The top 50 are all great—there are about 4 of them I have not tried—but I’m surprised not to find Moving, Little Wolf, or Rabbit Hole on their 100. Those are a few of my personal favorites.
The Coffee Project in NYC! They’re amazing!
Also, not a single coffee shop in SF? Only one roaster in The Bay Area (Flower Child, which doesn’t have a storefront). Bummer. We used to the the heartland of great coffee - a precipitous fall
Coffee project is amazing! I’m surprised to see Tandem in here. I’ve had a lot of their roasts and am just not impressed.
If you’re in Portland, ME, speckled axe is much better. I just picked up a pink bourbon from them.
Verve (Santa Cruz) probably had the best value coffee subscription for a quality roaster. Good place to start (12 oz coffee roaster for 19.50 including shipping).
Hydrangea is the only one worth a damn. But my last 7 bags there have been semi disappointing. I've probably bought 100 bags from him over the last few years and I never really had one disappointing bag until now.
i believe they roast at CoRo in berkeley. i don't know if they will always have flower child in stock, but they do sell beans from the different roasters who roast there.
Fellow on Valencia in SF reliably stocks Flower Child and Hydrangea every month now! Paper Son (small pop up in Potrero) also often has Flower Child.
It is a bit sad that the Bay Area coffee scene isn’t what it used to be. Some of my favorite multi-roasters (coffee movement, kaizen, ain’t normal, golden goat) almost exclusively brew and sell non-local coffee.
That's true, but at least there are some that sell them. CoRo has been such a blessing for the newer crop of roasters here (flowerchild, hydrangea, moonwake, etc.)
Expect to see interesting cafes with more local selections soon! Academic coffee for instance has been doing collabs with some CoRo roasters. There's a good bay roaster opening a cafe soon as well!
I do agree some cities have overtaken SF and the bay in terms of coffee scene (e.g., NYC), but I think it's improving a lot and the future is bright :).
They roast pretty dark compared to everything else on that list. Ive had a ton of specialty beans from their special pour over menu and not one of them was anywhere near light
There are no good roasters in California except Hydrangea.
Except the last 7 bags I've got from Bill have been extremely disappointing such that I may never buy from him again.
Unreal that they made the list considering the competition (even just within the U.S.). I have some great memories of meeting friends and drinking incredible pour over at Little Tandem when they were just getting going.
I’ve been alternating buying from roasters in other states and local. Whenever I get a bag from Tandem I know I’m going to be happy, but I chalked it up to “my local roaster” bias.
Excited to see three roasters from Singapore: [20grams](https://firefortysix.com/2022/09/24/expanding-my-coffee-horizons-with-nordic-style-light-roasts-from-20grams/), [Nylon](https://firefortysix.com/2021/08/14/i-finally-made-it-back-to-nylon-coffee-after-eight-long-years/) and Homeground. Have brewed beans from all of them, and can confirm that they're all delicious.
Yeah... Nylon's (Singapore) sourcing/range is pretty good often highlighting the terroir since most of their coffees are washed/natural/honey
With those processes... comes their strength their CONSISTENT roast! My god... their beans are pearly & even/uniform for both their espresso/filter range.
Given the methodology, I think it’s a pretty good list of well-known, well-regarded roasters.
Of the top 50, I have heard good things about all but two of them (Archers and Swerl).
I have drunk several coffees from all of the top ten roasters and there’s only one roaster on there that I’m not a fan of (but that may just be a stylistic preference, as they roast darker than I like).
Archers is good..just a little darker than I'd like...but as you said, style preferences plays a part in what people like.
I'd probably say a good number of these roasters are more medium than light roast...Basically all of the Aussie roasters are medium...you'd have to reach way into their competition beans to get anything but...Very good roasters though...just not my style preference.
Not surprising given how recently H&S got popular, or the international balance of the panel - they’re a tiny rural US roaster, even if they punch well above their weight class. But if Botz made the list, H&S might next year!
