What are some of your absolute favorite coffee roasters in the Bay Area and the specific beans? I don’t drink daily, but do enjoy a cup when I drink. Bonus points if they are relatively easily available.
I enjoy Alta Coffee from Santa Cruz. But because of where I live they are a bit of a pain to get. What do you enjoy?
Red Bay Coffee, Ritual, Verve, Equator, and Pachamama are my favorite local roasters. The last one is Sacramento-based, but I’ve found it down here. The offerings are consistently good. No favorites in terms of specific beans, particularly since I like single-origins and those change with the seasons.
I like the dark roast from Graffeo in San Francisco. They have a storefront in North Beach where you can get beans by weight, and they’re also available in several local grocery stores. I mostly drink espresso. Graffeo’s dark roast is very dark and a bit oily on the outside. I think this is considered “old-school” or European style? They make a very nice espresso. Graffeo also has a light roast that is more like a medium.
I also like Blue Bottle’s Hayes Valley Espresso beans for espresso. I’ve also tried Blue Bottle’s “espresso” simply labeled beans which are now available in large grocery stores (Safeway, etc.) and found them to be inferior to the Hayes Valley, so I would probably skip those in favor of their Hayes Valley espresso.
I am trying to remember where I drank Chromatic before. Are there any coffee shop or other locations that use their beans?
I forgot about Mr. Espresso in Oakland, one of the few roasters who still roast over wood fires. They now have a cafe near City Hall: https://www.thecaffeoak.com/.
There are, but I can’t remember which cafes off the top of my head. They also have at least one cafe in the South Bay.
Before Covid, Pinhole used Chromatic beans. I think they switched now.
I believe Jane still does (at least the one on Filmore).
Counter Culture (roasted in Emeryville), fast forward. I buy the 2lb bags when available.
Sightglass
Cat & Cloud
Stumptown, holler mtn. Actually from Portland but widely available here.
I second Mr. Espresso! Their Caffe Oakland also has some fun special events, listed on their Instagram feed (the website shows some of the past events to give you an idea of what they schedule).
We also love Flying Goat, based in Healdsburg; also the Bella Rosa Coffee, based in Santa Rosa and which sells to many Sonoma restaurants.
I’m not a decaf drinker, but Blue Bottle Decaf is the best decaffeinated I’ve ever had.
+1, big fan of graffeo
Our Daily Drinker is McLaughlin Vienna Roast Sumatran.
Also really like Mother Lode when we are up in Mountains
Where do you get the Mother Lode?
Moonwake
We usually find it up in the Foothills or round Sonora
Berkeleyside reported this new cafe 12Nov2024. If anyone tries it, please report back:
A new coffee roaster debuted a small cafe in West Berkeley in late October, and escaped Nosh’s notice until now. Masterpiece Coffee specializes in single-origin roasts from beans sourced from around the world and matcha drinks. Masterpiece Coffee is now open at 1714 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley (at Virginia St.)
There is an interesting coffee roasting place called “CoRo Coffee Roastry” in Berkeley on 5th. They do, basically, like coworking, but for coffee roasters. It gives really small roasters a place to roast. I used to like Rhetoric that roasted out of there, but they don’t seem to be in business.
I now go with FourBarrel.
I like a VERY light roast, 3rd wave style. I went through a couple of different roasters after Rhetoric stopped, just wasn’t crazy about most of them.
I get FourBarrel’s single origin subscription.
I like a lot of the seattle coffees like HairBender but buying them retail, they’re often more than 2 months on the shelf. That’s why subscription.
I love Hologram from Counter Culture. Very dark chocolate flavors. Since I tried it I can’t really drink anything else! I make it in a Clever Dripper, I think that’s part of why it’s so good.
This thread is awesome. Got a few old favorites and some new ones to try. Please keep them coming!
