VEGREVILLE: Roadside Attractions Coffee Series
VEGREVILLE seasonal coffee
2023 - back by popular demand
medium roast Peruvian coffee blend
VEGREVILLE Alberta’s giant Pysanka was one of the first Roadside Attractions featured in this series in 2022.
It’s back for Easter 2023 - this time made with a medium roast coffee from PERU.
(The 2022 VEGREVILLE was a darker roast Honduran blend.)
Vegreville Pysanka (Ukrainian Easter Egg)
The label features the World’s Largest Pysanka (Ukrainian Easter Egg) in Vegreville, Alberta.
When we started this Roadside Attraction Coffee Series, I knew that Vegreville’s Giant Ukrainian Easter Egg (Pysanka) would be one of the attractions we featured. I love this sculpture and have visited it a few times over the years. In fact, the drawing is made from a photo of Joe and I on one of our Vegreville visits a few years ago. Yup, that’s me with long hair!
Family Connections
Joe and I in front of the beautiful - and enormous - pysanka, Vegreville, Alberta
My dad was born a bit further east from Vegreville, closer to the Saskatchewan border. Every time we travelled from BC to visit our Alberta relatives, we’d stop by the Giant Pysanka to marvel at it.
Our good friends and Sparkplug coffee drinkers, brothers Mark and Glen Beauchamp, have a super cool connection to the Vegreville Pysanka. Their mom’s cousin, Paul Maxym Sembaliuk, designed the egg sculpture and his mom, Elizabeth Sembaliuk, designed the beautiful pattern that decorates the egg.
Great-aunt Elizabeth made 5 actual pysankas - regular sized, from regular eggs - with the same pattern. One of these was given to Queen Elizabeth and one was passed down through the Beauchamp family and now belongs to Glen’s daughter, Neko. So cool!
What Is A Pysanka?
In case you’re not familiar with the Ukrainian egg, it is an Easter egg hand decorated using a wax resist method. Here is a great website with photos of pysanky (I think that’s the plural of pysanka) and more info on how they are made: Pysanka Info
p.s. I’m sorry to break it to you, but the Vegreville Pysanka is now the Second Largest in the World, surpassed by an even larger one built in 2000 that is in the Kolomyia Pysanka Museum in Ukraine. I guess it’s fitting that the World’s Largest Ukrainian Egg is in Ukraine.
Support for Ukraine - MSF Canada
A giant Easter Egg for Easter - perfect timing!
Back in January 2022, when we were planning out the first few destinations for the Roadside Attraction Coffee Series, we decided that The Vegreville would be released in time for Easter 2022.
Little did we know that Ukraine would be engulfed in war when the coffee was released.
In light of the war, we donated all profits from sales of The Vegreville to Doctors Without Borders / MSF Canada. And in 2023, we are again donating a portion of sales from every bag of VEGREVILLE to MSF Canada.
We chose MSF for many reasons. Although it was the war in Ukraine that inspired this donation, the funds donated will be used wherever MSF chooses.
We know that MSF will make the best possible use of the funds received, they are well-rated by charity watchdogs, and the medical and humanitarian work they do is urgently needed right now.
VEGREVILLE will be available for about 7 weeks. When it is replaced by the next destination in the Roadside Attraction Coffee Series, we will tally up all its sales and make a donation to MSF Canada.
Make a donation directly to Doctors Without Borders, or learn more about their work, at:
MSF Canada
The Roadside Attraction Coffee Series
The Roadside Attraction series of seasonal coffees celebrates our love for coffee, for road trips, and for Canada by creating limited edition coffees named for and inspired by Canadian Roadside Attractions.
The names and logos of these coffees are inspired by giant sculptures and other quirky and cool attractions that are found across Canada - like Vegreville’s Giant Pysanka and Kenora’s Husky the Muskie.
Every few weeks we bring out a new Roadside Attraction Series coffee. These coffees may be a single-origin (from one country or even part of a small lot from one farm) or a blend of special beans from a couple places.
One thing is for sure, each one is a limited edition. It's only around for a few weeks so try it out while you can!
Enjoy this coffee and dream of your next road trip!