ORIGIN STORY
Legend has it that a goatherd named Kaldi was tending his flock in the hills of Ethiopia when he noticed something strange. His goats were unusually energetic, practically dancing after eating bright red cherries from a particular tree. Curious, Kaldi tried the fruit himself and felt the same lively spark.
He brought the cherries to a nearby monastery, where the monks were suspicious, calling them the devil’s work and tossing them into the fire. But as the beans roasted in the embers, an incredible aroma filled the air. Intrigued, the monks raked the seeds from the fire, ground them up, and brewed them into a drink that helped them stay awake through long hours of prayer, and coffee was born.
While the story of Kaldi and his dancing goats is likely folklore, we can trace coffee’s true roots back to Ethiopia as early as the 9th century. From there, it traveled across the Red Sea to Yemen, where Sufi monks used coffee to stay alert during nighttime devotions. By the 1600s, coffee had reached Europe, and from there it spread across the globe, becoming the global phenomenon it is today.
THE PLANT
The coffee plant, Coffea, is an evergreen shrub that grows equatorially between the tropics. It produces fragrant white flowers and fruit known as cherries, which ripen into vibrant reds, yellows, oranges, or purples. Each cherry typically contains two seeds, though the Peaberry mutation results in a single seed. The two primary species are Arabica and Robusta, with Arabica prized for its sweeter, more complex flavor. Arabica plants typically grow at 800–2400 meters above sea level, where cooler temperatures and slower maturation enhance sugar development and acidity. Every cherry is handpicked to ensure peak ripeness and optimal flavor potential.
ELEVATION
Elevation has a significant impact on coffee flavor development. Lower-grown coffees typically experience warmer temperatures and faster cherry maturation, resulting in smooth, mellow cups with earthy or nutty notes. Medium-grown coffees benefit from moderate conditions, producing balanced sweetness and body. High-grown coffees develop more slowly due to cooler temperatures and lower oxygen levels, allowing for higher sugar accumulation, enhanced acidity, and dynamic flavor profiles.
Variety
In coffee, a variety is a botanical classification just below the species level, and Arabica has many naturally occurring varieties. Varieties grow in nature, while cultivars are intentionally developed through agricultural breeding techniques. Modern cultivars are designed to be more resilient to weather, pests, and disease, and some are even engineered for lower caffeine content, all while preserving or enhancing flavor potential.
COFFEE CHERRY
The coffee cherry is a multi-layered fruit, each part contributing to the final flavor of the coffee. The outer skin (exocarp) protects the fruit, while the pulp and mucilage (mesocarp) store sugars and fermentation substrates that influence sweetness, acidity, and aroma during processing. Beneath that, the parchment layer (endocarp) shields the seed, and the silverskin (epidermis) adheres to the seed until it is shed as chaff during roasting. The seed itself (endosperm) is what we know as the green coffee bean. During processing, the skin, pulp, mucilage, and parchment are removed.
Process
Coffee processing is the post-harvest journey that coffee cherries take as they’re processed into green coffee ready for roasting. All Arabica cherries are handpicked and brought to a mill, where careful handling preserves the integrity of the beans. From there, cherries follow one of four main processing paths: washed, natural, hybrid, or experimental, with each driving specific biochemical transformations. These processes influence sugar concentration, acidity, and flavor compounds, ultimately shaping sweetness, acidity, body, and complexity in the cup.
Fermentation
Fermentation is a post-harvest biochemical process in which naturally occurring microbes (yeasts and bacteria) metabolize the mucilage layer surrounding the coffee seed. This can occur in tanks of water, on raised beds, or under controlled anaerobic conditions. During this process, microbes convert sugars, acids, and other precursors into new flavor-active compounds, enhancing sweetness, clarity, and overall flavor complexity. By carefully controlling time, temperature, and oxygen exposure, producers can guide fermentation to accentuate desirable sensory characteristics.
POST PROCESS
Drying, sorting, and grading specialty coffee is a multi-stage, highly controlled process designed to remove defects, identify standout lots, and ensure consistency. Through a combination of precise drying protocols, density and size-based sorting, optical and color sorting, and rigorous cupping, coffees must meet exacting standards of the specialty tier and beyond. Each stage influences moisture content, bean uniformity, and flavor potential, ensuring that only coffees with optimal structural integrity and sensory clarity find their way to our door.
Decaf Coffee
Decaffeinated coffee is regular coffee that has had at least 97% of its caffeine removed. It isn’t completely caffeine-free. A typical cup of decaf coffee contains about 2–5 mg of caffeine, compared to the roughly 80–120 mg found in a standard cup of regular caffeinated coffee.
There are several methods for removing caffeine, but we focus on two that best preserve flavor integrity: the Ethyl Acetate (EA) Sugarcane process and the Swiss Water process. Both rely on selective solubility and diffusion to remove caffeine while keeping most of the coffee’s flavor compounds intact, so you get the experience of great coffee, just with way less buzz.
SOURCING
We cultivate long-term partnerships with producers who share our fixation on exceptional coffee. We source seasonally, so we roast coffees when their sweetness, acidity, and flavor are at their most expressive. We cup dozens of samples before selecting a coffee. We evaluate flavor, structure, balance, and consistency to ensure our standards are met. We pay premium prices for coffees that demonstrate standout sensory performance and processing precision. This model celebrates the producer's excellence and maintains integrity year after year, from the farm all the way to your cup.
ROASTING
We source the world’s most colorful coffees and craft precise roast profiles designed to unlock each coffee’s maximum potential, emphasizing its inherent sweetness and distinct varietal character. Roasting totally awesome coffee isn’t just a process; it’s a passion, rooted in data, sensory analysis, and constant iteration. We cup relentlessly, refine obsessively, and continue to develop our understanding of heat, time, and development in the pursuit of the perfect cup.
BREWING
We often compare coffee to chocolate and wine, but coffee is unique in one critical way: the quality of the final cup is directly influenced by the person brewing it. Extraction is the last variable in a long chain of controlled inputs, and small changes in grind size, water chemistry, temperature, ratio, and contact time can dramatically shift flavor balance and clarity. We made some brew guides to help you control the variables, improve extraction, and get the best possible yield from every coffee. We feel confident that armed with these and the info on our pro tips page, you’ll be dialed in and on the way to coffee nirvana.
