The Green

First and foremost, great coffee starts with great green coffee bean selection. Quality coffee should be sourced only from the best regions, growers, and taking it even further, top tasting micro lots that have been hand selected for being the best of the best. Picking the best green coffee is key!   

Aren’t all beans the same? Oh no, no no… Think of coffee beans like regional specific grapes grown in France that make a fine wine, quality is king. Believe it or not, coffee has more aromatic and flavor compounds than wine. This all comes down to the farm, altitude, growing season, growing methods, variety of coffee species, picking methods, ensuring only the ripest fruit is picked (normally by hand), how it is processed, packaged, and the care taken to get the green coffee all of the way to the roaster from the country of origin. Don’t forget, coffee is a perishable product and it shouldn’t be sitting in a warehouse for a long time waiting to be roasted.  

Being small batch allows us to be picky as we want ensure that only the best coffee makes its way to you.

The Roasting Process

Most commercial or large-scale roasters fire up batches 100lbs+ with automatic timers. This means there is no love during the process and they are not normally “hands on.” Typically, the more automated coffee roasting is, the worst it tastes. The exact same beans from batch to batch can vary dramatically depending on when they crack and finish. This is why small batch again is superior, we focus intently on each specific roast to ensure consistency and quality.  Small batch coffee roasting allows the senses to take over ensuring maximum flavor profiling when roasting by sight, sound, smell, time, temperature, and good juju.   

The Finished Product

After coffee is roasted, it starts to release carbon dioxide (C02). This process is referred to as degassing, this is a good thing and should not be feared!  Fresh is best, and we agree to a limit…. Coffee tastes different after degassing, so we believe that freshly roasted coffee should rest for a few days to properly degas. This brings out the best flavors, aromas, and taste. Ideally, it would be consumed within a few weeks of roasting, but that all depends on how you store it and the type of roast.

Oxidation causes coffee to go back, similar to how a bag of chips goes bad after it sits out on the counter without being sealed. This is why we package our coffee with valves that release C02 but do not allow in oxygen. This helps to ensure you receive only the freshest coffee.  When taking coffee out of the bag, it should be ground and ideally consumed within minutes of grinding to ensure the best cup possible.

Coffee you buy at a grocery store very likely wasn’t roasted only a few days ago. Speaking which, when was the last time you saw a roast date on a commercial bag of coffee?  If roasted coffee goes stale well within a month, but has an expiration of over a year on the bag at the grocery, are you sure you are getting your money’s worth? Small batch coffee roasting allows us to roast and get coffee to you quickly, without a delay of the sitting on a shelf for weeks/months at the distributor or grocery.  

We may be biased, but we believe small batch is best, and we think you will too!