As the legendary story goes, Honoré de Balzac’s copious consumption of black coffee is what fuelled many endless nights composing great literature. But his shrewd declaration, “the café is the people’s parliament,” is what defines the spirit of Balzac’s Coffee Roasters. For President and Founder, Diana Olsen, the desire to capture this sentiment was first piqued when she was 18 and reveling in the Grand Cafés of Paris.