Grind just before use and use just enough beans for the coffee you're making. The grind size should be between .75 mm and 1 mm. If the grind is too coarse it will make the coffee taste weak. If the grind is too fine, it will make the coffee taste bitter or too strong. Try a Burr grinder for the most uniform outcome.

Water makes up 98.5% of a cup of coffee. If your tap water tastes good to drink, it's good to make coffee with. Use it cold and freshly drawn from the tap. (Let the tap run for a few seconds first.) If you don't like your tap water, use filtered — but not distilled — water.

The correct coffee to water ratio is 40 g (1.4 oz) of ground coffee to 1L (34 fl oz) of water. In English, that's two heaping tablespoons for every ¾ cup of coffee. More if you're bold, less if you're not.

The brewing, or 'contact' time, should be 4 to 4½ minutes. Check the grounds after brewing. Has all the coffee come in contact with the water? Are there any dry grounds of coffee? Your cup's final optimum temperature is 60-72°C (140-162°F).

Coffee absorbs odours and deteriorates when it contacts air. Keep your coffee tightly rolled in its Kicking Horse Coffee valve bag or sealed in its Kicking Horse Coffee can until you're ready to refill the grinder. Store in a dry, cool location, but not in the fridge or freezer.

The French Press is the French kiss of coffee brewing — enabling a more intimate experience with the flavour of the beans. Low-tech and time-honoured, just grind (a burr grinder on course setting works best), pour and plunge. The result; a simple method and complex cup. For extreme coffee nuts, we suggest the Hario Syphon. This is the stunning Japanese, blend-of-art-and-science way to brew coffee and can be experienced first-hand if you ever visit our café-come alchemist's lab.

How do we produce the most kick ass coffee there is? By choosing only organic Fair Trade Arabica beans, that's how. Oh, and by loving what we do every step of the way. We source the beans, roast them, 'cup' them to ensure quality, and package them for fresh delivery. Read on...

Coffee beans are actually the seeds of the cherry of the coffee tree. There are two coffee varieties: Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is the best — nothing tops its flavour. Robusta beans are okay for lesser coffees, but we at Kicking Horse Coffee choose only the finest, organically-grown Arabica beans from certified Fair Trade sources. After all, it starts with the bean...

Once the coffee cherries have been picked by hand, two things need to happen: the outer fruit has to be removed and the inner beans have to be processed for transport and storage. There are several steps in this. Suffice to say that green beans arriving to our Invermere location have been through more than a few hoops — and there are a few more yet to come...

Roasting coffee is a science and an art form. It involves coordinating heat, air flow, time and technique. Kicking Horse Coffee offers three main types of roasts. Our dark roasts provide a rich, full-bodied, sometimes-chocolaty flavour. Our medium roasts are smooth and well-balanced between acidity and body. Our light roasts can be floral, fruity, sweet and rich. They are all worth a taste. Speaking of tasting...

Just like wine tasting, coffee cupping is done to ensure the finest flavour possible. Each batch of Kicking Horse Coffee is cupped (brewed) and tasted. (We also analyze each roast with near-infrared energy at specific wavelengths; just to be scientific.) These tests determine if the roast is perfect. If not, the coffee isn't bagged and sold. You can never be too careful when your goal is to be the best...

With coffee, as with any fine food, freshness is essential. We package our coffees so that the bag or can you buy serves up a roundhouse kick of freshness to the tastebuds. First, we cool the roasted beans for just the right amount of time. Then we pour them into tall, dark and sexy bags or cans. From there, the beans' final steps belong to you!

Legend says coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia by a goat herder named Kaldi. He noticed his goats became frisky after munching on some unusual red cherries. He tried it himself and, well, the rest is you-know-what.

Instead of drinking with the goats, those thoughtful Parisians simultaneously created a coffee conundrum and a social scene as they opened the first European café. This proved to be a revolutionary idea, and since then, many revolutions have had their inceptions in cafés.

Liquid black tasty gold. The dripping inky goodness of dark energy is finally unleashed, at long last allowed to flow free, thick and furious; like Chuck Norris in a tar pit.

In 1858, James Hector discovered the Kicking Horse Valley: some of the West's most beautiful and rugged country. While crossing a river, a pack horse kicked Hector so hard his partners thought he died. As they began to bury him, Hector's eye suddenly twitched. Legend has it that a stiff cup of Kick Ass Coffee helped bring him back to life!

"What are you two schmucks going to do with your lives? Sell coffee from your garage?" - Elana Rosenfeld's mother
And so in 1996 Leo Johnson and Elana Rosenfeld did precisely that. In the Rocky Mountain town of Invermere, B.C., Canada, they began roasting coffee in their skivvies when it was hot out, balancing babies and experimenting with different products.

As one of the first 10 companies in Canada to sign on with TransFair Canada from its humble start in 1998, Kicking Horse Coffee paves the way, builds awareness and demand for Fair Trade Coffee by Canadians.

In 2003 Kicking Horse Coffee makes the conscious decision to discontinue all conventional coffee and focuses efforts only purchasing and roasting 100% Certified Organic coffee beans.

By 2007, despite increasing pressure to source more green beans, Kicking Horse Coffee commits to discontinue the purchase of all non-Fair Trade coffee and develops our current 100% Certified Organic, Certified Fair Trade only, 21 blend product offering.

Kicking Horse Coffee opens our first Café. In keeping with our tradition of understated cleverness and killer coffee, the Kicking Horse Coffee team swung wide the java doors of goodness and invited the world to come on in and become a part of the story.

With the help of a friend in high places, AC Nielsen confirms what our great customers and loyal fans have been telling us for years; Kicking Horse Coffee celebrates a 13th straight year as Canada's #1 selling Organic Fair Trade Coffee! Thank you Canada!

The spring of 2010 marks the dawn of a new era at Kicking Horse Coffee. Not to be mistaken for Invermere BC's newest Rec Complex, the construction of 40,000 ft² of additional production space will result in new homes for Don FresCo, Uranus, The General and Tin Can Alley — affectionate names for our ever-growing packaging lines. Now where are those hockey nets going to go?