ethical addictions™ coffee house was birthed out of a collision of passions. John and Jill Enns have loved coffee, and loved serving it to their friends, since they got married.

As entrepreneurs, for decades John and Jill had been “threatening” to open a coffee shop. Their eldest (of 4 children) finally said, “Don’t talk about it anymore, you’re never going to do it.”

While shopping for Christmas presents in late 1999, John came across some fair trade coffee in a 10,000 Villages store. He loved the flavour, but even more impactful was hearing for the first time about the economic suppression of coffee farmers due to the buying practices of the powerful North American consumer and the chain of coffee supply that catered to everyone except the producers.

John and Jill heard about Fair Trade, and the assurances of fair treatment to the farmers, their families and their communities. The Enns’ passion for good coffee, the love of starting new ventures and now the ability to make a difference in the world, conspired to make their foray into the coffee world a few months later almost inevitable.

The creation of expressia™ was driven by their need to serve the best flavoured coffee. They were pained to be serving drip-brewed coffee to their customers in the coffee shop when they would never drink it that way themselves at home.

It was also seemed wrong to them that although they had sourced a lineup of great coffees, they could not have them all brewed at once. They could not give the customer their favourite roast anytime they wanted.

In brainstorming on what to do, John and their eldest son Lucas, discovered there was no system available to brew coffee in the volumes and with the flavour that they were compelled to produce. That started the 4 year development process that resulted in the expressia™ coffee system.