Mareiwa launches Combia, a cold brew coffee line

Mareiwa Café Colombien, a Maskoutan business already known for its high-end coffee beans, is launching a new line of products made in Saint-Hyacinthe. Combia, its new cold-brewed coffee, will be available in Quebec grocery and convenience stores in the next few weeks.

Made from the premium-quality coffee beans the company imports, the drinks will come in four flavours (black, café au lait, moka and maple). A fifth flavour will be unveiled this fall.

The name of the line is inspired by Lorena Meneses, the Colombian-born entrepreneur behind the new product. Combia is a fertile, meaningful blend of the words “cumbia,” a traditional dance in her homeland, and “Columbia,” where the coffee beans used in the beverages are grown.

The company’s president, Meneses, added: “The idea of cultural exchange was central to the creation of Combia beverages. The meeting of Columbia’s best coffee and Quebec’s best natural sweetener (maple syrup) in our maple cold brew is a great example, and it’s not the only one. Each of the four recipes was carefully designed to maximize the use of Quebec-made products.”

Mareiwa is also careful to check the authenticity of the coffee it imports, whose exceptional flavour and quality built its reputation in the region. With finesse and balance, Combia cold brews, which are brewed for 24 hours, contain twice as much caffeine as regular coffee, with no added refined sugar or preservatives.

 $1.2-M investment

Marketing of these new products was made possible thanks to a $1.2-million investment by Mareiwa, announced by Saint-Hyacinthe Technopole last October. The company set up its new production unit in a building in the Olivier-Chalifoux industrial park. The amount Mareiwa invested in the project has gone toward making some leasehold improvements to the building it is renting on Impasse Bérard, as well as purchasing new production equipment.

The investment was made possible thanks to support from Saint-Hyacinthe Technopole, as well as financial participation from Canada Economic Development; the Maskoutains RCM through its FLI-FLS fund; Investissement Québec; the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Québec; and the Filaction fund.

Mareiwa Café Colombien started its production activities in Saint-Hyacinthe in 2016. It imports green 100% Arabica coffee beans directly from Columbia, which it roasts and packages to increase their quality and shelf life. It sells these products at different points of sale throughout Quebec. In 2017, Mareiwa also opened a café in downtown Saint-Hyacinthe where it sells its products directly to customers, to consume onsite or take home.

To learn more about Combia, its unique history, its partners, the values it promotes, the cold-brewed coffees’ properties and the different flavours available, visit combiacoldbrew.com or follow the team’s activities on Facebook and Instagram.