Sissiboo Coffee Roasters in Bear River

Between August 28-31 of this year, I visited my girlfriend's family cottage in Bear River, Nova Scotia...all the way from Vancouver! At first, this village looks dull and sleepy, but things are happening in Bear River. Residents are looking inwards to agriculture and local talent rather than outwards to tourists for economic stimulation. One example can be seen in the Flight of Fancy art gallery, which features local and provincial artists, and another can be seen in Sissiboo Coffee Roasters. The unique name 'Sissiboo' was derived from the Sissiboo River in southwest Nova Scotia. This river was named by a Loyalist settler who mistook a Mik'maq who was pointing out six owls ('six hiboux') instead of pointing out the river. Stupid colonialists. 

Based in the historic 'Rebekah' building, Sissiboo was started three years ago by Erin Schopfer and Jon Welch. After many years of analysing and learning about the coffee industry, Erin and Jon made the careful decision to launch a micro roastery in their hometown. Jon checks each batch by eye, hand, and smell at least four times during his roasting process - a process that is applied to each seven-pound batch. Each batch has an individual roasting time which has to be explicitly followed, a few seconds too long and the batch takes on an undesired flavour. This is different from most roasters, which employ laptops and software and crazy expensive machines to monitor their beans. Erin and Jon do not yet have a storefront or café, but I think this is a no-brainer for their brainchild. 

I have tried three of their roasts: Fundy Storm (Peru, dark), Tobeatic Wild (Guatemala, medium), and Fly by Night Decaf (Peru, swiss water, medium). I did not like the lack of body and bitter finish of the Tobeatic Wild at all, but Fundy Storm is great as both a dark pourover or espresso. They do, for your information, have an espresso roast as well, called Night Owl!


Keywords: "Sissiboo Coffee", "Bear River, NS", "Vancouver Roasters"