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Along with tasting notes, our coffees come with memory notes—a mouthful of words to contextualize what you’re drinking.

Shrove Tuesday

On a March morning in Ontario, a bell tolls across the frozen grounds of the oldest Catholic boys’ school in the province. Despite Father Pascal’s reminders during Mass in preceding weeks, first-year students at St John’s Perpetual Adoration are awoken by the sound, bewildered in the darkness

‘Wake up, sinners, it’s Pancake Day!’ yells a boy on his way past. He whacks a few wardrobe doors with his cricket bat for good measure, and half-sleep gives way to icy panic. It’s the day before Lent – 40 days of fasting and the stink of fried fish for lunch every Friday. 

The boys’ final glimmer of hope lies in pancakes for breakfast this morning, the kitchen’s symbolic nod to medieval Christians who used up all their eggs, butter, and sugar to remove themselves from temptation before their fast began – if the Lord wouldn’t deliver them from evil, they’d have to do it themselves.

‘Do you think they’ll take away my blood oranges from Sicily?’ Thomas whispered to his bunkmate. 

‘Best say a Hail Mary and hide them in your underwear drawer,’ he replied. ‘All I know is, my Cherry Cola days are done for. My stash will be given to the Baptist orphanage in the city for sure.’ Like little men on death row, Dorm A (officially known as Dorm Anus) tighten their ties and pull up their socks. ‘Chin up, chaps. I’ve got one jar of maple butter left from Christmastime,’ says Luke. ‘We’ll go down swinging.’