Even if Edmonton is only a short 2.5hr drive north of Calgary, I don’t get up there that often as I’d like. But this summer I found myself needing to head up there for the day and that meant only one thing…FINALLY getting the chance to visit Candid Coffee Roasters.
I first got connected to Levi Wolthuis a few years back when he’d order coffee through me from my group-buys. So I knew he had great taste in coffee. And after opening up Candid I was so thrilled to finally get the chance to see the space in person. Let me say, it didn’t disappoint.
And after my visit, and having enjoyed some amazing coffee at his shop, I reached back out to Levi and asked if he would be cool letting me share his story on my blog as my Coffee Roaster of the Month. He was thrilled for the opportunity, and so without further ado, let’s go!
Hey Levi, so great to get the chance to connect with you! Help our audience get to know you a bit better…
Q: What’s your backstory in coffee?
My back story in coffee starts in high-school when a friend and I went to the grocery store, bought a popcorn popper, and started to roast our own beans. I did this a few times in high school because I thought it was fun and easy enough. I had no clue on temperature or time, but we made our own roasted coffee and drank it. Thinking back on it was probably horrible coffee, but it peaked my interest. Later in university I started working in cafes and getting really interested in coffee culture, until I found myself working for The Colombian, and eventually roasted for them. It was a fun journey starting a while back now, and it’s always fun to see how far I have come.
What keeps you going in coffee?
This is a good question. Obviously creating the best product I can is a major factor of what keeps me going, but I think it is the customers that keep me going. Getting to know and learn from customer is my favourite part of the job. Whether it is a wholesale client or regular I love connecting with these people. We have created a very fun and unique community at Candid where people from all walks of life have gotten to know each other and even become friends.
Can you tell us a bit about the history of Candid Coffee? Like how long you’ve been around, and maybe how’d you come up with the name?
Candid has been around for just over 2 years, we started in the pandemic, which was not a ton of fun, but it taught us a lot of lessons. We are thankful to the people who supported us during that time.
The name took a long time for us to come up with. We wanted to have something that expressed who we were, while also being easy to remember and flew off the tongue well. My wife thought of it, and when we looked at the definition of “honest and sincere expression” we knew that’s what we wanted to be called. It has become very important to me to be honest and sincere in my business, I don’t want to pretend to be anything we are not, and we value that.
Before we get much deeper, can you share with our readers what you’re drinking/enjoying these days when it comes to coffee?
Lately I have been keeping it simple with our house espresso. It is a couple of washed coffees blended from Central America. It isn’t to complicated or funky. When it became my job to sample and cup a lot of funky different coffees, I began to like the simple and clean cups for myself.
So, your home-base is Edmonton, AB, Canada. Can you tell us a little bit more about what the specialty coffee community is like there? What do you love? Where do you see it in 5 years?
Yeah man, I love talking about this. Edmonton has good coffee scene. Rogue Wave, The Colombian, Transcend, Roasti…a bunch of roasters who are doing great work, I am happy to be alongside them and have my name show up beside theirs. I am always inspired by Rogue Wave and how many excellent coffee’s they push out, it really is incredible. The Colombian and Square One also have such great cafes and coffee that I have to give big props to.
This one is tough, but looking ahead at the next 5 years, I think the speciality coffee movement in Edmonton is gaining a stronger foothold every year and it will only continue to grow. In 5 years I wouldn’t be surprised if there were multiple independent cafe’s with 3 or more locations.
It was incredible to finally get the chance this summer to make my way up to Edmonton, and to spend some time at your shop. Share with our readers what they can expect when they visit.
First off, thanks for coming. We are in an industrial area of town, so I think people are a little confused when they come in some times to see a fully functioning cafe. We have two floors, the main floor has the roaster and the service counter and the loft has our seating area. We have a tiny food menu and some sweets to accompany our coffee.
I am really excited to hear about your new launch of some new packaging for some pretty special coffees. Can you share more about this project, your vision for it, and what people can expect when they get their hands on them?
Our new packaging is pretty exciting, and we have worked on it for over a year. Coffee people are always trying to find new and creative ways to package coffee, while being functional and user friendly. We have created Milk Carton style boxes to hold our coffee in, which on surface may seem a little silly but we love it. Working in a cafe most of my adult life I have been around milk cartons and cream cartons every day and it is so synonyms with coffee that I wanted to resign a classic milk carton to hold our beans.
Also, the ability to pour out your beans from the carton is super fun and easy to use. Thankfully we have worked with amazing designers. Originally, we worked with Jamie Tameta for our branding concept, then building on that one of my old Baristas Erin Hudson took over and designed our Cartons. Erin really took this project head on, and we went through so many options, but in the end we are very happy where we landed. We are launching these cartons with some of our new and exciting coffees on Oct 2nd.
Speaking of coffee, could you share a bit more with our readers about your philosophy/approach to roasting of the coffee that goes into those bags? What equipment do you roast on?
This question is always a weird one for me. My philosophy is simple enough, I just want to do justice to the green bean that these producers work so hard for. A more pompous answer is that when I was a kid, I went to see the statue of David and it was cool and all, but what I thought was cooler in the museum was Michelangelo had a whole bunch of what looked like half-finished sculptures.
When asked about these sculptures he said “every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it” so i see my job as the same…but with coffee. Also, I really don’t want to compare myself to Michelangelo. I know how insane it sounds to compare myself to Michelangelo, and I don’t mean it that way… But idk man I’m rambling now.
I noticed on your site you share about your pursuit and commitment to sustainability. Can you share with our readers what that means to you?
Our biggest pursuit to sustainability is to our brokers/buyers of green beans. Everyone in this industry knows how important it is to buy ethically sourced coffee. We make sure we only work with companies who share that vision with us. It often means paying a little bit of a premium on our green beans but we know how worth it that is. We also try make sure that the bags inside of our boxes are biodegradable without a foil lining, and the boxes are recyclable.
It’s been great getting the chance to connect up and share your story. Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Always great to connect, thanks for doing this with us! And as well to thank everyone for reading all the way to the end, stay tuned in the coming days for an exciting giveaway to celebrate the launch of these new coffees, and new cartons!
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Contact Info:
web: www.candidcoffeeroasters.ca
instagram: @candid.coffee.roasters
facebook: facebook.com/candid.coffee.roasters
email: levi@candidcoffeeroasters.ca
Find their beans: If you’re looking to get your hands on some beans then definitely check out their web-store for what they’re currently roasting.
Visit their cafe: If you find yourself up in Edmonton, make sure to swing by their shop at 6752 75 Street NW, Edmonton, AB
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I just want to say a huge thank you to Levi at Candid Coffee Roasters for being such a huge contributor to the coffee culture in Edmonton and across Canada. Check out their site, grab yourself some beans, and enjoy!
Stay Caffeinated,
Tyler
commonly coffee 
