Our Story

Fernie Roasting Company started in early 2020 while experimenting with roasting on a cast iron pan on our family’s deck. The results were inspiring, and we continued to roast fresh coffee this way for a number of months (even roasting coffee on the campfire while camping with friends in the West Kootenay’s).

With access to fresh coffee and the ability to manipulate the flavours, roasting coffee became a daily passion and seemed to be the only thing we were thinking about. Over the following months, friends and family were requesting more and more fresh coffee and in late 2020 we started looking at options to move to larger capacity coffee roasting methods.

In early 2021 we decided to make a big move and purchased two Sonofresco fluidized bed roasters (air roasters). Over the subsequent months more experimenting occurred to dial in the roasters and get out into the public eye. During summer 2021 we live roasted outdoors under a canopy at the Sparwood, Fernie and Baynes Lake farmers markets. Though this was very rewarding and allowed us to gain a lot of knowledge, it wasn’t without its challenges, and it was clear that something more was needed.

As the summer market season wound down, we got moving on the next phase for FRC, a large utility trailer to be modified into a mobile coffee roasting facility. In late October 2021 FRC received approval for this facility from Interior Health. In 2025, FRC expanded again to be able to produce more of the fresh coffee you all love. The Sonofresco roasters were replaced with a larger, more efficient and higher capacity electric fluidized bed coffee roaster manufactured by Coffee Crafters. Moving to electric roasting has allowed FRC to achieve one of its largest sustainability goals yet, reducing hydrocarbons as the fuel source for roasting.

The current focus is growing the client base and experimenting with various beans from around the world to bring fresh delicious fluidized bed coffee to locals and visitors to Fernie, the Elk Valley and beyond.