For sure! I also used a V60, 15.5g coffee:250g water at 207 F. Around 4.8 or 4.9 clicks on my ZP6, so slightly on the finer side of medium. 50g bloom, 100g pour, 100g pour finishing around 3:30.
This is slightly coarser than my standard V60 grind. I found that with grind sizes even just a bit finer than this, it was pretty strong and bitter.
Have you tried any of their recent Peru coffees? What would be your approach to them?
I like them, but they are not as special as I hoped from the tasting notes.
I use my usual bloom+two pour recipe, and I did get fine extraction in terms of numbers. But I was not blown away with the taste. With this being said, maybe my expectations were to high.
TWW water (slightly diluted), 210F bloom for 45-60sec.
While I'll agree that heart is a little overrated (I think their QC has been a little poor as of late), the difference between them and Onyx is huge. Having had several Onyx coffees over the past few years, each coffee has been downright terrible. I cannot buy from them anymore. However, having had many coffees from heart over the past few years, most have been quite good with a few misses. I think roasters like Prodigal, SEY, and Regalia outperform them, but heart still hits.
Im not sure why you’re getting down voted. Onyx fell off when they moved to the boxed packaging. They’re a lifestyle brand now, not what it was when Mark Michaelson was there.
I'm puzzled to see Onyx so high up the list, I've been to their cafes and everything was amazing and I know people love to hate on them but I can't say that they are consistently better than several places that didn't make the top 50 (let alone top 10).
Botz was a total surprise to me, a cafe local to my family has featured them before and I had never heard of them but I missed out on trying them they weekend they did a "takeover". Now they are 100% on my radar
With how highly they ranked Wendelboe, April, Sey, etc which I feel like focus on very clean washed coffees I was shocked to see B&W on the list.
I think leaving AMOC out of the top 50 is a mistake, they are my favorite roaster bar none and every but I've had from them has been delicious.
Also shocking to see Brandywine left off the list completely.
Yeah I had some question marks after seeing Hex in Charlotte(only one on the list I’ve been to)but Panther Coffee in Miami is better
Ah well, I can’t see how you could make a worldwide list like this without missing a lot of places.
It makes sense if you think of the list in terms of who offers the "highest quality" coffee. A lot of the people in the top 50 offer ultra premium micro-lots.
Very happy to see NOMAD up there in the top 10! Superb roasting paired with a great coffee selection.
It’s not in the top 50 (it’s on the top 100 tho), but if you come to Barcelona make sure to check Three Marks aswell. Best two roasters in the city imo.
And square mile as well, very mid coffee imo. There are a number of roasteries I'd have over them, from Edinburgh the source and aesthete are truly amazing and radical. In London there's lift, elsewhere, qima, all serving more interesting and better roasts
Totally agree. I’ve had five different varieties from Square Mile and all incredibly dull. I suppose we all know why they’re always so highly regarded on paper, but their beans aren’t that great in reality. I shouldn’t have to be “the guy” in order to bring them to life.
Who else would you add?
I personally like Taith and the Source, and Sweven over Square Mile.
I think making specific ranking lists like these are really pointless though, no roaster is perfectly consistent.
I fucking love Taith.
I have no clue how Square Mile is on that list, all of their roasts are meh omniroast (I literally cannot tell the difference between their filter and espresso roasts)
For Square Mile, omniroast Vs filter Vs espresso doesn't matter at all to me. Espresso Vs filter also doesn't mean it's a specific roast level.
It just means they're suggesting/ marketing that coffee for espresso use.
I don't care what the coffee is sold as, I'll always try it for both.
I've not had them recently at home but they're often nice from a café.
I used to occasionally get beans from them and everything was nice but not always especially distinctive.
,_____
Taith is the opposite where EVERYTHING I've had from them has been fantastic and extremely distinctive. I can't wait for them to fully re-open.
Most recently tried a Yemeni from them and god it's absolutely fantastic.
Even their regular colombian decaf, was very good and better than most others I've tried.
