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Sorry Seattle, we roast the best coffee.
Asher is going to hate to hear it but guess which city has the best coffee? 
Or at least best small roaster. Suck on that, Calgary.
Sorry Seattle, we roast the best coffee
La Jolla's Bird Rock Coffee Roasters wins best small coffee roaster in America
Most coffee snobs will tell you the Pacific Northwest knocks bean-roasting out the park: that the home of Starbucks and the roast revolution happening in Portland are supreme.
Well, the coffee-trade magazine Roast says the best, little, specialty coffee roaster in America is right here in San Diego.
They just named Bird Rock Coffee Roasters in La Jolla the 2012 Micro Roaster of the Year. (Slurp on that, Seattle.)
Our hometown bean-artisan roasts 75,000 pounds of beans annually. It sources green coffee beans directly from international farmers (in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia), loads them into a cast-iron Probat coffee roaster inhouse, and transforms them into cocoa-brown beauties with a full spectrum of flavors.
This roasting happens within a building that doubles as the Bird Rock Coffee café…and sits right across from a Starbucks on La Jolla Boulevard.
(When Bird Rock’s garage-door window is open and the shop is filled with happy, jittery customers, you might hear a pitying, “Look at the poor near-empty Starbucks across the street.”)
Bird Rock arm wrestled with Pacific Northwest heavies and around 60 other national roasters for the Micro Roaster award, which not only recognizes a flavorful cup, but a company’s sustainable and educational practices.
Speaking of: When Bird Rock owner Chuck Patton is in America, he leads free cupping classes Fridays at 10:30 a.m. in their tasting room.
Like a wine tasting, cupping is about understanding the stuff you enjoy. It’s described on the Bird Rock website as, “Roast. Grind. Smell. Suck. Slurp. Spit.” During cupping, Patton, an ex-English teacher, will also school you on coffee trivia (like 300 years ago people started drinking joe, like the best coffee regions are near the equator).
And he helps you tease out the aromas and flavors in beans and brewed cups.
(Say the Ethiopia Sidamo has notes of dried peach and strawberries and go to the head of the class. Crib a few descriptive words from a nearby Flavor Wheel poster – apparently coffee can have notes of “wet paper” “concrete” and “wet wool,” yum. And at a recent cupping some class clown said the Sumatra smelled like pot brownies.)
When Patton is not in America, he’s sourcing directly from farmers, checking on the quality of their harvest. He takes a trip to Kenya and Ethiopia over the holidays.
You can take a trip to the café for a bag ‘o beans. Note: The coffee varietal that nailed down Bird Rock’s Micro Roaster honor was its intense, earthy and slightly sweet Sumatra Lake Tawar. It's at Bird Rock in cup or bag form.
Bird Rock Coffee Roasters have been roasting since 2002, sitting across from Starbucks selling coffee since 2006. 5627 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. (858) 551-1707; birdrockcoffeeroasters.com.
La Jolla's Bird Rock Coffee Roasters wins best small coffee roaster in America
Most coffee snobs will tell you the Pacific Northwest knocks bean-roasting out the park: that the home of Starbucks and the roast revolution happening in Portland are supreme.
Well, the coffee-trade magazine Roast says the best, little, specialty coffee roaster in America is right here in San Diego.
They just named Bird Rock Coffee Roasters in La Jolla the 2012 Micro Roaster of the Year. (Slurp on that, Seattle.)
Our hometown bean-artisan roasts 75,000 pounds of beans annually. It sources green coffee beans directly from international farmers (in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia), loads them into a cast-iron Probat coffee roaster inhouse, and transforms them into cocoa-brown beauties with a full spectrum of flavors.
This roasting happens within a building that doubles as the Bird Rock Coffee café…and sits right across from a Starbucks on La Jolla Boulevard.
(When Bird Rock’s garage-door window is open and the shop is filled with happy, jittery customers, you might hear a pitying, “Look at the poor near-empty Starbucks across the street.”)
Bird Rock arm wrestled with Pacific Northwest heavies and around 60 other national roasters for the Micro Roaster award, which not only recognizes a flavorful cup, but a company’s sustainable and educational practices.
Speaking of: When Bird Rock owner Chuck Patton is in America, he leads free cupping classes Fridays at 10:30 a.m. in their tasting room.
Like a wine tasting, cupping is about understanding the stuff you enjoy. It’s described on the Bird Rock website as, “Roast. Grind. Smell. Suck. Slurp. Spit.” During cupping, Patton, an ex-English teacher, will also school you on coffee trivia (like 300 years ago people started drinking joe, like the best coffee regions are near the equator).
And he helps you tease out the aromas and flavors in beans and brewed cups.
(Say the Ethiopia Sidamo has notes of dried peach and strawberries and go to the head of the class. Crib a few descriptive words from a nearby Flavor Wheel poster – apparently coffee can have notes of “wet paper” “concrete” and “wet wool,” yum. And at a recent cupping some class clown said the Sumatra smelled like pot brownies.)
When Patton is not in America, he’s sourcing directly from farmers, checking on the quality of their harvest. He takes a trip to Kenya and Ethiopia over the holidays.
You can take a trip to the café for a bag ‘o beans. Note: The coffee varietal that nailed down Bird Rock’s Micro Roaster honor was its intense, earthy and slightly sweet Sumatra Lake Tawar. It's at Bird Rock in cup or bag form.
Bird Rock Coffee Roasters have been roasting since 2002, sitting across from Starbucks selling coffee since 2006. 5627 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. (858) 551-1707; birdrockcoffeeroasters.com.
Or at least best small roaster. Suck on that, Calgary.
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