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VIDEO: Kelowna coffee company continues to expand

Canoe Coffee Roasters has set up residence on Laurel Avenue

A Kelowna coffee company is ever expanding.

What started in small coffee trailer at the Kelowna Farmer’s and Crafter’s Market has grown into a full-fledged coffee shop over the last three years.

Canoe Coffee Roasters celebrated the grand opening after moving to its third location, at 984 Laurel Ave. Saturday, Jan. 5. The new location offers an actual shop. Its prior location on High Road just had room for a roaster with a mobile bar.

“This is the next step in our business. We have a larger space for our roaster, we’re upgrading our roaster in about a month, we’ll be able to quadruple our capacity and get (beans) out to other cafes in B.C. which we’re hoping on do,” said owner David Upshaw.

“It was hard in the small space to step into that realm of wholesale,” he said.

The goal was always to have a cafe, he said, but the farmer’s market was a way to start.

“This allowed us to showcase our product with this space. I just want to share my coffee,” he said. “We can send it out to more cafes and places in Canada.”

READ MORE: High Road: Coffee, chocolate, local, oh my

And the cafe has gathered a large following since its inception at the farmer’s market.

“I would say 80 per cent of the people in the cafe right now are farmer’s market people, so our people follow us around where we go,” he said.

The new location offers parking, and room for a larger roaster.

“I think downtown is great for more strictly a cafe, it makes a lot more sense for sending and receiving orders,” Upshaw said, adding there’s also parking available compared to downtown.

And the project was a whole family affair.

David’s wife, Jenn Upshaw, designed the interior of the shop and handled social media accounts. The cafe a simple design with white walls and a splash of green from the many plants nestled near the ceiling.

“I’m just self-taught with photography and interior design is so easy now with Pinterest so it was really fun to put together on the side of what I do academically,” she said.

“I do most of the branding, we have since hired a professional… it’s just fun, I love being a part of it,” she said, adding as a PHD student in clinical phycology and with a second baby on the way, she hasn’t had much time to do the branding and has since hired a professional.

“We thought what the brand of Canoe means to us… for Dave it’s something simple, to be grounded within the moment, that you can take a step out of your day to have this coffee and it’s simple, it’s clean, it’s beautifully made and it’s not overly complicated to fancy milk and fancy syrups,” she said.

Canoe Coffee Roasters is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday.

@carliberry_
carli.berry@kelownacapnews.com

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David Upshaw, owner of Canoe Coffee Roasters, pours a cup during the coffee shop’s official opening day Saturday on 984 Laurel Ave. The coffee company has been expanding since its inception at the Kelowna Farmer’s and Crafter’s Market. - Carli Berry/Capital News