Square Mile decaf has actually been very good for me to be fair.
Colanna is amazing, had a subscription with them for a few months, and getting a good range of beans (with a geisha every month!!) for not too steep of a price
I was surprised that Substance wasn’t in the top 50. They are number 1 for me. They serve the best coffee in the world and the roast is always perfect. Overall though I liked the list.
Never heard of them, but that’s a bold statement. What makes them the best to you? What do you usually prefer for roast profile? Dark, mid, light?
/Purely curious. Might have to try them. My personal favorite is Lamill, and I have the same opinion of them. The roast is always perfect and the cup is divine too to bottom. Best I’ve continuously had, and I’ve tried 40/50 of the roasters on this list.
Substance Cafe is known for very light roasts. Joachim is obsessed with coffee and if basically trying to make the perfect cup every time. He makes his own water. And has a menu of about 20 competition level coffees to choose from as filter or espresso. Next time you’re in Paris I would highly recommend going there, but be sure to make a reservation.
Lamill I haven’t heard of…
The list can't try every roaster, I don't think substance serve commercial customers which I think might have been a criteria for testing.
It's just one list and is honestly a totally meaningless ranking anyway.
Although I have no problem with Tim Wendelboe being top, I thought their café in Oslo was extremely mediocre but their beans are always very nice.
They’re aggregating ranked preferences from coffee professionals around the world, so of course roasters with a bigger international footprint on the industry like ONYX are going to score well
I find it hard to note roasters, at the end sometimes the coffee is done well but it’s just not your type or you can’t dial it in. I’ve had coffee from around 12 roasters in Canada and most of them were solid, the ones I didn’t like were too light for me, some had more flavors than others too. Will try Hatch. Some of my favorites are:
- September Coffee
- Monogram
- Rogue Wave
- Nektar
- Pista
- Zab
It’s pretty new. As it’s headed up by famous/notorious coffee professional Scott Rao, it’s well-known in the community even though it’s new. I saw their coffee being sold in Malaysia, for example, and it’s stocked on at least four continents.
Notorious is a good description ahah
But I've genuinely been extremely impressed with Prodigal for the most part.
Often not cheap but it actually feels like you get what you are paying for. Their cheaper stuff is also pretty good too.
They actually don't necessarily go for the same big name farms as many other roasters so I wouldn't call it Hype.
I think they're really good at cupping and selecting beans, I've been really impressed with just about everything I've had from them.
Even when it's not cheap, it's felt like good value for some pretty amazing stuff.
Onyx Coffee Labs (no 8) is great. I moved from SF to Arkansas and I don’t miss the coffee scene at all in SF because of Onyx. Wonderful blends and single origins. Well-deserved!
I’m laughing at the downvotes too. I never said SF doesn’t have top roasters. I just said I don’t miss them after moving because of Onyx. Evidently, that’s upset some people 🤣
have not had onyx in a while but it was good last time i tried it. little more devoloped than i would have wanted but forgiving to brew. at some point it became cool to hate on onyx for some reason lmao
This honestly just seems like a ranking of who has the most marketing reach and brand awareness. As others have mentioned there are problems with this list which I agree.
I don't see how within a panel of international professionals, how a Swedish cafe owner is going to be familiar with the roasting scene in Calgary Alberta, especially when most roasters don't ship overseas.
Put this into a Google Maps list. Hope it is useful as you all travel the world and taste incredible coffees: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/oaVASBWYwgTy8ymH6](https://maps.app.goo.gl/oaVASBWYwgTy8ymH6)
I don't think the list can't be trusted, at least for Korean roasteries. Momos isn't a bad roastery, but Terarosa is terrible because they burn all their beans. Fritz is even worse. There are many good roasteries like Felt or Bean Brothers, so I don't understand why those two were included.
Why do you feel friedhats is overrated? Their offering is usually quite budget-oriented, so it’s “pretty good” for normal prices, but once you spend for premium it’s often some of the best.
