Connecting people through coffee.

You may like coffee, but you probably don’t think about it too much, unlike Grady and Alfred. Grady is JJ Bean’s Coffee Quality Leader and Alfred is a coffee enthusiast and Instagrammer. Nearly 30,000 tonnes of coffee arrives at the Port of Vancouver every year, fueling their passion and keeping Vancouver’s vibrant coffee culture ticking.

The coffee is picked when it’s still green, packed into containers and shipped thousands of kilometres across the ocean, coming to the port from countries such as Colombia, Brazil and Vietnam. In Vancouver it’s distributed to coffee roasters and coffee shops where the green beans are roasted to perfection.

Once roasted, it’s Grady’s job to taste coffee in a process called cupping, and to select the coffee JJ Bean will serve to its customers. He has travelled the globe meeting coffee growers in different countries. “The journey of coffee starts a long, long way away, with people who are as passionate about coffee as we are,” he says. He also admits the best part of his job is “seeing the light bulb go on for people when they discover what coffee can be.”

That moment happened for accountant Alfred a few years back. He’s turned his passion for coffee into a quirky Instagram feed @alfreddrinkingcoffee, where he tastes and reviews different coffees. While he confesses he’s no expert, he’s keen to pass on the knowledge he has to his many followers. Alfred is a big supporter of local coffee shops; “Coffee culture is huge in Vancouver. It brings people together online, and in the real world.”

We decided to connect these two enthusiasts so they could talk beans, flavour notes and how life is better with coffee. And, as long as people keep drinking coffee, we’ll keep making sure the best beans on the planet can move through the Port of Vancouver. It’s just one of the ways we’re connecting your world.

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