Roaster Spotlight
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Q&A with Rogue Wave Coffee Roasters
Based out of Edmonton, Alberta, Rogue Wave Coffee Roasters have quietly been working on producing delicious coffees for their regulars, a small group of wholesale clients and themselves! However, this year they burst onto the scene and showed off their coffee chops. Co-Owner Ply Pasaraj took home first place in the Canadian AeroPress Competition as well as first place in the Canadian Brewers Cup competition. We sat down with Pasaraj to learn more about Rouge Wave Coffee for our March 2020 issue!
Why did you guys decide to only do single origin espressos and coffees? What's the intention behind that decision?
We find that doing single-origin espresso lets the coffee shine through its origin. And also, it brings a bit more exciting things to the customers. If you blend obviously you'll have a bit more of that consistency and a similar taste.
However, we feel that as coffee is a seasonal fruit, it has its seasonal change from year to year. To bring in single-origin espresso that really shines for that year or that season will be more in line with coffee being a seasonal product that changes. We'll keep it a great coffee all the time, but we will have things that are in season. And by doing single origin, it allows us to play around with that.
One of our friends had said it best: Sometimes when you have really good single-origin coffee, it's almost similar to a very good single-malt scotch. Would you blend a really high-end, a really delicious single malt scotch? Usually, no.
By keeping things a bit more distinct, keeping things single origin, it really allows the coffee to shine through the processing or through origin and brewing as well. By blending, you're kind of masking those distinctive notes and flavours and things that are interesting in coffee.
Why do you guys want to compete? What's appealing about that for Rogue Wave?
We actually feel like competition is one of the best ways to learn more about coffee and actually push yourself to learn more about coffee. Essentially, learning about coffee can be a bit tedious. And so, by doing competition, it's kind of allowed everyone in the shop to be in that, "Oh, it's competition time. It's competition mode. Let's learn more about coffee. Try to bring out the best of the coffee that we can."
It's not just benefiting the people competing, but it benefits the company as a whole. Because when someone's competing, everyone is helping. And so, it's allowed the company to grow together in terms of education when we compete.