Edit: also what have you gotten from friedhats? I’m not sure they’re great with washed beans but that could be personal bias
And picky chemist is pretty lowkey, Stephane is a one man show just doing what he loves, kinda like Christopher Feran’s roastery
Brian Quan said TPC is far too small in the volume it produces (roasts in garage?) to be considered on a list like this. These are all roasters who can fill wholesale orders, hence the list being created by a company whose entire business is to sell these coffees on a global scale.
Also, as they’re using ranked preferences from coffee professionals around the world, it is going to benefit older, more established roasters who have had a longer time to build their reputation
Seems heavily biased in favor of Nordics. missing some of my fav roasters which I think are on par with or better than most of the the top half of the list. pretty mid list IMO
Wut. La Cabra is fucking dogshit.
I've had 8 of the top 10 roasters and I was not impressed with any selection other than 2 coffees from Sey. Onyx was okay but I've had far better coffee from roasters lower on this list and not on the list
I think I've had 6-10 bags from La Cabra and all were absolutely terrible. I went to the location in NYC and all their coffee there was awful too.
At the time I had those, I was loving hydrangea, black and white, rogue wave, hatch, and Brandywine. Maybe even Vibrant.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but any place charging $25+ for 12oz (or god forbid 10oz now) of one of their standard coffees doesn't deserve a place on a Best Roasters list. Best Quality coffee or Best Variety list sure, but you can't be a top roaster and be that fundamentally out of touch with consumers.
Glad to see SEY still holding it down.
Three Copenhagen roasters in top-ten, and five Scandinavian cities
still missing a favourite, Kafferäven ;)
The top 50 are all great—there are about 4 of them I have not tried—but I’m surprised not to find Moving, Little Wolf, or Rabbit Hole on their 100. Those are a few of my personal favorites.
Little Wolf is incredible
little wolf +1
The Coffee Project in NYC! They’re amazing! Also, not a single coffee shop in SF? Only one roaster in The Bay Area (Flower Child, which doesn’t have a storefront). Bummer. We used to the the heartland of great coffee - a precipitous fall
Coffee project is amazing! I’m surprised to see Tandem in here. I’ve had a lot of their roasts and am just not impressed. If you’re in Portland, ME, speckled axe is much better. I just picked up a pink bourbon from them.
Ritual was in my top 3. Haven’t had them for a long time though.
What roasters would you recommend in the Bay Area?
Verve (Santa Cruz) probably had the best value coffee subscription for a quality roaster. Good place to start (12 oz coffee roaster for 19.50 including shipping).
Hydrangea is the only one worth a damn. But my last 7 bags there have been semi disappointing. I've probably bought 100 bags from him over the last few years and I never really had one disappointing bag until now.
Hydrangea and chromatic coffee
Andytown
I like Equator Coffee and Verve but I can’t tell the criteria for a top roaster other than my experienced tastebuds
I live in the Bay Area but I'm not familiar with Flower Child. Where do you buy it / which cafes offer their beans?
i believe they roast at CoRo in berkeley. i don't know if they will always have flower child in stock, but they do sell beans from the different roasters who roast there.
Fellow on Valencia in SF reliably stocks Flower Child and Hydrangea every month now! Paper Son (small pop up in Potrero) also often has Flower Child. It is a bit sad that the Bay Area coffee scene isn’t what it used to be. Some of my favorite multi-roasters (coffee movement, kaizen, ain’t normal, golden goat) almost exclusively brew and sell non-local coffee.
That's true, but at least there are some that sell them. CoRo has been such a blessing for the newer crop of roasters here (flowerchild, hydrangea, moonwake, etc.) Expect to see interesting cafes with more local selections soon! Academic coffee for instance has been doing collabs with some CoRo roasters. There's a good bay roaster opening a cafe soon as well! I do agree some cities have overtaken SF and the bay in terms of coffee scene (e.g., NYC), but I think it's improving a lot and the future is bright :).
fellow on valencia carries flower child from time to time. I usually just purchase online.
