There’s a chance we may be headed towards a nationwide shutdown of bars, restaurants, and yes, coffee shops in response to Coronavirus, an action that has already been instituted in certain US states to help flatten the curve and save lives.
Until that happens you need to tip, dammit, and buy gift cards, and watch for companies in your community converting to take-out, drive-thru, and delivery (follow us on Twitter for updates). But another very wonderful thing you can do to support the coffee industry right now is to buy coffee online. Delicious coffee! Coffee you will need to have at home in order to thrive and be well in the weeks ahead.
To help facilitate this action, here’s more than a dozen roasters off the top of our heads that would happily sell you delicious coffee right now, delivered to your door. Each one is an independent roaster we here at Sprudge know personally to be purveyors of utterly delicious coffee.
Some are in America, others are not. All are operated by humans. This list includes a few of our sponsors, whose support makes our daily publishing work at Sprudge possible, as well as many other indie roasters we admire. This is just a start—the comments to this post are open and we’ll be updating and sharing more recommendations along the way, so be sure to let us know more great folks to buy from.
Buy multiple things. Try something new. Share this post with your family and friends—we’ve been sure to include a broad range of roast profiles and price points for every coffee drinker you love—and watch for more stories like this from us in the coming hours.
Bolt Coffee — Providence, Rhode Island
Yummy delicious coffee from the artsy weirdo haven of Providence, Rhode Island. We’ve featured Bolt a couple of different ways over the years, including a fun design feature, a 2016 Build-Outs of Summer spotlight, and as part of our Coffee Lover’s Guide to Providence.
Check out Bolt Coffee’s online shop and try their Papua New Guinea Sero Bebes or Honduras Rafael Lara, or any other coffee that catches your eye. $5 flat shipping across the USA. Pick up an Aerobie AeroPress while you’re at it!
Camber Coffee — Bellingham, Washington
More fabulous coffee from a college town, this time from Camber Coffee in Bellingham, Washington (so close to Canada you can pick up MuchMusic). We’ve featured Camber a bunch on the site over the years, most notably in a long read on their roasting work making waves, and more recently in a design feature on their Artist Series.
More so than perhaps any other independent American roaster, the range of Camber’s offerings is consistently excellent. We’d recommend checking out their sample box set to try a broad selection of current offerings and don’t miss the aforementioned Artist Series.
Deadstock Coffee — Portland, Oregon
Global attention has rightfully come over the last few years to Deadstock Coffee, a single shop roaster retailer based in the Old Town neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. There’s nowhere else quite like it in America: an effortless, preternatural fusing of sneaker and streetwear culture with contemporary coffee at its core. It’s a Sprudge staff favorite for good reason; read our in-depth interview with founder Ian Williams from 2018 to learn more.
Perhaps underreported, then, is Deadstock’s growth in the last year into one of the Pacific Northwest’s very best indie roasters. In collaboration with collaborative roasting cooperative Buckman Coffee Factory, Williams and the crew (including manager Kevin Minnieweather and all-world barista + design duo The Twinterns) are serving standout delicious espresso and filter coffee alongside memorable original drinks. Visit Deadstock’s official website for ordering information and go with one the blends as your new daily filter coffee drinker at home, perfect on its own or with a little alternative milk (like say, Portland’s own Pacific Foods Barista Series).
Ditta Artiganale — Florence, Italy
So much love and solidarity to our coffee family in Italy, where a total shut-down on restaurants and cafes has been in place now for several days. Sprudge was the first international coffee publication to report on Ditta Artigianale, all the way back in 2014, from founder and Italian Barista Champion Francesco Sanapo. How wonderful to watch the company grow and expand in the years since—we drank coffee here every day during our recent trip to Florence to visit the incredible new Accademia del Caffè.
Ditta offers worldwide shipping with a range of beautiful coffees, including a lovely Dari Hambela from Ethiopia and the much-loved Finca El Puente from the Herrera family Honduras. As you would expect from a thoroughly Italian company, Ditta’s merch is knockout, including some of the coolest coffee socks in the business.
Elixr Coffee — Philadelphia, PA
We’ve got big love for Elixr Coffee of Philadelphia, who recently hosted Sprudge’s founders on their book tour, and were the subject of this loving packaging spotlight feature. Elixr’s webstore has a really interesting hook-up: three bags of coffee, your choice, all for $45. Mix and match sought after single-origin coffees from the likes of La Palma y El Tucan and Finca Las Brumas with blends like Beekeper or Treehouse.
