First Sip Coffee Roasters

First Sip began on a tour of a coffee roastery in 2016, when owner Kye and his wife Laura met a roaster who was pitching coffee to Laura's company. Until then they drank coffee maybe once a month, because they had never found anything they loved. That tour, and the coffee that followed, turned them into self-described coffee snobs, and Kye started reading everything he could about varieties, roasting and brewing. In 2020, stuck at home during Covid with no sports on TV, he researched roasters, and with Laura's encouragement bought his first one, small but mighty. He planned to roast just for the two of them, but friends and neighbours kept asking after the first few batches, so he started selling. Every bag is still small-batch roasted as it is ordered. The lineup includes an organic natural Ethiopia from Bensa Sidama that Kye calls his personal favourite, a direct-trade Pink Bourbon from Huila through Ventola Coffee, single origins from Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico, house blends like the Southern Blend and the espresso blend, a half-caf Sunset Blend and a sugarcane decaf. First Sip also offers subscriptions, samplers and wholesale.