Roger’s Coffee

In 2015, Roger Snellman decided to change his career path, purchased a coffee roaster, and founded Roger’s Coffee. For years, the roastery operated in shared premises with the popular Fiika Café in the old town of Jakobstad (in Finnish; Pietarsaari), roasting coffee also for the café’s use. Today, the roastery continues to collaborate with the café but operates independently. The company is now named Jakobstads Kafferosteri Ab Pietarsaaren Kahvipaahtimo Oy, and the coffees are sold under the Roger’s Coffee brand.

Roger’s Coffee started in the garage!

In the year 2015, Roger Snellmann changed his career path and opened a micro coffee roastery in his home garage. Roger bought a 2kg Giesen W1 semi-automatic coffee roaster and high-quality green coffee beans. This is how the Roger’s Coffee story started to take shape.

Endless hours of education and experience sharing trips, including one to Germany to visit the 15 kg Probat coffee roasting training course, gave results. Coffee packages started to find their new homes in Jakobstad. They also opened a small coffee package shop in the city centre.

Let’s buy a cafe!

Soon enough, the Roger’s Coffee story made a plot twist. Roger decided to join a local bakery, which had a really good location in the very centre of Jakobstad. Excellent cakes and locally roasted coffee? Sounds like a perfect match. And it was.

However, the bakery owners wanted to eventually move on, as they were still searching for the right path for their business. This is where Roger did something unexpected. He offered to buy out the whole place. The bakery owners were shocked and happy at the same time. This is how the FIIKA Cafe & Company opened its doors for the very first time.

The whole family gets to work

Running a cafe is not an easy business, it takes time, resources and passion. But Roger had no issue with that. He invested his own time and his family also offered the invest theirs. Even the 7-year-old Minnie was excited to help, with occasionally bringing freshly washed dishes from the kitchen to the bar.

Roger’s Coffee is well known around the city for their traditional and tasty cakes (from the previous owners), their delicious sandwiches and fresh savoury pies, made in the kitchen downstairs as well as many, many more self-made, fresh products.

The cafe has a big conference room upstairs and all of the coffees served in the cafe were roasted in Roger’s garage. The roasters were Roger and his good friend Jimmy, who kept the coffee super fresh and high quality. It all turned out really well.

Let’s bring the roaster to the cafe!

In the summer of 2018, Roger invited two Latvian coffee experts to Jakobstad’s busiest week – the Jakobsdagar festival, to work and help during the massive festival and consult on the coffee development. This was the moment when Roger made a decision he had been thinking about before – to move the roaster to the cafe, and to combine the Roger’s Coffee brand with FIIKA Cafe & Company.

The Giesen W1 was integrated into the cafes right corner, green coffee bags were put next to it, ventilation was installed and it was ready to roast some excellent coffee! One of the Latvian experts also applied for a job at FIIKA Cafe & Company, was accepted and started to work there as a barista and a coffee roaster.

Speciality coffee, roasted in the Jakobstad centre

Through continuous development, both Roger’s Coffee and FIIKA Cafe & Company have grown into strong brands, belonging to the same family. The FIIKA cafe crew is in top shape to brew and present the best coffees, and the roasters, Roger and Martin are putting their heads together to further develop the coffee business and raise coffee quality every day.

If you find yourself in Jakobstad, strolling along the rocky seaside or visiting the historic Skata old town, stop by Fiika and enjoy a cup of Roger’s Coffee delicious filter coffee or espresso-based drinks, all crafted with love from high-quality ingredients.

Changes in 2025

At the beginning of 2025, the coffee roastery was separated from Fiika’s operations. Through a new share issue, Fiika gained multiple owners, while Roger took full ownership of the roastery. The company is now named Jakobstads Kafferosteri Ab Pietarsaaren Kahvipaahtimo Oy, and the coffees are sold under the Roger’s Coffee brand.

“This change feels completely right. Now I can focus on what matters most to me – creating the best possible flavor for my roasted coffee and ensuring that customers are always satisfied with the coffee they receive. I am proud of my small roastery and see great growth potential beyond the current production. Thank you for your support. Without you, dear customers, I wouldn’t exist.
At Roger’s Coffee, our passion is to select and roast coffees that our customers crave. We also promise that our coffee will always be of the highest quality!”
– Roger Snellman, Founder of Roger’s Coffee

SLURP helping develop the brand reputation

Roger’s Coffee has been working with Slurp almost since the beginning and it has been a wonderful experience. Slurp has been a great platform, allowing Roger’s Coffee to meet new audiences all over Finland and even abroad! It has also been amazing to visit the Slurp office in Helsinki and talk with the team, drink great coffee, exchange experiences and think of ways to improve.

As Roger’s Coffee is growing, there will also be new interesting coffees to try. Since the roaster is quite small, Roger’s Coffee can offer flexibility and change from a light roast to dark roast and everything in between for every coffee we have. Send Roger a message and we can discuss and find the perfect coffee and roast level for you, delivered to your home by Slurp!