After travelling to New Mexico in 1994, Mary Jane Pfeifer brought home with her a beautiful green and brass, 25-pound coffee roaster. Reminiscent of an old fashioned locomotive and weighing over 1,300 lbs, the roaster was not an easy transport. It was however, the starting point of Mary Jane’s passion and career in coffee.
Crickle Creek is located in Priddis, Alberta, a quick 10 km West from Calgary’s city limits. From the roastery room, specially built for the locomotive roaster, there are stunning views of the Rocky Mountains.
Imagine looking out to a mountain sunrise while drinking your morning cup of Joe.
Soon after starting up Crickle Creek, Mary Jane decided to venture out to her next passion, and the roastery was left with her partner, Nancy Tynan. Working with Nancy for December’s CoffeeColellective packages has been a taste as to why Crickle Creek popularity continues to grow. In their 20 years of business, which was celebrated this year in 2014, Nancy has always built the clientele. Today, Crickle Creek serves over 600 “happily caffeinated customers.”
Nancy’s networking skills are an asset to this Albertan roastery, however, the roasting expertise and delicious beans, may also be part of Crickle Creek’s success!
Many of the roasts are named after busy Calgary roads and highways, such as the Barlow Dark or Centre Street Medium roast. Recently, in Avenue Magazine and the article “7 Items in Peggy Perry’s Pantry,” Perry listed the Deerfoot Dark roast as “the best dark roasted coffee in the city.”
In order to provide a more international experience (as opposed to Calgary coffees) we featured the Colombia Amazonica and Sumatra Dark this month. The medium Colombia, one of Nancy’s favourites as she prefers medium roasts, holds sweet berry notes, while the Sumatra is nearly the opposite with its must and creamy character – what the Sumatra beans are best known for.
Roasted in small quantities, it is quite the challenge to supply 600 customers with freshly roasted beans – never mind personally deliver them. Though outside the city, Crickle Creek delivers their local orders to Calgary and nearby towns on both Wednesday and Thursday. Each of the orders is roasted fresh the day before their delivery! This kind of service has given Crickle Creek not only the chance to expand, but hold onto customers for over a decade.
Though “from humble beginnings,” and in the pursuit of a passion, Crickle Creek has spent the last 20 years creating a presence in Alberta coffee. We would love to hear your thoughts on the featured roasts! Do you, like others, believe their beans to be the best from yyc?