Balzac's Coffee is a Canadian coffee company with sixteen retail locations across

Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario (census population 2,796,367 in 2021) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula, bounded by Lake Huron (includ ...

and the GTA, including

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Niagara, Kitchener, Stratford,

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as The Royal City, it is roughly east of Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Ontario Highway 6, ...

, and

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

. The first Balzac’s café was opened in Stratford, Ontario, in 1996, by entrepreneur Diana Olsen. Named after the famous French novelist and famed coffee drinker

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...

, the cafes serve conventional and fair trade blends, as well as espressos, hot chocolate and a variety of cold beverages. Each Balzac's Coffee location has commissioned a café poster unique to the community it serves. Balzac's was featured in the sixth season of ''

Dragon's Den ''Dragons' Den'' is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it i ...

''; two of the

venture capitalists Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

on the show bought into the company. In 2016, the company started a new business, selling coffee beans in grocery stores across Canada, including Loblaws, Sobeys and Whole Foods. In 2024 Balzac's Anniversary Blend coffee brand won an award from Western Grocer for Best New Product in the Whole Bean Coffee category The company is owned by District Ventures Capital, a private equity firm led by

Arlene Dickinson Arlene Dickinson (born October 8, 1956) is a South African and Canadian businesswoman, investor, author, and television personality. She is the general partner of District Ventures Capital and CEO of Venturepark. Dickinson joined the cast of the ...

References

External links

* Coffeehouses and cafés in Canada Companies based in Hamilton, Ontario {{Canada-restaurant-stub