3 minute read
Coffee Roasters of the Kawarthas
Tracy Cosburn
By Gina Jones Coffee Lover
Tracy Cosburn is one of those people I gravitate to. She speaks her mind and does it eloquently. I was impressed with her knowledge and passion for the coffee bean.
It’s hard to believe, but Tracy’s career started as a Stock Broker. She says, “I used to be a bean counter, and now I’m a bean counter,” she laughs. It started as a hobby roasting coffee 16 years ago, and “everyone loved it,” she says. After selling out at the farmers market, she knew she was on to something. Tracy realized she couldn’t do both jobs, so she quit her Stock Broker career. Tracy says, “My business was born at the farmers market”. Being a single mom, Tracy has worked hard to support her family. It started with making a roasting room in her house because she says she “didn’t want her first partner to be debt.” When she bought her first 132 lb bag of coffee Tracy felt like the Queen of the world. Her company is named after the Capital of Japan and the Kyoto Accord. “The Kyoto Accord talked about carbon footprint and about being environmentally responsible. I started my business about 16 years ago, and at the time, it was on everyone’s lips. I wanted to do something I’ve never seen before, so I started purchasing coffee in corners of the world that I had never heard of that were doing environmentally responsible things. So I decided to lead with that,” she says. She bought the property for the business in 2012 and the rest is history. “I’m proud to have resurrected this building. We don’t have 47 menu items, what we do have is an honest, honorable business. We are doing what we can to support locals who use local products,” Tracy says.
Kyoto also does catering and wholesale.
There is also a pastry chef and a chef to make meat pies.
“I was born and raised in farm country so I believe in having a relationship with your farmer. The less steps between farmer and consumer the better. There’s less opportunity for corruption,” she explains. “The packaging industry of Canada tells me that up to 30% of what’s in the bag does not have to be on the label. I don’t do that. When I roast and package the coffee bean, it’s 100% of that coffee bean in that bag. Single Origin – I tell you where it was grown and processed and the name of the farmer and town. Every bag in my shop I can tell you literally everything there is to know about it.
Guns and drugs and slave trade is a big problem. When you don’t know the ethics and origin of what coffee you are buying, you could be supporting them without even being aware of it,” she says.There are different grades of coffee.
Tracy buys the top grade beans from the farmers, “It’s about the quality, not the pedigree. It’s nice to have the pedigree, but the quality is most important. So it’s not coffee from the region you may not like, it’s the grade. It’s similar to wine, where the beans are affected by weather.” If the farmers have a bad year, the industrial roasters will create a dark roast. Some roasters will use fillers such as corn and chickpeas, because when it’s roasted, it looks exactly the same as coffee. We don’t do that.”
Kyoto have a Lug-a-Mug price. “When people buy from us with their reusable mugs, we give them back the cost of the cup, lids & sleeve. I’m an environmentalist at heart. Our cups have no polypropylene liners, our sleeves are not just compostable but biodegradable and our lids are recyclable. So we are doing everything we can to be environmentally responsible. T
racy says, “We were well supported during Covid, and we would like to thank everyone. We keep our coffee affordable - we don’t want to be everybody’s Sunday best coffee, we want to be everybody’s everyday coffee.” During Covid, Kyoto gave free coffee to all the front line workers. They also delivered free coffee as a community outreach.
Tasting is believing. Try a cup and you will be hooked.
