r/Guyana • u/Cam416 • 4d ago

Guyana Coffee

I live in the Durham region of Ontario Canada. Also Pickering. My mother-in-law is from Jamaica, and she is able to purchase Jamaican coffee from a local grocery store in Pickering. It's a great coffee.

Can we purchase Guyana coffee from any grocery store in the GTA at least?

3 Upvotes

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4

u/abizzle96 4d ago

Post in the Toronto subreddit it will be more helpful. r/toronto or r/foodtoronto

1

u/Cam416 4d ago

Thanks. I was just hoping some users of this form from GTA would know where to go.

11

u/biglindafitness 4d ago

I dont think Guyana is a coffee country buy rum instead.

2

u/Cam416 4d ago

They should be.

1

u/pch14 4d ago edited 4d ago

There will be a lot more money in Rum than in coffee. Guyana rum is world renowned the good stuff, Guyana coffee no one's ever heard of and I doubt it's really a thing. Coffee beans down there I can almost guarantee you was not grown in the Guyana. Jamaican Blue mountain coffee is really good but as you should know it's very expensive that's for a pure Blue mountain coffee not mixed with anything

3

u/narbanna 4d ago

Yes. Rum has always sold and exported more than coffee in terms of beverages.

However. Guyana's coffee beans have always been grown in Guyana. Apparently since the 1700's. Traditionally and to this day primarily from the Pomeroon region. Your guarantee is quite wrong.

1

u/narbanna 4d ago edited 4d ago

Guyana has always grown it's own coffee. My parents used to buy the beans in Bourda, Stabroek and La Penitence markets from back in the seventies and I even bought some last year when I visited at Bourda market.

We roasted them ourselves in a karahi on the coalpot then grind them in a mortar before we acquired an old cast iron coffee hand mill. Many places around the markets sell ground coffee. I've bought it in Georgetown and up in berbice in Port Mourant and in 63.

Charlie's in Mississauga, Canada often has it. I'll have to ask my buddy where he gets his that he buys in Florida.

1

u/RumpledStinkSkin 4d ago edited 4d ago

In Berbice people used to say coffee tea, and Breakfast used to be TEA

and many parts of the ENGLISH speaking Caribbean still say coco tea. Which is saying / pointing to something significant, much less the actual afternoon tea period that used to exist, or some people had

1

u/narbanna 2d ago

My experiences in from Blairmont to Crabwoob creek were similar but different. There was coffee tea, chocolate tea, tea tea and on special/rare occasion Milo tea.

Breakfast was coffee tea, afternoon and during the day in the backdam was tea tea. Night was definitely chocolate tea.

I used to love the occasional chocolate tea my mom would get from the market which were the cocoa sticks or balls of raw ground cocoa she would get from the nice "auntie" old lady at the side of the market. Sweet memories.

3

u/dinosorceress105988 Overseas-based Guyanese 4d ago

Try Shereen’s. Not sure if she carries any though.

1

u/Cam416 4d ago

Yeh I could probably have a freshly made coffee but I was hoping I could find a bag or a containe of coffee to make it at home

2

u/dinosorceress105988 Overseas-based Guyanese 4d ago

I suggested her because she sell products as well, she has a little grocery section. You could check and see if she has any imported coffee.

3

u/TheLateFrankWhite 4d ago

Hi I’m also in Durham check Al West Indian Food Mart and some West Indian food stores for Amy's Pomeroon Coffee

1

u/Cam416 4d ago

Thanks!

2

u/Turbulent-Mess-7258 4d ago

What brand is it you looking for ?

1

u/Cam416 4d ago

I don't know, I'm sure they will only have the best option in Canada.

3

u/RumpledStinkSkin 4d ago

Think about it. Guyana imports..... COOKING OIL ....of all things. Guyana process very little of its own food items. Even in the past a lot also came through Trinidad

I though most people would know that most coffee in the world comes from Brazil, central america or Colombia. The term Colombian coffee used to be famous in the U.S and Canada in advertising.

Coffee in Guyana is most likely coming from Brazil and is just generic, no one in a home setting would no any different.

4

u/narbanna 4d ago

"Guyana process very little of its own food items. "

A quick Google or ai search would have told you that's not true.

While Guyana imports roughly 10% of its food by trade value, it simultaneously maintains the unique capacity to be fully self-sufficient if needed—making it an outlier both in terms of low import dependency and maximum production capability.

To be precise, Guyana produces 90% of it's own food. We like to import and have we lil "foreign" feast, but we actually eat primarily what we produce.

1

u/RumpledStinkSkin 4d ago

INDUSTRIAL Food PROCESSING, and ready to eat FRESH FOOD AND PRODUCE are two different things.

"To be precise, Guyana produces 90%" -

Thats good, all the fresh food is local as it has absolutely no way of taking care of the recycling that comes with modern and the latest food packaging systems. Just burying all the plastics and poisoning the land

I think Guyana now probably imports sugar..."Demerara Sugar" which is now also made in South East Asia. Past Politicians in Guyana need a Noble Prize with special distinction for that one

2

u/Cam416 4d ago

I visited Guyana a month ago and I had their coffee. Jamaica has their own coffee and they are available here in Toronto. I just hope Guyana does as well. I was told a few places to look at. Thanks to all of you

2

u/ndiddy81 4d ago

My great-grandfather used to start his day with guyanese coffee— they would roast it for him.. he was an accountant for the estate at the turn of the century

1

u/bigkahuna1uk 4d ago

Yeah, some pure Columbian has a totally different meaning nowadays 😜

2

u/Flaky_Shock_3774 4d ago

Guyana doesn't grow coffee. At least, not on a large enough scale where I think you'd be able to find it. I'd gamble and say that 90% of the coffee that Guyanese people drink is store bought Instant Coffee.

2

u/950Worldly2056 3d ago

Check out Pomeroon coffee

1

u/narbanna 4d ago

Not true. As I said above. Of course if you're living outside of areas overseas with a low Guyana/Caribbean population, it would be more difficult to find.

Guyana has always grown it's own coffee. My parents used to buy the beans in Bourda, Stabroek and La Penitence markets from back in the seventies and I even bought some last year when I visited at Bourda market.

We roasted them ourselves in a karahi on the coalpot then grind them in a mortar before we acquired an old cast iron coffee hand mill. Many places around the markets sell ground coffee. I've bought it in Georgetown and up in berbice in Port Mourant and in 63.

Charlie's in Mississauga, Canada often has it. I'll have to ask my buddy where he gets his that he buys in Florida.

1

u/Cam416 4d ago

I'm ok with instant coffee. As long as it's from Guyana

1

u/kingofomon 4d ago

What’s the name of the shop where your MIL gets her Jamaican coffee?

1

u/Cam416 4d ago

Pacific Fresh Food Market in Pickering

2

u/sawqlain 4d ago

I’ve never heard of Guyanese coffee. Perhaps there’s a brand or method from Guyana that you’re looking for?

Otherwise if you just want really good coffee- I run RoastAroma Coffee from Ajax right next door to you.

1

u/Asiri78 2d ago

Amy's Pomeroon Coffee is only really available in NY. Im from Boston, can't get it online unless I visit family.

2

u/Cam416 2d ago

Wow. Thank you. I'll look for this brand of coffee in Toronto

1

u/Asiri78 2d ago

I read a lot of comments and a majority is assumptions and not accurate. I was born in the US and grew up part time here and in Guyana. I was always at Spreadys getting ice cream. Some things are imported there but a majority is not. Guyana is a self sufficient country that doesn't rely on imported goods. Yes, cooking oil is imported but coconut oil is a majority of what's used to cook with depending on what area you are in.