Summer 2024 Menu Outlook 

"We want our small business to have as much positive impact as possible in the communities where we buy coffee and we accomplish this by establishing long term relationships and paying premiums for quality. We're all in on coffee and that means being all in on supporting those who produce it and produce it well year after year."

Fresh crop Guatemalan coffees have landed at the Annex warehouse in Oakland, California earlier this week. Coffees from Mexico, Nicaragua, Kenya and Ethiopia are hot on their heels. We'll be sampling coffees from all of these origins but this harvest cycle we're changing how we make our buying decisions.

We're constantly thinking of ways to improve the experience of ordering coffee from us. One way we can accomplish this is through how our menu is structured. Our aim is to strike a balance between variety, simplicity and price. With few exceptions, our general format moving forward will be four different options and categorized as follows:

1. Roasted for Espresso - Roasted to a medium to medium-dark level and selected to pair well with milk. This may be a single origin offering or a blend depending on the season.

2. Roasted for Filter - A juicy, sweet and versatile coffee that lends itself well to pour overs or drip brewing styles. Your everyday drinker. Again, this could be a single origin or a blend.

3. Decaf Offering - Decaf is no longer dead. There are fantastic decaf coffees out there and we will only sell those standout lots we're excited to drink.

4. Top Shelf Single Origin - Coffees in this slot will be released in smaller quantities and available for a limited time. They will be exceptional expressions of variety, processing and terroir.

With those categories in mind, we've recently made connections with a couple of direct trade partnerships - Primavera Green Coffee based in Guatemala and Gold Mountain Coffee Growers in Nicaragua. We are very excited to be buying coffee from both of these groups. Our core values as a business align with the work that they are doing at origin. Those values of quality, social and environmental responsibility and transparency.

From Primavera's about page:

"The amount of physical labor, resources, and land that it takes to produce a cup of excellent coffee is astonishing, yet the prices still do not reflect all it entails. Despite all the work required to make a single cup of this beloved beverage, the matter of coffee prices is a controversial and difficult problem. In our experience, we are able to pay farmers higher prices to reward noticeably high quality coffees. Through continued quality improvements, training, and long-term partnerships, our farmer partners will be able to secure higher prices and our customers will have access to better coffee with high marks in transparency and social and environmental sustainability."

We want our small business to have as much positive impact as possible in the communities where we buy coffee and we accomplish this by establishing long term relationships with like minded companies and paying premiums for quality. We're all in on coffee and that means being all in on supporting those who produce it and produce it well year after year.

We've committed to several fantastic coffees from Gold Mountain which will be available in late August or early September and we plan on purchasing Guatemalan coffees from Primavera this month. Until then be sure to check out our latest release from Brazil and Colombia available now on the website.