The 10 Best Coffee Roasters Shipping Beans Right Now
2024-12-03 · 5 min read
Onyx Coffee Lab in Bentonville, Arkansas, has won more national roasting awards than practically any other American roaster. Their approach combines meticulous sourcing with a roasting style that highlights each coffee's origin character. The Monarch espresso blend is a crowd-pleaser, while their single origins from Ethiopia and Colombia showcase what specialty coffee can taste like when everything is done right.
George Howell Coffee in Boston is run by one of the specialty coffee pioneers. Howell was importing and advocating for origin-specific coffees before the term third wave existed. His roasts tend toward the lighter end, emphasizing terroir and processing method. The Mamuto AA from Kenya is a benchmark for what African coffee can be.
Counter Culture Coffee, based in Durham, North Carolina, has been a wholesale and retail force since 1995. Their subscription service delivers freshly roasted beans on a schedule you set, and the variety rotates seasonally. The Hologram blend is an excellent everyday espresso, and their training resources for home brewers are some of the best available anywhere.
Tim Wendelboe in Oslo is widely considered one of the world's best roasters. His tiny operation focuses on light roasts that push transparency to the extreme: you taste the farm, the altitude, and the processing method. International shipping is available, and receiving a bag from Wendelboe feels like getting a package from a friend who happens to have impeccable taste.
Heart Coffee Roasters in Portland ships some of the most beautifully balanced coffees in the country. Their approach sits in the sweet spot between ultra-light Nordic roasting and the more developed American style, producing coffees that are complex and clean without being aggressively acidic. The seasonal single origins are consistently excellent.
Other roasters worth exploring include Intelligentsia in Chicago, Proud Mary in Portland and Melbourne, Sey Coffee in Brooklyn, Square Mile in London, and Cat and Cloud in Santa Cruz. The golden age of specialty coffee roasting means you can get world-class beans delivered to your door regardless of where you live.
