Hammer & Chip's origin story traces back to 2006 when owner, David Pierce, at the ripe age of 12 years old, was put in charge of running his local church's coffee bar. The experience of providing hospitality to others and seeing joy created through something as simple as a cup of coffee stuck with him.

Later in life, and now as a long-time coffee drinker, David was first exposed to specialty coffee at a Starbucks Reserve store in 2016 where he would study for his degree. While many would argue this is not a true specialty shop, the Reserve stores and the infamous Clover machine offered many an invitation to begin exploring black coffee, variety, region, and roast development. On one of his birthdays, the baristas brewed him a limited edition Panama Geisha, which was unlike any coffee he had experienced before, and ever since, David has been compelled to recreate it.

On a college budget, and armed with an AeroPress, scale, and hand grinder, he spent years trying to perfect the craft of brewing black coffee, reading articles and exploring roasters.

His first foray into coffee roasting consisted of a cheap air popcorn maker, a book on coffee roasting, and a couple of pounds of green coffee purchased upon request from the back of a small Ethiopian grocery store.

Two insights came from these experiments:

1.) He was reminded of the immense satisfaction he gained from creating by hand and sharing this simple beverage with loved ones – just like in 2006.

2.) Coffee roasting was far more complex, scientific, and skillful than he could have ever anticipated, and was therefore a challenge worth pursuing.

David continued to roast on a wide variety of 1 lb - 2 lb roasters in his garage for years, mastering the craft of roasting and selling his beans as a hobby. In 2021, Hammer and Chip Coffee was founded on the premise of crafting better moments through sharing coffee. We continue to this day to pursue this ideal and to recreate that experience many have had of providing exceptional customer service, pairing it with equally exceptional products.

Why?

Coffee is passed between seven hands before you receive it, from the farm to your cup. We love doing this because it allows us to witness all that effort come to fruition.

The aim is to share that experience with you, whether that be the thrill of exploring the breadth of coffee producing regions and roasting styles, or introducing you to the craft of brewing at home.

Our belief is that coffee should be rewarding, approachable, and representative of the entire value chain, from the farm to your cup.

We started this venture officially in 2020 to build that, by small batch roasting in our garage and sharing our creations with friends and family. Now as "professional" roasters, we partner exclusively with buyer and farming operations, we continue to meticulously roast our batches by hand and scrutinize every iteration in the cup until it meets our quality control standards.

How

Hammer & Chip remains a small-scale operation, and much of the work is still done manually. Each coffee is meticulously sourced, blended and developed into a recipe by us before being produced in small batches and packaged by hand. Our focus is on finding approachable, yet unique coffees with lots of character and adapting them to the Albertan palate.

Producing more frequently in smaller batches allows us to maintain a higher degree of freshness, quality control, customer service, and product diversity that would otherwise not be possible from larger operations.

Every roast is formulated in accordance with the coffee's origin, seasonality, processing method, cultivar, moisture content, and density to achieve the intended tasting experience.

 

What?

Our unroasted coffee (green coffee) comes from small holder farms & cooperatives primarily in Central & South America. We partner will small Canadian importers, develop direct relations with coffee farmer's, ensuring equitable compensation and that our supply chains are entirely tracible. 

 All of our Coffee producers are paid at a Specialty Market Premium, a market rate well above coffee's commodity price and our supply chains are tracible.