Toronto coffee roaster wins Canadian lifetime achievement award
Published November 20, 2024 at 1:57 pm
A Toronto coffee roaster has won a national lifetime achievement award.
Peter Pesce, expert coffee roaster and founder of Reunion Coffee Roasters, won the Coffee Industry Lifetime Achievement Award by the Coffee Association of Canada, according to a press release from the association.
The award is the association’s highest recognition for an individual whose “extraordinary and ground-breaking contributions have created positive change and have had a significant, profound and lasting impact on the coffee community,” the release stated.
“I am honoured to receive the Coffee Association of Canada’s Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Pesce. “It is truly a reflection of the hard work, dedication and passion that was made possible by many partners, friends, and individuals along the supply chain. I am fortunate to have people who believed in, and supported, my vision to produce a high-quality coffee at an affordable price, without sacrificing on sustainability.”
Pesce has been a driving force in the North America coffee business for over 50 years and is a visionary in delivering specialty coffee, sustainably, the release states.
He entered the coffee industry with the launch of Bourbon Coffee, a specialty coffee roaster that operated in a small warehouse in Downsview.
Bourbon was part of coffee’s “second wave” movement.
Typically, the first wave of coffee is defined as the start of coffee consumption in the 1800s. Coffee brands didn’t have a strong focus on quality or sourcing transparency. The second wave started in the 1970s with the growth of cafes such as Starbucks. Taste became more important and coffee shops were places for socializing. In the third wave, in the early 2000s, people began to think about the origins of the coffee, the processes involved and sustainability.
Bourbon Coffee grew with the times and by 1986, was the largest distributor of specialty coffee in Canada. Pesce received multiple offers to purchase his company and ultimately sold the business in 1988 to a large Canadian corporation when he was 41 years old. He stayed on with the company for nearly 10 years.
With a desire to continue pushing the industry forward, he started Reunion Island Coffee (now Reunion Coffee Roasters) in 1995.
The company was named for a small island known for growing exceptional coffee beans. The roastery was housed in a 3,000-square-foot facility in Mississauga and today it is one of North America’s largest, and most sustainable, roasters of specialty coffee.
The 46,000-square-foot roasting facility, one of Canada’s largest renewable energy-powered roasting facilities, is based in Oakville. The company supports the foodservice, hospitality, office coffee and retail sectors providing specialty coffee under the Reunion name as well as for major Canadian brands.
They also have a flagship cafe at 385 Roncesvalles Ave, in Toronto.
Today, Adam Pesce is the president of Reunion Coffee Roasters and continues to advocate for sustainability and transparency in the industry.
“I am so proud of this incredible business that my father has built and it’s wonderful to see him receive this much-deserved recognition from the Coffee Association of Canada,” said Adam. “I carry forward his passion in making great tasting, sustainable coffee more accessible. Like my father, I see the potential in coffee to act as a force of good and look forward to continuing the work he started.”
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