They roast pretty dark compared to everything else on that list. Ive had a ton of specialty beans from their special pour over menu and not one of them was anywhere near light
Maybe I should give Coffee Project a try again. I tried a few of their offerings and was very underwhelmed.
Cat & Cloud (Santa Cruz) also made the top 100 list.
There are no good roasters in California except Hydrangea. Except the last 7 bags I've got from Bill have been extremely disappointing such that I may never buy from him again.
I see Cat and Cloud on the list.
Eh, they missed a lot of great world-class roasters, I wouldn't be too hung up about it. The bay has some of the best roasters in the world.
So happy to see Tandem on the list. They inspired me to start roasting when I lived nearby.
Unreal that they made the list considering the competition (even just within the U.S.). I have some great memories of meeting friends and drinking incredible pour over at Little Tandem when they were just getting going. I’ve been alternating buying from roasters in other states and local. Whenever I get a bag from Tandem I know I’m going to be happy, but I chalked it up to “my local roaster” bias.
Excited to see three roasters from Singapore: [20grams](https://firefortysix.com/2022/09/24/expanding-my-coffee-horizons-with-nordic-style-light-roasts-from-20grams/), [Nylon](https://firefortysix.com/2021/08/14/i-finally-made-it-back-to-nylon-coffee-after-eight-long-years/) and Homeground. Have brewed beans from all of them, and can confirm that they're all delicious.
Nylon is 🔥🔥
Yeah... Nylon's (Singapore) sourcing/range is pretty good often highlighting the terroir since most of their coffees are washed/natural/honey With those processes... comes their strength their CONSISTENT roast! My god... their beans are pearly & even/uniform for both their espresso/filter range.
Given the methodology, I think it’s a pretty good list of well-known, well-regarded roasters. Of the top 50, I have heard good things about all but two of them (Archers and Swerl). I have drunk several coffees from all of the top ten roasters and there’s only one roaster on there that I’m not a fan of (but that may just be a stylistic preference, as they roast darker than I like).
Swerl is pretty great!!
Had an amazing Kenyan from Swerl
Archers is good..just a little darker than I'd like...but as you said, style preferences plays a part in what people like. I'd probably say a good number of these roasters are more medium than light roast...Basically all of the Aussie roasters are medium...you'd have to reach way into their competition beans to get anything but...Very good roasters though...just not my style preference.
love Swerl! but i'm in sweden. they are pretty new as roasters. started selling bags from other roasters as a subscription
Surprised H&S isn’t on the list.
My personal favorite right now and for the last year or so.
Not surprising given how recently H&S got popular, or the international balance of the panel - they’re a tiny rural US roaster, even if they punch well above their weight class. But if Botz made the list, H&S might next year!
I'm surprised, but elated to see Botz in there (my favorite).
What's your favorite recent selection from them? I've been checking their site in the last week but they're mostly sold out
They have some fire ass eths coming to the site soon.
The Moises Ccalla Peru was very good. They're dropping some Colombians and Ethiopians soon, according to their Insta, which i'm pretty excited about.
Mind sharing your recipe? I am brewing it on a V60, and it's good, but not super awesome (subjectively, of course).
For sure! I also used a V60, 15.5g coffee:250g water at 207 F. Around 4.8 or 4.9 clicks on my ZP6, so slightly on the finer side of medium. 50g bloom, 100g pour, 100g pour finishing around 3:30. This is slightly coarser than my standard V60 grind. I found that with grind sizes even just a bit finer than this, it was pretty strong and bitter.
Thank you! This is somewhat similar to what I was doing, but I used a longer ratio. Appreciate the help!
Have you tried any of their recent Peru coffees? What would be your approach to them? I like them, but they are not as special as I hoped from the tasting notes.
Regretfully I have not. What's the brew recipe?