Their founder can pour Gritty—’nuff said.
Equator Coffees — San Francisco Bay Area
Our longtime friends and partners at Equator Coffees are based in the North Bay city of San Rafael, California. Over the past few years, the company has quietly expanded south to San Francisco, opening shops on Market, in Fort Mason, and SOMA to name a few. “Since 1995, we’ve believed that better coffee could create a better world,” says co-founder Helen Russell.
Equator offers a huge selection of quality coffees—like their Good Food Awards winning Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda Gesha. We’re digging their B’Cause Blend, a coffee that “supports cause-driven organizations that promote equity and sustainability.” Equator Coffees is donating funds raised through their B’Cause Blend to World Central Kitchen from now through the end of April.
3FE — Dublin, Ireland
All the coffee world loves 3FE, founder and author Colin Harmon’s iconic Irish roaster/retailer with two locations in Dublin, plus restaurant spin-offs Gertrude and Daniel. Our readers voted 3FE as the top choice for Sustainable Cafe at the 2019 Sprudgie Awards presented by Pacific Barista Series, and they’ve been a fixture on our website over the last decade, from long read interviews to roaster spotlights and features on noted wholesale partners like Filter Coffee in County Cork. Harmon’s brand is so synonymous with the Irish coffee scene we once commissioned a guide called “Dublin: Five Great Cafes (That Aren’t 3FE)“.
Good cafes helped build the brand, there’s no doubt, but today 3FE’s roasting is some of the best in all Europe. There’s a range of origins available, including a really interesting Biodynamic natural processed Indian arabica from the Nilgiris region, along with a clean, lovely washed Bourbon from Guatemala’s Finca La Soledad and washed Pacamara from El Salvador’s Finca Las Brumas. Irish readers can sign up for subscriptions; for the rest of us, shipping to the United States is just €8.00 with Standard Post. And if you like a bit of milk with your coffee, try pairing 3FE’s filter-ready Momentum Blend with a splash of Minor Figures oat milk.
Koppi — Helsingborg, Sweden
Swedish sunshine in a cup from husband and wife duo Anne Lunell and Charles Nystrand. Koppi is served at several of the finest coffee bars and restaurants across Europe, from Scandinavian Embassy in Amsterdam to Lyle’s in London.
Koppi offers a tough to beat free international shipping option when you order four bags. I have literally never had a bad Koppi coffee, but especially love the depth of flavor and expression they coax from distinct Colombian coffees like Finca Los Alpes and the Nunez family’s El Sapo. Small roasters like this feel as much like supporting artists or creatives as they do following a coffee brand, and there is something personal and refreshing about that. Follow them on Instagram for more adventures and cute photos of their dog.
Monarch Coffee — Kansas City, Missouri
From cafe experience and design to a commitment to diversity and education, Monarch Coffee walks the walk for what a young coffee company can be in 2020. Longtime Sprudge contributor and competition photographer Charlie Burt went big in his March 2019 feature on the brand: “This place represents not just what’s possible here in Kansas City, but for the coffee culture at large headed into the next decade.”
All that goodness would be well enough, but the company’s roasting is every bit as on point, walking a delicate line between accessible and expressive. Pastel pink bags of Iyula AA Tanzania and Monteblanco Gesha Colombia won’t just look good on your countertop—they’ll taste great, too.
Olympia Coffee Roasting Company — Olympia, Washington
Simply one of the best roasters in the United States, regardless of size or geography, Olympia Coffee Roasting Company have been standard-bearers for third-wave coffee culture in the Pacific Northwest since 2005. Now with a Seattle flagship and a handsome cafe roastery in Tacoma’s historic Proctor District to complement three hometown coffee bars, “Oly Coffee” has established itself as the pan-Northwestern roaster of record.
This is another brand where I’ve honestly never had a bad coffee, but no mention of Oly is complete without shouting loudly and repeatedly about how great their decaf is. The brand’s Asterisk program is a revolving single-origin decaf coffee, currently from Colombia’s San Sebastian Project. Also wonderful is Olympia’s ever-changing Big Truck blend, an organic melange that just took home 2020 Good Food Awards finalist honors. All retail orders ship free.
