Shane and Heather Hoffmann moved from Calgary to St. Joseph Island, more than a few neighbours wondered how long an independent coffee roaster could last on an island of 2,500 people.
“Friends and family shared their concerns about the viability of our business concept” Hoffmann said. “They’d say, ‘How are you going to survive out there?’”
But sixteen years later, St. Joseph Island Coffee Roasters has become a Northern Ontario staple. A family-run business built on patience, Fair Trade, and the notion that good things are meant to be savoured, not rushed.
Starting from a small rural property on Lake Huron’s second largest island with “nothing but trees around us,” Hoffmann says St. Joseph Island Coffee Roasters has grown into one of Northern Ontario’s more recognizable local brands.
The secret ingredient, Hoffmann says, lives in the roastery’s values. Our business is anchored by our commitment to nature, to coffee farmers and to our customers.
St. Joseph Island Coffee Roasters buys organic, Fair Trade beans from small cooperatives around the world and air-roasts each batch by hand — a process that Hoffmann says produces a cleaner-tasting coffee.
“Of course, being out in the middle of nowhere and being in Northern Ontario, the air out here is a lot fresher,” Hoffmann said. "So not only are our beans air roasted, but they’re fresh air roasted.”
History of the Roastery
Shane and Heather moved across Canada at a time when Canadian manufacturing was moving overseas, leaving Shane, who worked in sports equipment sales and manufacturing, searching for a venture that would feel more rooted.
Coffee, with a global reach and a personal ritual, felt like a perfect fit.
“We’d always been drawn to Fair Trade, organic coffee,” he says. “It’s about supporting farmers through building positive trading relationships and trying to level the playing field in best the way we can.”
In 2009, the couple started roasting their first batches in a small building near the south-end of St. Joseph Island— approximately 15 minutes away from Richards Landing.
From the start, the Hoffmanns said they wanted the process to reflect deeper values.
Instead of the standard drum roasting used by most commercial producers, St. Joseph Island Coffee Roasters uses a unique air-roasting method that keeps beans suspended on a stream of hot air.
The result, he explains, is a cleaner tasting coffee “without that smoky bitterness most people associate with coffee”.
Only about ten per cent of coffee worldwide is roasted this way, and it’s become the centre piece of the brand’s identity: small-batch, fully transparent, and environmentally conscious.
Hoffmann’s philosophy of doing things carefully and fairly proved essential as the business grew.
“We just keep correcting the course, as needed,” Shane says. “You take a leap of faith and build your wings on the way down.”
A changing industry
Nearly two decades later, the course corrections haven’t stopped.
In 2025 alone, the price of raw coffee beans has climbed close to 40 per cent driven by poor harvests, tariffs, and changing weather patterns in some of the world’s most important coffee-growing regions.
Colombia, Honduras, and Ethiopia have experienced unpredictable yields, long droughts and inconsistent rainfall make farming less reliable, according to the International Coffee Organization.
For small roasters like the Hoffmanns, those uncertainties have an immediate impact.
“It’s the biggest challenge we’re facing right now,” he said. “Climate change and global warming are real. We're seeing it reflected in the cost of the beans and the stability of the supply chain.”
To steady the impact, St. Joseph Island Coffee Roasters works directly with a collective of independent coffee roasters who have set the standard for transparent trade, committed to investing in the lives and livelihoods of the cooperative producers we work with and pay farmers above Fair Trade rates, building long-term relationships that provide some insulation from market shocks.
“The people we buy from have been amazing,” Hoffmann said. “They’re paying better-than-Fair-Trade prices, which helps everyone in the chain including the farmers, the co-op, and our amazing co-workers.”
That means that prices for a bag of coffee can vary.
“People sometimes say, coffee’s getting expensive,” Hoffmann said. “But when they know the true cost of what goes into a fair, sustainable product, they’d see it’s worth every penny.”
Behind every cup is meaning
For Hoffmann, coffee has always been about more than just a jolt of caffeine. It’s all about connection to a place, to people, or to the simple day-to-day rhythms that hold a family together.
“Some of my earliest memories are playing cribbage with my dad on Saturday mornings, both of us drinking coffee,” he said. “Mine was mostly cream and sugar, but it was more about being together.”
That sense of connection is still found in the business today.
Each roast is done in small batches, every shipment logged by hand, every customer treated as a neighbour.
On an island of just 2,500 people, word travels fast and so does trust.
“We moved here not knowing anyone,” Hoffmann said. “We had to build those relationships from scratch. Coffee helped us do that.”
Over time, the company has become part of the Island’s identity. Its packaging is a familiar sight in cafés, shops and kitchens across the Algoma region.
And while the work hasn’t always been easy, Shane says one great reward lies in those small, daily moments: meeting a neighbour or friend at a local store, reading a post by a customer who discovered the brand on a trip through the North, or sitting on the deck in the quiet morning with a mug of his own coffee.
“I think people have forgotten how to slow down,” Hoffmann said. “We’re all so busy - crazy busy - that we rush through the things that bring us joy.”
“A good cup of coffee forces you to stop for a minute and just be. That’s what I want our coffee to represent.”
Looking ahead
For Shane and Heather, success was never about chasing huge expansion and growth. It was about building something honest that could stand on its own. We hope to continue to grow our business at a sustainable pace and follow our stated mission of offering our customers organic, Fairtrade, fresh air-roasted coffee that makes you feel as good as it tastes.
Where to find them
Readers can find St. Joseph Island Coffee Roasters at several cafés and retailers across Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma, including Home Bakehouse, City Meat Market, as well as at Metro locations throughout the city.
Orders can also be placed directly through their website at www.sjicoffeeroasters.ca, where each blend’s origin and roast profile are listed in detail.