Café Pista was born from our love for people, coffee, and cycling.
Our goal is to highlight the work of producers while democratizing specialty coffee. In our daily lives, we do this by serving high-quality beverages in a comfortable and thoughtful environment. Indeed, our spaces are designed to share a good time among friends and neighbors!
2014
Maxime, then 20 years old, founded Café Pista initially named "Le Pista Café Mobile". Captivated by the innovative project of two students in London: a bike café that operates solely on human energy, where the coffee is ground by pedaling. This idea ignited the flame and passion for coffee, cycling, and design. Thus was born Café Pista, the world's first human-powered bike café!

2016

We realized our vision by opening the first branch of Café Pista on Beaubien Street in Montreal. We created a unique place where coffee lovers can taste exceptional terroir coffees, expertly prepared by our passionate baristas. Our café has quickly become a must-visit meeting spot for coffee lovers and curious passersby.

2018

We have taken a new step by launching our line of coffee bags. This initiative has allowed us to showcase our expertise in selecting coffee beans, roasting, and careful packaging. We want to offer our customers the opportunity to enjoy our coffees in the comfort of their home, while supporting exceptional producers and allowing us to tell you their story.
Today

Building on our success, we continued our expansion. In 2019, we opened a second branch on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, thus broadening our footprint on the Montreal scene. Then, in 2020, we opened a third branch, accompanied by a new roasting space. This expansion reflects our ongoing commitment to quality, innovation, and customer experience. Café Pista has become much more than just a coffee shop; it is a human-scale entrepreneurial project, born from dreams and visions, and supported by a team dedicated to offering the best coffee to our community.

There is a person and a story behind every coffee, we make sure to tell it to you well.

At Pista, we work directly with farms and with a few carefully selected importers. This allows us to have meaningful and transparent transactions. Our vision is to create strong and lasting relationships. We work towards this goal to bring stability and support to our producer partners. That is why, year after year, you find the same origins on our shelves. It is our commitment to source from the same communities in order to grow together.
Transparency
Our commitment to the transparency of purchase prices and the traceability of beans reflects our desire to support producers, guarantee the quality of our coffees, and promote the sustainability of the coffee industry. That is why, for each coffee, you can trace back to the farm the origin of the beans as well as their journey to your cup, ensuring you a product paid at a fair price.
Quality
All our beans are selected with great care and follow a rigorous selection process. Each season, we receive samples of exceptional lots from our producer partners. These coffees are tasted blind by the roasting team and chosen for their taste qualities, their origin, the people, and the projects associated with them. It is therefore easy to say that these coffees are the team's favorites!
Community
Beyond the cup, its taste, and the baristas, there is a community at the origin to whom we owe our coffee. These "micro" producers, owners of only a few hectares of land, are responsible for more than 85% of the coffees that are produced in the world. Our coffees, through innovative projects, encourage and support the financial independence of our partners on the farm.
Sustainable development
At Café Pista, sustainability is embedded in our values and guides all our actions. First, we believe that sustainability comes from responsible sourcing. We do this by paying our producers more than three times the price of commodities to support their financial independence and local efforts. We also use a low-carbon emissions roaster (Loring) and prioritize deliveries in electric or carbon-neutral vehicles. Finally, in our branches, we have reduced our waste by 70%, compost all organic materials, and recycle Pista coffee bags (or those of our competitors). We actively encourage our customers to buy our products in bulk or to use a reusable cup.
Transparency Report 2024 Download the pdf