After a one-year hiatus, the annual Th3rdwave coffee awards are back! And we are happy to have been nominated again this year for the Roaster of the Year Award (ROTY) for the Ottawa Gatineau region!
What are the Th3rdwave Awards?
Intended to promote and celebrate the efforts of Canada's independent coffee shops and coffee roasters, the Th3rdwave Awards are an annual celebration established in 2017. The nominees are chosen by a jury of photographers, baristas, and coffee bloggers; the winners are voted on by the public, by you, the coffee community.
A retrospective:
The impact of winning the Th3rdwave Coffee Roaster of the Year 2020 award
Winning the 2020 award was a highlight for us, it was a real perk (pun intended)! Being named the Th3rdwave ROTY 2020 gave us the recognition we needed to move forward in our journey; it reaffirmed that what we were doing was working and our efforts weren’t going unnoticed. The award brought increased awareness and instant credibility to our small business and opened doors to greater opportunities.
Covid-19 has changed the world of work for everyone. The imposition of restrictions, the increased costs of operation, and the general economic slowdown has made things difficult, to say the very least. This disruption created the need for BBCR to adapt to what has been an ultimately unprecedented set of challenges.
Since gaining the title of Th3rdwave Roaster of the Year 2020, BBCR has continued to work hard and we have adapted to all the restrictions that have been implemented while continuing to deliver amazing products. Over the past two years, we are proud to have made significant upgrades to our facility to include a better brew bar for clientele to experience our coffees, as well as a brand new roaster with more capabilities and capacity. Our production and coffee sales continue to grow; we are happy to report a steady increase in the amount of roasted coffee leaving the roastery! (Even in the midst of the pandemic!)
New opportunities
Not only has winning the award certainly increased the volume of coffee that we have sold in the past two years, it has also allowed us to increase our brand awareness. We are thrilled to hear that more and more people are familiar with the Brown Bag name!
Key highlights
- We currently offer 10+ specialty grade single origin coffees, along with 3 blends: our espresso, our house blend and our dark roast.
- Since 2020, we also have had 18 limited edition coffee releases, 7 of which were barrel aged coffees.
- And, most notably, we introduced the Coffee Origin Project, an initiative to highlight the importance of the traceability and transparency of coffee. We proudly established a direct trade relationship with Perdido Coffee.
- We had a blast at Ottawa Coffee Fest this past summer, where we were very happy to be voted runner up for the Best Drip Coffee award.
- We are constantly embracing new technology and BBCR became the first regional representative for PourSteady, an automatic pour over coffee machine.
Two Years Later :
BBCR is nominated for the Th3rdwave Roaster of the Year 2022 award
What will winning the 2022 award mean for BBCR? Aside from making us feel good, BBCR is in the midst of building a bigger team and it is our hope that we can leverage the recognition to set us apart from others in the industry and attract new talent. If you are interested in becoming part of the team, let’s have a coffee and chat.
So, what’s next?
You might be asking yourself, what is next for BBCR? Over the past couple of years, we’ve evolved, we’ve grown. We’ve said sad goodbyes to a couple of our team members as they departed to focus on growing their families and raising children, and/or travelling. As we grow, we are able to develop new relationships and take on greater risks, with greater rewards.
We are in for the long run.
- We’ve invested in upgrading our roasting technology and BBCR is awaiting the arrival of an even bigger fluid bed roaster in 2023, which will not only further increase our production efficiency and output, it will also increase our per-batch capacity. We will be able to roast MORE COFFEE!
- We will continue to carry the tools and equipment you need to bring your coffee experience home.
- The future of BBCR will certainly include more Coffee Origin Projects which highlight the transparency of the coffee trade and allow us to strengthen and establish more direct trade partnerships. We want to offer more farm-to-cup coffees.
- We hope to offer cupping sessions and training workshops, as we strive to provide you with as much information as we can about the specialty coffees we offer.
- We have plans for new barrel aged coffees and limited releases.
- Once the weather permits, the BBCR Barista Mobile will be out in full force. And this summer will see the official launch of the BBCR Hello Nitro bike.
- BBCR is currently exploring methods (that do not involve pasteurization) for canning COLD BREW so it can be shipped.
- We will continue to maintain the quality of our specialty grade coffee.
Roasting coffee is only part of the third wave experience. We want to offer the best customer service we can, and keep up with your taste preferences. As our loyal customers, you share valuable feedback about flavours, origins and more. We are listening!
We will continue building strong relationships—with farmers, importers, wholesale partners, in-store and online customers, and the coffee community. BBCR is dedicated to making specialty coffee more accessible, both at home and to independent coffee shops.
As we journey deeper into the third wave coffee, we want to take you with us.
We were super excited to have won the award in 2020 for Th3rdwave Roaster of the Year for the Ottawa Gatineau region… And we would love to retain that title this year! To do so, we will need your help! Please take the time to cast your vote for theTh3rdwave Roaster of the Year 2022 for Ottawa Gatineau: th3rdwave.coffee/
The voting period ends February 12th, 2023, at midnight.
*BONUS OFFER*
We would like to extend our gratitude by offering 20% off your next order of BBCR specialty coffees when you use the discount code VOTEBBCR at checkout. (Valid for one use only; offer cannot be used for subscription coffee and expires February 12, 2023.)
Thank you for your support! None of this would be possible without you.
Stay curious!
The BBCR Team