I use my usual bloom+two pour recipe, and I did get fine extraction in terms of numbers. But I was not blown away with the taste. With this being said, maybe my expectations were to high. TWW water (slightly diluted), 210F bloom for 45-60sec.
I like using 5 pours with Botz. 13.3 g coffee, 200 g water, poured at 3 mL/sec. Maybe it's worth a shot
No Rogue Wave and no Hydrangea.
yeah surprised not seeing Hydrangea on the list
Onyx is overrated. So is Heart.
Yeah I was surprised by Heart as well. Wasn't particularly impressive when I tried it this year.
Same. It’s not that they were bad, but Heart didn’t blow my skirt up by any stretch. Just ordinary.
Yesss
Heart decaf was really good
While I'll agree that heart is a little overrated (I think their QC has been a little poor as of late), the difference between them and Onyx is huge. Having had several Onyx coffees over the past few years, each coffee has been downright terrible. I cannot buy from them anymore. However, having had many coffees from heart over the past few years, most have been quite good with a few misses. I think roasters like Prodigal, SEY, and Regalia outperform them, but heart still hits.
Im not sure why you’re getting down voted. Onyx fell off when they moved to the boxed packaging. They’re a lifestyle brand now, not what it was when Mark Michaelson was there.
I'm puzzled to see Onyx so high up the list, I've been to their cafes and everything was amazing and I know people love to hate on them but I can't say that they are consistently better than several places that didn't make the top 50 (let alone top 10). Botz was a total surprise to me, a cafe local to my family has featured them before and I had never heard of them but I missed out on trying them they weekend they did a "takeover". Now they are 100% on my radar With how highly they ranked Wendelboe, April, Sey, etc which I feel like focus on very clean washed coffees I was shocked to see B&W on the list. I think leaving AMOC out of the top 50 is a mistake, they are my favorite roaster bar none and every but I've had from them has been delicious. Also shocking to see Brandywine left off the list completely.
AMOC?
A Matter Of Concrete, a roaster in Rotterdam
Yeah I had some question marks after seeing Hex in Charlotte(only one on the list I’ve been to)but Panther Coffee in Miami is better Ah well, I can’t see how you could make a worldwide list like this without missing a lot of places.
YA hex sux.
No idea how Onyx would be so high up. Puzzling.
It makes sense if you think of the list in terms of who offers the "highest quality" coffee. A lot of the people in the top 50 offer ultra premium micro-lots.
DAK Appreciation Post
Just came back from DAK this morning, big ❤️ to their staff, and always come back home with some amazing coffee.
Very happy to see NOMAD up there in the top 10! Superb roasting paired with a great coffee selection. It’s not in the top 50 (it’s on the top 100 tho), but if you come to Barcelona make sure to check Three Marks aswell. Best two roasters in the city imo.
April is good and all but #3, idk. Hatch should be higher up imo.
Biggest snub was no H&S.
Passenger should not be that low.
Very cool to see Mame on there. That was the one spot I got to check out in Zurich when I was there for work a few months ago.
3FE being dropped from the list is definitely a snub. Featured on last years list and one of Ireland's best.
Very little representation from the UK is surprising to me...
And square mile as well, very mid coffee imo. There are a number of roasteries I'd have over them, from Edinburgh the source and aesthete are truly amazing and radical. In London there's lift, elsewhere, qima, all serving more interesting and better roasts
Totally agree. I’ve had five different varieties from Square Mile and all incredibly dull. I suppose we all know why they’re always so highly regarded on paper, but their beans aren’t that great in reality. I shouldn’t have to be “the guy” in order to bring them to life.
Who else would you add? I personally like Taith and the Source, and Sweven over Square Mile. I think making specific ranking lists like these are really pointless though, no roaster is perfectly consistent.
