Q&A With 94 Celcius Micro-Torréfacteur

94 Celcius is a Montréal-based roastery that seeks to embody change in the world of coffee. We caught up with their founder, Marc-Alexandre Emond-Boisjoly, to learn about his coffee roasting ethos, what he’s most excited about, and what excites him about the future.

-It’s been five years now since you started 94 Celcius. How has this journey been for you?

It’s a wild move starting a company. The first few months when I launched the company, I realized I knew nothing about the specialty coffee industry. I knew the generic regions of coffee and discovered the coffee I was drinking was not the industry’s standard. It was a big reality check, but I learned fast and adapted to my different critics. Growing a company, it’s an exciting life and a lonely life as well! Finding the perfect balance, it’s the hardest. At least I’m well-surrounded, and now we are starting to have our first employees, and we are fortunate to have such a great work environment.

- What’s your ethos behind coffee roasting? Green buying?

I try not to over-complicate my coffee journey. I want to buy coffee from people I enjoy, so that I feel we have a good connection or at least the same goal. We don’t always have super crazy coffee on our menu, but I’m okay with it. I know that the coffees I choose come from great farms, and I’m more than glad to make the producers’ coffee shine through our roast. 

- What are you most excited about for the future?

I’m so excited about the future of the company and I feel that I have accomplished a lot of milestones. Now, I’m more than ready to consolidate our work with our different partners, and I’m in measure to start implementing a real difference in the industry. I always felt that we didn’t have enough volume or enough money to have a real impact at origin. Constant work with the same partners and producers pays off. People trust us now, and I can work with different partners to try new experiments on their coffee or find ways to help them with their various needs. I’m happy where the company is now, and I think we found the right importers to keep growing in the right direction.