About Us _OLD

With everything from cherry trees to street art, punk bars and art galleries, Fernwood is where we work, live, and play. For us, coffee is a way to engage community, connect to place, and to build relationships. Our coffee reflects that. We roast in what once was a bicycle courier call centre, and serve coffee and food in The Parsonage Cafe. We’re more than a hole in the wall or a hyper­ refined downtown locale: we’re a hub for the Fernwood community, a meeting place, a routine morning stop, a weekend ritual, and an active member of our community. Eclectic, bustling, and community driven, we strive to capture our experience of Fernwood in everything we do.

Fernwood Coffee was established in 2007 after we took over The Parsonage Cafe. Intrigued by the circa 1930's German coffee roaster sitting behind the cafe’s counter, we enrolled in world­-renowned roasting courses, workshops, and trade shows everywhere from Idaho, to California, to Seattle; traveled extensively; apprenticed with highly­ regarded baristas and roasters; and researched exhaustively to roast, brew, and pull the finest coffee possible. Since then, a lot’s happened: we purchased a much more modern roaster, briefly lived in the apartment suite above our cafe, traveled to and judged a number of international barista competitions, trained world class baristas, and won some awards. We've worked hard to make our cafe and roastery a cultural staple in Fernwood.

If relationships to community and place drive us, coffee defines us. We hand craft and roast only the finest coffees, and constantly experiment to highlight the best that each carefully sourced coffee has to offer. As obsessive roasters and competitive baristas, we push ourselves and try new things while never straying from what matters most: distinctive coffee made right here in Fernwood.

The story’s the same with our cafe menu. We source ingredients from local farmers, butchers, fishmongers, and bakers to provide a menu that’s fresh, reasonable, and local. Classic yet contemporary, refined yet unpretentious, our seasonal menu is developed with the same degree of care, attention, and experimentation that goes into our award winning espresso and filtered coffees.

By having a hand in each step of the process — from green bean sourcing, to roasting, to brewing, to menu design, to serving, to barista training — we provide a meeting place that reflects our devotion to coffee, community, and culture in Fernwood.

AWARDS


2013 2nd Western
Canadian Barista
Championship

2012 U.S. Barista
Championship Sensory
Judge Certification

2012 2nd Place
Western Canadian
Barista Championship

2011 2nd Place
Canadian Cup Tasters
Championship

2010 & 2011
Western Canadian
Barista Champion

2010 International
Jury – Brasil Fair Trade
Growers Competition

2010 Canadian
Barista Champion

2014 US Barista
Championship Sensory
Judge Certification

2015 World Barista
Championship Sensory
Judge Certification

2016 Cold Brew Throwdown
People's Choice Award
Best Cold Brew Drink

2016 Cold Brew Throwdown
Overall People's Choice
For Cold Brew

2019 Victoria Chamber of Commerce
Best Workplace