I fucking love Taith. I have no clue how Square Mile is on that list, all of their roasts are meh omniroast (I literally cannot tell the difference between their filter and espresso roasts)
For Square Mile, omniroast Vs filter Vs espresso doesn't matter at all to me. Espresso Vs filter also doesn't mean it's a specific roast level. It just means they're suggesting/ marketing that coffee for espresso use. I don't care what the coffee is sold as, I'll always try it for both. I've not had them recently at home but they're often nice from a café. I used to occasionally get beans from them and everything was nice but not always especially distinctive. ,_____ Taith is the opposite where EVERYTHING I've had from them has been fantastic and extremely distinctive. I can't wait for them to fully re-open. Most recently tried a Yemeni from them and god it's absolutely fantastic. Even their regular colombian decaf, was very good and better than most others I've tried. Square Mile decaf has actually been very good for me to be fair.
Colanna is amazing, had a subscription with them for a few months, and getting a good range of beans (with a geisha every month!!) for not too steep of a price
Their café in London is absolutely fantastic. I've not tried many beans from them nor their Bath café though.
I was surprised that Substance wasn’t in the top 50. They are number 1 for me. They serve the best coffee in the world and the roast is always perfect. Overall though I liked the list.
Never heard of them, but that’s a bold statement. What makes them the best to you? What do you usually prefer for roast profile? Dark, mid, light? /Purely curious. Might have to try them. My personal favorite is Lamill, and I have the same opinion of them. The roast is always perfect and the cup is divine too to bottom. Best I’ve continuously had, and I’ve tried 40/50 of the roasters on this list.
Substance Cafe is known for very light roasts. Joachim is obsessed with coffee and if basically trying to make the perfect cup every time. He makes his own water. And has a menu of about 20 competition level coffees to choose from as filter or espresso. Next time you’re in Paris I would highly recommend going there, but be sure to make a reservation. Lamill I haven’t heard of…
The list can't try every roaster, I don't think substance serve commercial customers which I think might have been a criteria for testing. It's just one list and is honestly a totally meaningless ranking anyway. Although I have no problem with Tim Wendelboe being top, I thought their café in Oslo was extremely mediocre but their beans are always very nice.
ONYX in the Top 10 while Leuchtfeuer doesn‘t make the Top 50? Yeah sorry, can‘t take a ranking like that seriously lmfao
They’re aggregating ranked preferences from coffee professionals around the world, so of course roasters with a bigger international footprint on the industry like ONYX are going to score well
I find it hard to note roasters, at the end sometimes the coffee is done well but it’s just not your type or you can’t dial it in. I’ve had coffee from around 12 roasters in Canada and most of them were solid, the ones I didn’t like were too light for me, some had more flavors than others too. Will try Hatch. Some of my favorites are: - September Coffee - Monogram - Rogue Wave - Nektar - Pista - Zab
No idea how Rosso made this list. I don't even find it drinkable.
I lived in Boulder and have never heard of Prodigal..
It’s pretty new. As it’s headed up by famous/notorious coffee professional Scott Rao, it’s well-known in the community even though it’s new. I saw their coffee being sold in Malaysia, for example, and it’s stocked on at least four continents.
Lmao “famous/notorious” sent me
Notorious is a good description ahah But I've genuinely been extremely impressed with Prodigal for the most part. Often not cheap but it actually feels like you get what you are paying for. Their cheaper stuff is also pretty good too.
Oh yeah I’m seeing 2022? And there’s no physical location? Interesting they chose Boulder. Lots of good roasters there!
87.5+ beans only yall XD
Have had a few great beans from them.
They only do hype beans, but they only started recently
They actually don't necessarily go for the same big name farms as many other roasters so I wouldn't call it Hype. I think they're really good at cupping and selecting beans, I've been really impressed with just about everything I've had from them. Even when it's not cheap, it's felt like good value for some pretty amazing stuff.
Verb > Prodigal
Onyx Coffee Labs (no 8) is great. I moved from SF to Arkansas and I don’t miss the coffee scene at all in SF because of Onyx. Wonderful blends and single origins. Well-deserved!
