I am currently using Stumptown Founder’s blend. It is a bit pricey and is Light-Medium at around 15-16 dollars at Target here in the US.
We alternate between
- Kicking Horse Cliff Hanger
- Bar9 (found them when in Washington, delicious)
- Whatever we get each month from our Atlas subscription
Stumptown are great roasters. I love to experiment with local roasters. I travel quite a bit and I try to pick up a pound from a local roaster wherever I go. I used be pretty smug in thinking that the top tier roasters in San Francisco would beat a small town roaster every time. My opinion has changed, I’ve been super impressed by a lot of smaller roaster.
It seems like we are both aware that lots of beans not labeled as espresso are great for it. I tend to go for light to medium roasts for both pour overs and espresso. I also prefer malty/chocolatey profile beans over the citrusy ones. That is not a hard rule but light roasted citrusy beans can be overwhelming in espresso
I also home roast 80% of my beans. I’ve been home roasting for over 25 years. I’m receiving 25 pounds from Sweet Marias today. I picked up 5 pounds each of the following:
-Congo Organic Kivu Kalehe
-Costa Rica Tarrazú Cerro La Cruz
-Java Pulp Natural Gambung Robusta
-Ethiopia Dry Process Mahamed Aba Nura
-Kenya Nyeri Kiaguthu Peaberry
I’m looking forward to playing around with blending with the Java Robusta
Quality un-roasted green beans tend to be in the range of $6 to $8 a pound. On a light roast, about 15% of the weight is lost in roasting. $6 to $8 a pound un-roasted coffee turns into $6.90 to $9.20 a pound roasted. This doesn’t include cost of the equipment, wear and tear and electricity.
It seems like the going price of artisanal roasted coffee is $12 to $18 pound. IMO, is completely justifiable to charge based on their wholesale cost of goods and labor costs these days.
Ditto with the non dark roasts. I wish I remembered the exact roast, but I was really pleasantly surprised by one of the light roast Starbucks beans I picked up because they were cheap.
Give Blue Bottle espresso a try if you haven’t. I swear they’re a whole other level.
Here’s my flex: I work at a roastery so I haven’t paid for beans in years. My daily coffee is our Full Cycle blend from Nossa Familia in Portland OR.
I use Wegmans bulk espresso beans. It costs $18 for 2 and a half pounds. If I want something that tastes good, there’s a local coffee shop that has dark roast beans that I love
I’ve been purchasing most of my beans at Whole Foods, they have a bunch of local roasters, you just have to do some searching to find ones with a good roast date. I pay ~15 USD for a 12oz bag but it goes from 12 up past 20.
