Our History

For over forty years, our mission has been to provide a safe, reliable market for coffee farmers. A “Bridgehead.”

Historically, a Bridgehead signifies a piece of land seized from an enemy or hostile territory. Bridgehead’s founders chose this term as a symbolic metaphor for their purpose: to provide a safe place for farmers to sell their coffee. This commitment to a “safe place” is as strong today as it was more than 40 years ago.

Bridgehead Coffee continues to source and support sustainable family farmers around the world. We believe in building community from our local neighbourhoods to those around the world, online, and in your own kitchen through the love of coffee. We honour the craft and the diversity of our customers, each as unique as the coffee farmers we work with. We are champions of the industry, fair trade and stewards of the environment.

At Bridgehead, coffee is a way of life and a livelihood. It’s art and science. It’s Community, through coffee.

Our Commitment

We are intentional in every decision we make - from bean to cup. It’s just the right thing to do.

Read on to learn more about our commitment to community, sustainability and great tasting premium coffee.  

• Building Community, Through Coffee
• Premium With Purpose
• Fairtrade, and Sustainable

Our coffee creates livelihoods, in local neighbourhoods and around the globe.

Bridgehead is committed to working with hundreds of family farmers and tea pluckers from around the world, to purchase their best coffees, at prices that recognize the farmer’s skill and effort, ensuring sustainable livelihoods for them and their families.

As a Canadian-owned and operated business, Bridgehead is built around a community of hundreds local baristas and bakers who are passionate about their craft, and local farmers who supply milk, cream, and all matters of produce.

In an average year, Bridgehead Coffeehouses support more than 700 neighbourhood organizations with more than 950 donations, including in-kind donations of coffee, tea, gift baskets and gift cards.

Every time you choose us for your daily cup or your weekly bag of beans, you are supporting efforts to build stronger, healthier communities and provide greater opportunities for everyone in the community.

We care about coffee cherries like sommeliers care about grapes. We want to share our knowledge of our craft with coffee lovers across the country and beyond.

Our interest extends beyond knowing the country of origin and transparency about the farm, the farmer income, soil, altitude, and processing methods. We only work with quality-oriented farmers who have a deep respect for the environment and the final product, thereby ensuring sustainable livelihoods for them and their families. For consumers, this means premium and great tasting coffee.

Our local baristas know that fresh coffee is integral to making a delicious espresso, but they also know that the right grind, water temperature, and pressure are equally important to ensuring a sweet, complex, and well-balanced shot. The barista’s craft helps to deliver on the promise of quality that begins with the grower.

Bridgehead was the first coffeehouse in Canada to serve Fairtrade coffee and has brilliantly offered fairly-traded coffee for more than 40 years, showing that coffee tastes better by doing better.

Fairtrade Certification

Buying Fairtrade Certified products helps make the world a better place by paying farmers and workers in developing countries a fair price. TransFair is Canada's certification organization for fair trade coffee, tea, cocoa and sugar. All Bridgehead coffees, teas, and chocolate are certified fair trade.

Everything we do is with the environment in mind. Our intention is to limit and reduce our ecological footprint and we do this by carefully selecting our cups and packaging, through our intensive in-store waste streaming program and our investment in reusable shipping containers to transport our coffee and kitchen goods.

We are committed to coffee grown in harmony with the environment, meaning diverse coffee varieties grown within a rich biodiversity, using methods that are organic, conserve water and rely on very little outside inputs. This approach doesn't just benefit the environment, it promotes farmer health too.

Over the last 40 years, Bridgehead has continued to evolve and grow to reach coffee lovers across Canada. Bridgehead was the first to bring fairly-traded coffee to coffeehouses, showing that coffee tastes better by doing better.