café offering homemade Japanese cuisine and locally roasted specialty coffee all rolled into one cozy space on Vardun’s Wellington Street. The welcoming café is deploying many strategies to be as sustainable and responsible as possible.
5300 rue Wellington
Café Kujira
Café Kujira is an artisanal roasting company that combines Japan’s art of precision with Montréal’s laid-back coffee culture to create a unique work ethics. Its team selects beans according to flavour and terroir then roasts them to bring out their uniqueness. You can try its coffees at thitseir two shops, or you can purchase its beans online.
2210 De Lorimier Avenue and 4250 Augustin-Frigon Street
Narval
Narval is a new micro-roaster founded by a sister and brother team who were inspired by their father to start this project. They have exceptional coffee blends as well as single origin beans. Their beans come in beautifully designed cans.
Trillium Coffee Roasters
Trillium Coffee is a new Montréal-based micro roaster named their first espresso blend after Wellington Street’s Pavillon Snack bar, where you can taste these as well as other Trillium beans.
Café Larue et Fils
Café Larue et Fils started with one coffee shop in Villeray in 2009 that grew to become a much-loved fixture in the neighbourhood. They opened a second Villeray location as well as one in La Petite Patrie before starting their own roasting venture in 2019. You can taste (and buy) their beans at their cafés as well as online.
Several locations
Ambros
Founded in 2020, Ambros is the roasting sibling of viral Mile End coffeeshop Alphabet Café. The Ambros beans are sourced and roasted into several blends as well as single origin coffees. Ambros also carries a blend specifically adapted for making Greek coffee and compatible Nespresso pods filled with their own coffee.
Shaughnessy Café
Shaughnessy Café is located on the west side of the downtown core. It started out as a café, but it now also does small batch roasting. It sell its beans in compostable bags, with compostable labels, and ships in compostable packaging. You can taste its beans at its café or buy some on its website.
1455 Lambert-Closse
Union Microlot
Café Union is well-known by all coffee drinkers in Montréal. Union Microlot is their new specialty coffee branch where they explore the world of small batch roasting and the promotion of more sustainable growing practices.
148 Jean-Talon Street West
Brûlerie Aux Quatre Vents
With one shop within the Atwater Market and another at the Jean-Talon Market, Brûlerie Aux Quatre Vents has been roasting coffee since 1997. They sell a great variety of blends and have specific recipes that they’ve created.
Marché Atwater & Marché Jean-Talon
Escape
Established in Montréal since 2018, Escape has roots in New Zealand where the company was founded by one of the founders’ brothers. Today, it roasts at its Griffintown Lab, selecting coffee for quality and social and environmental impacts. Its commitment to people and planet extends to compostable or reusable packaging, hand packing, and ecological means of transport and delivery.
1420 Notre-Dame Street West
Le Club
Le Club combines the passion for coffee with the passion for biking in their Plateau Mont-Royal shop. They create single origin roasts inspired by Montréal’s coffee world and named after some of its iconic bike path such as Camillien after Mount-Royal’s famous Camillien Houde Way.
3801 St-Denis Street
49th Parallel Coffee Roasters
49th Parallel brought its Vancouver-born coffee culture to Montréal in 2021. The technologically advanced roaster focuses on transparent sourcing, sustainability and long-term relationships with producers, while using precise roasting techniques to showcase each coffee’s unique character. The Montréal location also serves the company’s famous Lucky donuts.
488 McGill Street
Even Coffee
Even Coffee is a Montréal micro-roastery focused on quality, connection and precision. The team works with producers, exporters and importers around the world, carefully developing roast profiles that highlight clarity, sweetness and balance. You can enjoy its coffees at Café Even in Mile Ex for a slow coffee experience or order them online.
267 St-Zotique Street West
The Canadian Roasting Society co-roasting facility
The Canadian Roasting Society was founded by Andrew Kyres (Tunnel Espresso) and Scott Rao (consultant and founder of Café Myriade). The Verdun space counts state-of-the-art roasters that allow micro and nano roasters to roast their own beans without incurring the cost of buying the pricey equipment. It’s also a space to mingle, share and learn from like-minded individuals who are just as passionate about the business of producing the best cup of coffee in the most sustainable way possible. Kyres and Bao’s great reputations in the coffee industry have helped in ushering a few of Montréal’s cafés and micro-roasters to become members of the CRS.
