Interview with Marc-Alexandre Emond-Boisjoly, Founder of 94 Celcius
Your team has recently been back from a couple of coffee festivals in Amsterdam and Paris. Can you tell us about what that experience was like?
It was eye-opening to see that some of the same trends in coffee we see in North America are dominating Europe as well, like advanced process Colombian coffee. However, we sometimes saw emphasis on branding over transparency. There were some roasters who would showcase a coffee without knowing the specific producer or details about the processing method.
How does the coffee scene differ in Europe compared to Canada, and is there anything you saw that really inspired you?
The biggest difference I noticed between Europe and Canada was the level of interrogation regarding water chemistry. In North America, we generally focus on having good filtered water for everything we brew—one standard for espresso and perhaps another for filter.
In Europe, they’ve taken it a step further. It isn’t just about having good water; it’s about having the perfect water for each specific coffee. At the festivals, roasters were using different mineral drops and multiple water sources to tailor the brewing water to the specific region or roast profile of a single bean. Seeing that level of precision was incredibly inspiring. It makes you realize that to truly unlock a coffee's potential, we might need to be intentional with everything from our water to our roast curves.
After seeing the coffee scene in Europe, what do you anticipate the next trend in coffee to be?
I think we’re going to go back to the basics. Now that some parts of the industry are becoming more skeptical of advanced processes, I believe roasters may start moving away from funky coffees and back toward the fundamentals. I think there will be a focus on undiscovered regions. I think we’ll see a return to celebrating exceptional washed and natural coffees that showcase the land. Trends usually swing like a pendulum; we’ve gone as far as we can with heavy processing, and now I think we’re ready to return to the terroir.
Is there anything exciting coming up in the pipeline for 94 Celcius?
This is a big year for us. Now that we’ve reached a certain size, we’re focusing on deeper, established partnerships where we can commission microlots made exclusively for 94 Celcius. It’s incredibly exciting to work directly with producers to create a profile that you can’t find anywhere else in the world.
We’re also preparing for a major rebrand in August. After ten years, we’re updating our bags to be more colourful and better reflect who we are today—a company that has grown up, but still keeps that sense of fun. It’s all about showing the world what we can bring to the table as we move into our next decade.
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