Our Story

Highwood Coffee is a family owned specialty coffee roaster based in Calgary, Alberta. As a family, they aspire to sustainably source and craft exceptional coffee. They strive to collaborate with enthusiastic customers and businesses, while positively contributing to the local community. Each of their partners are a valued part of the team.

Sara and James, along with their two children, Soren and Cameron, make up the Highwood Coffee family. Highwood Coffee was born from dreams and an idea formed while cycling the famous Highwood pass.

The culture of cycling often includes routing your ride to ensure at least one pit stop at a coffee shop. James spent much of his youth cycling, thus the coffee culture became a large part of his life and dreams. James spent some years road cycling with the Alberta Provincial Team. In that time, he learned about making goals, hard work, and the team aspect of road cycling. James learned that you often need to work as a team to achieve your goals. He has always dreamed of retiring with a bistro coffee shop, just like he used to sit in before and after those long rides.

Sara grew up camping with her family. They enjoyed the fresh mountain air and morning coffees together. Her favourite campground, Eau Claire, is just below the Highwood pass. Sara also developed a love for cycling during university. She has been fortunate to combine her love of cycling, outdoors and oncology nursing, by cycling in support of several Alberta cancer fundraisers.

Together, Sara and James have spent many hours cycling, and stopping in small bistros and coffee shops. They now have two young boys, whom they hope to share their love of cycling, mountain air, and coffee with. Family time is important to them, so they decided to combine it all, and create Highwood Coffee. A small goal and dream coming together.

From origin to table, coffee requires a large network of individuals working together like a strong sports team. By working with a Master Roaster, Highwood Coffee produces quality specialty coffee they are proud of, and ensure the roasts have a score of 80 points or higher on the SCA scale. By setting high standards, they believe the coffee will speak for itself and you too will love the coffee, and want to support their small family business.

For a little bit more about Highwood coffee visit our Calgary page.