Myriade Roasting Co. and, of course, Tunnel Espresso Bar (co-founder Andrew Kyres’ café) are members of the CRS, as are all these brands below.
3780 Saint-Patrick Street
CANAL
CANAL grew out of Lili & Oli, the neighbourhood café founded in 2005, and has been roasting specialty coffee in Montréal since 2018. It carefully selects traceable, responsibly produced coffees and roasts them in small batches to highlight each bean’s unique character. Its coffees are available online and through cafés around Montréal, and its mobile coffee truck brings CANAL to events and markets.
Traffic
Traffic roast micro and Nano lots and were the first roasters to commit to the Canadian Roasting Society. Traffic makes single origin roasts as well as blends, low caffeine, and limited edition beans. You can taste its coffee at several Montréal cafés such as Caron & Frères, Mano Figa, Crew Collective and more. You can also purchase its excellent beans via its website.
Structure Coffee Roasters
Founded in 2017, Structure focuses on developing authentic and long term relationships with the coffee producers. You can find its coffee at its own Old Montréal spot as well as at some of the city’s best cafés, or on its website, where you’ll also find coffee subscriptions.
460 McGill Street
Melk
What started out as a café in 2013 has now transformed into four coffeeshops and a roasting endeavour at the Canadian Roasting Society. Melk is committed to working with growers who share their commitment to the environment and to their workers. They use only organic beans that they pack up in compostable bags.
Several locations
Sensory House
Sensory House is a Montréal roaster focused on the people behind the coffee. It builds close relationships with producers and specializes in sourcing forest grown and agroforestry specialty coffee grown sustainably.
Micro Espresso
Best known for its tiny original Old Montréal café, Micro Espresso has since expanded to three shops across the city. It roasts its specialty coffees, from classic espresso to single origine beans, in small batches to ensure freshness in every bag.
Several locations
Locomotive
The nice people behind Locomotive believe that “coffee should be a unique moment that we have the privilege to experience every day”. The beans they use come from small farms and are chosen carefully for their quality, their sustainability and the fairness of the work conditions.
JUNGLE
JUNGLE’s mission is to make specialty coffee more approachable and helping people understand the producers, origins and processes behind each cup. Its beans are available at several Montréal cafés and shops, as well as on its website where you’ll also find a coffee subscription service.
Za & Klo Les Torréfactrices
Founded by two women, Elizabeth and Chloé, whose “love language is coffee”, Za & Klo coffees reflect their opposing tastes, fruity and acidic or more earthy. No matter what your preference is, you’ll find it among their blends.
Colorfull Coffee Co.
Colorfull takes a “greater than the sum of its parts” approach, carefully sourcing and roasting beans to create blends that are unique and well-balanced.
Mayan Mountain
Mayan Mountain connects Montréal coffee drinkers with organic specialty coffee from Guatemala’s Ixil mountains, working directly with women farmers. Its coffee is grown using regenerative and agroforestry practices. The company offers both green and roasted coffee, with a focus on traceability, sustainability and dignified rural livelihoods.
Biodynamic Coffee by Holistic Roasters
Biodynamic Coffee sources exclusively from family-run farms and cooperatives using regenerative, toxin-free farming practices. It roasts its Biodynamic and organic coffees in-house and lab-tests every harvest for purity, publishing the results online. The company’s mission is to support healthier soils, greater biodiversity and farming communities.
Other Montréal roasters to explore:
La Finca, Café TorQué, Magma Coffee, Portebleue, Dums Coffee, Cascara, Golden Triangle Coffee, Café Balade, Rabbit Hole Roasters, Café Mosa, Charles & Blackberry, Dead Simple Coffee, Impérial Microtorréfacteur
Mayssam Samaha
Mayssam Samaha is a food and travel writer and blogger and the founder behind the blog Will Travel for Food. She travels the world in search of the next culinary discovery. From Iceland to South Africa, she’s already visited over 36 countries and there’s nothing she enjoys more than wandering around a farmers’ market in a foreign city. She is also the founder of the SAISONS intimate dinner series highlighting Québec products and chefs.