We source and roast a variety of estate and co-op coffees, as well as a few specialized blends, while valuing the importance of transparency, freshness, and quality at each step of the process from seed to cup.
Selection
To acquire green unroasted coffee beans that suit our taste, we work with several different importers who work only with high-quality specialty grade coffee. We also have some farms we work with and import from directly. To secure the best coffees ,we also participate in the Cup of Excellence® program and have worked with many coffee growers and producers. The Cup of Excellence® is a strict competition that selects the very best coffee produced in that country for that particular year . These winning coffees are chosen by a select group of national and international cuppers and are cupped at least five different times during the competition process. The final winners are awarded the prestigious Cup of Excellence® and sold to the highest bidder during an internet auction. For every coffee we are interested in, we roast a small sample, and taste test it several different ways. Only if we are pleased with the farm's sample for that harvest will we purchase it.
Roasting
With over a dozen years experience roasting coffee, we source and roast a variety of estate and co-op coffees as well as a few specialized blends while valuing the importance of transparency, fairness, and quality at each step of the process from seed to cup. We specialize in small batch, air-cooled roasting. Our batch size (20-30 lbs. per batch) is small enough to give us good control and flexibility with our roast profile, and large enough to give a good amount of bean-to-bean radiant heat transfer and roast evenness. We exclusively air-cool our beans because water-quenching degrades flavor intensity and clarity.
When roasting we are maximizing the inherent potential in the bean created by its cultivar, producer, and terrior. We use a traditional drum style coffee roaster made by Dietrich, the premier quality American roaster manufacturer. The roaster creates a balance of radiant, conductive, and convective heat to roast the beans powerfully, evenly, but slowly enough for complex caramelization flavors to develop. Our coffee is roasted by hand in small batches to ensure the coffee gets the kind of attention such a variable agricultural product undergoing the complex roasting process deserves. In addition to our single origin coffees, we also offer four primary blends. We have a light-roast blend (Fairfire Blend), a medium-roast blend (Bullseye Blend), a dark roast blend (Black Gold Blend), and a blend design for espresso (Spro). By blending specific coffees from several different farms around the world, complex flavor profiles can be achieved which could not be with a single origin coffee. We create our blends by focusing on creating the best light, medium, or dark roast coffee experiences possible. We do not blend cheap coffees together to dilute different defects just to create something palatable and inexpensive. We exclusively air-cool our beans because water-quenching degrades flavor intensity and clarity.
Packaging
Once coffee is roasted, it is rapidly perishable. As roasted coffee sits, it loses many of its enzymatic aromas and the fats in the beans go rancid. If the coffee is ground it can be stale in less than an hour. We package our coffee only as whole beans in a thick polyethylene bag fitted with a special one-way valve, vacuumed to remove oxygen (oxygen turns the fats rancid) and double sealed. To lock in freshness, our coffee is packaged shortly after roasting. A one-way valve is needed because for a few days after roasting, coffee emits carbon dioxide. The special valve lets the carbon dioxide out but prevents oxygen from entering. It's impossible to remove all of the oxygen, and you can't stop the aromatics from diffusing out of the bean, so its still important to get fresh coffee; and its roast-dated so you know its fresh.
Learn more about our coffee on our Coffee FAQ or the research area of our site .