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Ruth Bonneville / Free Press 49.8 - INTERSECTION Toasti bean infused coffee Photos of Hayley Johnston (brown sweater, bun) and her business partner Thao Lam with her young son, Teo (10 months old), showing off their variety of brews. Also shots sealing bags of coffee in their commercial kitchen in Hayley's garage which was renovated and licensed for their business use. Story: This is for an Intersection piece on Toasti Bean Infused Coffee, the gals' "COVID project." The two met in university over 12 years ago, and got together daily for their morning coffee. After being forced to work from home during the pandemic, each missed their daily caramel macchiato, so they began experimenting with diff spices & extracts, to create their own flavours of coffee. (Infused coffee involves mixing spices etc. with ground, roasted beans and allowing everything to settle, before brewing. They soon launched Toasti Bean in the fall of 2020. Today they're up to over 20 flavours (blueberry pancake coffee, anyone?) and will be at markets almost every weekend this month. The commercial kitchen they use is Hayley's garage - she renovated and had it licensed. For the Apr 13 Intersection. Story by Dave. April 10th, 2024