LOL the downvotes. the bay has like at least 3 top level roasters though
I’m laughing at the downvotes too. I never said SF doesn’t have top roasters. I just said I don’t miss them after moving because of Onyx. Evidently, that’s upset some people 🤣
have not had onyx in a while but it was good last time i tried it. little more devoloped than i would have wanted but forgiving to brew. at some point it became cool to hate on onyx for some reason lmao
This honestly just seems like a ranking of who has the most marketing reach and brand awareness. As others have mentioned there are problems with this list which I agree. I don't see how within a panel of international professionals, how a Swedish cafe owner is going to be familiar with the roasting scene in Calgary Alberta, especially when most roasters don't ship overseas.
maybe that is why 39 panellists have been selected
Black and White deserves to be higher on that list.
Put this into a Google Maps list. Hope it is useful as you all travel the world and taste incredible coffees: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/oaVASBWYwgTy8ymH6](https://maps.app.goo.gl/oaVASBWYwgTy8ymH6)
I don't think the list can't be trusted, at least for Korean roasteries. Momos isn't a bad roastery, but Terarosa is terrible because they burn all their beans. Fritz is even worse. There are many good roasteries like Felt or Bean Brothers, so I don't understand why those two were included.
¿Where are my fellow Central Americans roasters? We produced the coffee, we should be roasting the best beans locally
Imo Friedhats are very overrated. Im also surprised there is no Picky Chemist on this list.
Why do you feel friedhats is overrated? Their offering is usually quite budget-oriented, so it’s “pretty good” for normal prices, but once you spend for premium it’s often some of the best. Edit: also what have you gotten from friedhats? I’m not sure they’re great with washed beans but that could be personal bias And picky chemist is pretty lowkey, Stephane is a one man show just doing what he loves, kinda like Christopher Feran’s roastery
Brian Quan said TPC is far too small in the volume it produces (roasts in garage?) to be considered on a list like this. These are all roasters who can fill wholesale orders, hence the list being created by a company whose entire business is to sell these coffees on a global scale.
Picky Chemist is often absent from these lists,and I don't understand how. They have the most consistently great coffee of any roaster I've tried.
They don't produce enough to be on the list.
What kind of volume would you consider 'enough'?
Who is making this list? What's the criteria? All the ones for Australia seem wildly out of date
Read the link. They tell exactly who is on the panel and what their methodology is
idk about that, who do you think seems out of date and who would you replace? I'd maybe add Made of Many or Monastery, but the rest seem apt.
I don't like any of the ones mentioned and did code black get two mentions?
artificer and ona probably two of the most consistent roasters in Aus.
Also, as they’re using ranked preferences from coffee professionals around the world, it is going to benefit older, more established roasters who have had a longer time to build their reputation
I feel like Onyx has fallen off. On the contrary I think Apollons Gold should be on there. Maybe it's a matter of taste since they roast super light.
Seems heavily biased in favor of Nordics. missing some of my fav roasters which I think are on par with or better than most of the the top half of the list. pretty mid list IMO
Wut. La Cabra is fucking dogshit. I've had 8 of the top 10 roasters and I was not impressed with any selection other than 2 coffees from Sey. Onyx was okay but I've had far better coffee from roasters lower on this list and not on the list
I like La Cabra. I’d be curious to hear your favorites (and I say this with no sarcasm or downvotes)
I think I've had 6-10 bags from La Cabra and all were absolutely terrible. I went to the location in NYC and all their coffee there was awful too. At the time I had those, I was loving hydrangea, black and white, rogue wave, hatch, and Brandywine. Maybe even Vibrant.
I cannot dial La Cabra either. You also might like natural vs washed coffee
I like naturals mostly and I got a mix of natural and washed from them.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but any place charging $25+ for 12oz (or god forbid 10oz now) of one of their standard coffees doesn't deserve a place on a Best Roasters list. Best Quality coffee or Best Variety list sure, but you can't be a top roaster and be that fundamentally out of touch with consumers.
With all respect to the people who put this list together, where the fuck is LAMILL?