I brew all of my coffee as pour overs with a 14.5:1 ratio in either a Fellow Stagg or a Chemex.
Top Five
Just, like, my opinion.
Monarch Onyx Coffee Lab – Rogers, AR
Brazil, Fazenda Rainha Handlebar Coffee Roasters – Santa Barbara, CA
Ejo Heza Ritual Coffee Roasters – San Francisco, CA
Banner Dark Sightglass Coffee – San Francisco, CA
Santa Barbara, Columbia Rêve Coffee Roasters – Lafayette, LA
Roasts
In no particular order. Each has an extremely impulsive, entirely subjective 5 star rating.
Santa Barbara, Columbia
Rêve Coffee Roasters
Lafayette, LA
Profile: plum, cherry, caramel
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nola style, coffee & chicory blend
Rêve Coffee Roasters
Lafayette, LA
Profile: dark chocolate, chicory
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thick and heavy with a deep chicory flavor. Your late-night-leads-to-early-morning cup of coffee, for when you need the extra kick that comes from a strong aroma and a hefty bite. The first sip brings me back to New Orleans hangovers spent in 24 hour diners or 6am cups of joe around a smoldering campfire.
Hama, Ethiopia
Ritual Coffee
San Francisco, CA
Profile: watermelon, peach, oolong tea
⭐️⭐️
Each sip leads with a fruity aroma and with an average finish. I don't pick up on the peach, but the notes of melon are heavily apparent, to the point of tasting additive at times. As the cup starts to cool, the familiar coffee taste fades into the lingering fragrance that seems to get stuck in the back of your palette. This roast is my Earl Grey of coffee, a light and aromatic cup that most like but has a bit too much on the nose for me.
Trapiche Rayado, Columbia
Ritual Coffee
San Francisco, CA
Profile: cola, vanilla, licorice
Los Anonos, Costa Rica
Ritual Coffee
San Francisco, CA
Profile: apricots, grilled peaches, honey
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ejo Heza, Rwanda
Ritual Coffee
San Francisco, CA
Profile: orange, grapefruit, mango
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A light, sweet cup with evident citrus notes. It’s clean and easy to drink. This might be my favorite roast from Ritual. Drinking it sends me back to early springs spent in my parrain’s mist covered satsuma orchard, watching him prune the trees and harvest the kumquats.
Baby’s Breakfast Roast
Baby’s Coffee
Key West, FL
⭐️⭐️
A classic cup, this is what your parents had brewing each morning in their 8 cup glass coffee pot. It’s thick, full bodied, and pleasantly bitter. On the darker side of a full city roast, most subtle flavors are muted in favor of a familiar, easy to drink coffee taste.
Brazil, Fazenda Rainha
Handlebar Coffee Roasters
Santa Barbara, CA
profile: caramel, chocolate, nutty
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I love this coffee. The smooth, rich chocolate taste hits you immediately and remains prevalent throughout the cup. But as it starts to cool, the sweet caramel begins to stand out and pops particularly hard in those last couple sips. I’ve found myself starting my second brew before I’ve finished the first just to taste it again. As a morning pour over or a trail ready aero press, this roast is a go to.
Guatemala El Injerto
Línea Caffe
profile: muscovado sugar, banana, orange blossom, key lime pie. Elegant caramel noted finish
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Each sip is lighter than I expect—especially after grinding the dark, oily beans and releasing a heavy aroma, I expected a cup with a bit more weight on the front. But it’s refreshing, easy to drink, and unmistakably citrusy. Likely biased by reading the profile before trying it, it does remind me of drinking coffee at outdoor cafes in Key West before the city has woken up and drowned out the sounds of the ocean.
Indonesia Single Origin
Stumptown Coffee Roasters
Portland, OR
profile: sweet, chocolate, earthy
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Full bodied, dark
El Diablo Dark Roast
Intelligentsia
Los Angeles, CA
profile: caramelized sugar, molasses, chocolate
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Guatemala Huehuetenango
Pink Elephant Coffee Roasters
Park City, UT
profile: nutty, tart cherry
⭐️
Burnt
El Letrero - Creativa Natural
Edison
Panama
profile: ripe blackberry, brown sugar, figs
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Yabita Koba
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Acidic
Monarch
Onyx Coffee Lab
Rogers, Arkansas
profile: dark chocolate, molasses, red wine, dried berries, thick & syrupy
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Banner Dark
Sightglass
San Francisco, CA
profile: bittersweet cocoa, toffee, graham cracker
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A hefty, dark cup. It reminds me of gas station coffee on a long road trip or late night volunteer group coffee—almost too dark, but really needed right now. I prefer it thick like this coffee.