How a handshake in Budapest built the most consistent cup we've ever served — and why we've never changed it in 10 years.

The Cup You Never Questioned

You’ve probably had it more times than you can count. It’s the default. The coffee behind the latte you order every morning. The iced Americano you grab on autopilot. The coffee behind your favourite seasonal drink. You know exactly what it tastes like — milk chocolate, vanilla, dark cherry — and somehow, impossibly, it always tastes the same.

That's Dancing Goats. Our signature blend. Our bestseller for 10 years straight.

But here's the thing: the full story has never really been told. And after 10 years of serving the same extraordinary cup, it finally feels time to share it.

It Started With a Crazy Idea in Budapest

In 2017, Felix — our founder — was at a coffee expo in Budapest, Hungary. On the other side of the room was Demilson, founder of Legender Coffee in Brazil. Two people who had both left their homes to find something better in the world of specialty coffee.

They shook hands. They made a deal. And the agreement was simple: no middlemen, no brokers, no trading houses. Just a direct relationship between a Brazilian farm importer and a Toronto roastery — built entirely on trust and a shared obsession with quality.

That handshake is still the foundation of every bag of Dancing Goats you've ever ordered.

The Place Where It Begins

Dancing Goats starts in Minas Gerais, Brazil — a region the size of Ontario that produces more coffee than the entire country of Colombia. But we don't source from the massive plantations Brazil is famous for. We source from sítios — small, family-owned farms where coffee isn't a product. It's a way of life.

These aren't people commuting to their fields. They live on the farms. Grandparents planted the first trees and now, children grow up running between the rows. The farms are owned and cared for by the families who live on them.

Demilson works exclusively with three small municipalities in this region: Machado, Campestre, and Poço Fundo. He doesn't wander. He doesn't chase trends. He stays, and he goes deep. That geographic focus is one of the quiet secrets behind why Dancing Goats is so consistent year after year.

30 Cups a Day. Every Single Day.

Here's what most people don't know about how Dancing Goats is built.

From July through October — the Brazilian harvest season — Demilson cups up to 30 different coffees every single day. He sits at a table lined with samples from different sítios, tasting, comparing, eliminating. Most don't make the cut. Not because they're bad coffees — some are genuinely beautiful — but because they don't match the Dancing Goats profile.

Milk chocolate. Vanilla. Dark cherry. That's the target. Every cup. Every harvest. Every year.

The ones that match get selected. The ones that don't find other markets. No shortcuts. No compromises. Just an obsessive daily practice that has held the same standard for over a decade.

Then It Comes to Us

Once Demilson's selected green beans arrive in Toronto, our roasters Jamie and Sunjae take over. They dial in every roast to unlock exactly what was chosen at origin. Not to change the coffee — to reveal it.

This is the second stage of curation. One in Brazil. One in Canada. Two teams. One goal: the same cup, every time.

Dancing Goats is 60% of everything we serve across our cafés. That number tells you everything about how much you trust it — and how seriously we take that trust.

10 Years. Zero Compromises.

We could have changed it. We could have chased a trend, gone fruitier, gone darker, gone somewhere completely different. The specialty coffee world loves a reinvention.

But we made a decision a long time ago: Dancing Goats won’t change. Not because we're afraid to. But because some things are worth protecting.

The families growing it are worth protecting. The relationship with Demilson is worth protecting. And most of all — the feeling you get when you take that first sip on a Tuesday morning and it's exactly what you needed — that is absolutely worth protecting.

Happy 10th, Dancing Goats. ☕

Frequently Asked Questions: Dancing Goats

Q. What is medium roast coffee and why do people love it?

A. Medium roast coffee is roasted to a balanced point where the bean's natural flavours — sweetness, body, and origin character — are fully developed without the bitterness of a dark roast or the sharp acidity of a light roast. It's the most approachable and widely loved roast level because it works beautifully both black and with milk. Dancing Goats is a medium roast, which is a big part of why it's been our bestseller for 10 years.

Q. What is direct trade coffee?

A. Direct trade means the roastery sources coffee directly from the producer — no importers, brokers, or trading houses in between. It creates a transparent supply chain, allows for better quality control, and ensures farmers receive a fair premium for their work. De Mello's relationship with Legender Coffee in Brazil is 100% direct trade.

Q. What makes Brazilian specialty coffee different from commercial coffee?

A. Brazilian specialty coffee comes from carefully managed small farms — often called sítios — where attention to altitude, soil, variety, and processing results in a distinctly smooth, sweet, and complex cup. Commercial Brazilian coffee is mass-produced on large plantations and blended without regard for origin or quality. Specialty focuses on traceability, terroir, and craft.

Q. What is a sítio?

A. A sítio is a small, family-owned farm in Brazil — the opposite of the massive industrial plantations the country is famous for. These are multi-generational properties where families live and work, often producing between 100 and 300 bags of coffee per year.