Pilot Coffee Roasters — Toronto, Ontario
Toronto’s Pilot Coffee Roasters has been featured across Sprudge in a variety of different ways over the last few years: in our 2019 Toronto coffee guide; in two separate Build-Outs of Summer features, from 2017 and 2019, respectively; and at Nemesis Coffee in Vancouver, a 2017 Sprudgie nominee for Best New Cafe.
There’s no doubt they’re building a cool little empire in Ontario, but if you’re US based, they’ll happily ship—and this is a great time to try their coffees. Pick up a single origin like the Catalan De Las Mercedes “Red Bourbon” from Guatemala, and pair that with a home coffee maker friendly blend like Academy.
Ruby Coffee Roasters — Nelsonville, Wisconsin
Perhaps you know the story by now. Fella from rural Wisconsin winds up working at the reach break of the early third wave coffee boom—Intelligentsia Coffee in Los Angeles in the late Naughty Aughties—before putting in time for a landmark Seattle cafe brand. Fella gives up the city life, moves back to rural Wisconsin, and sets up a progressive third wave roaster in the family farmhouse. He names the brand after his grandma.
Liz Clayton’s 2015 feature on Ruby Coffee Roasters remains a must-read on the brand, but it’s been a long five years since, during which time the brand has expanded wholesale nationally and opened a coffee bar community hub. One of the most interesting ways to drink Ruby is via their instant coffee collaboration with Sudden Coffee of San Francisco. If whole bean is more your jam, check out Ruby’s bunker-ready Sampler Pack.
Tandem Coffee Roasters — Portland, Maine
Much love to Tandem Coffee of Portland, Maine, who earlier this year scored what may well have been the first James Beard Award nomination for a coffee shop (honoring co-founder and baker Brianna Holt). Tandem featured prominently in our Portland Maine Coffee Guide from (checks notes) 2012, which is due for a dang update, and they were part of our first-ever season of Build-Outs of Summer.
Tandem’s web shop offers a bunch of incredible stuff, and while unfortunately there is no way to ship a box of Brianna Holt’s cookies, you can sign up for their super unique coffee + vinyl subscription, shop for clever merch and home-brewing essentials, and shop for tasty coffees like Burundi Kibingo or Kenya Kiboi.
Tipico Coffee – Buffalo, New York
Is this the coziest cafe in America? Probably. Longtime coffee industry veteran Jesse Crouse (formerly of Intelligentsia, Verve, and Gimme! Coffee) launched Tipico in 2015, helping bring coffee along for the culinary and craft beer rocket ride of the great Buffalonian revival of recent years. Back in 2015, they were pretty revolutionary for this town, but these days Buffalo is home to a wider thriving coffee scene, documented here in our February 2020 Buffalo Coffee Guide.
Ordering some coffee from Tipico is the correct move for yourself, your taste buds, and the universe. Try their sugar cane processed Colombia Cauca, or a nice natural processed Ethiopian from the Kayon Mountain Estate. And if you’re shut in with someone who enjoys a bold, robust profile, Tipico offers an exemplary Dark Roast option.
Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters — San Francisco, California
We go way, way back with Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters of San Francisco and its founders, Nick Cho and Trish Rothgeb, covering their work in San Francisco and beyond since 2012. We’ve known them even longer—listen to a couple of our Sprudge Origin Story podcasts (1 & 2) to learn more. But in the here and now Wrecking Ball has grown from a landmark Cow Hollow cafe to a Sprudgie Award-nominated Berkeley hub, winning over converts and helping define what the next wave of coffee in American can be.
We’re not just old friends, we’re also fans. Rothgeb, Cho and their team oversee a smart roasting operation, with bags decked out in bright splashes of neon yellow (pair them with your favorite sneaker selfie). Pillow Fight is one of the country’s top evolving espresso blends; pair that with an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe or a nice exclusive coffee from Northwest Peru.
Got more roasters to recommend? Sound off in the comments below.
Some (but not all) of the roasters in this feature are advertising partners on the Sprudge Media Network. For a complete list of partners please consult the right-hand side of this and every Sprudge feature.
Jordan Michelman (@suitcasewine) is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network.
Original art by Zachary Carlsen.
