The Roaster Cosmic Coffee is a small-batch roaster based in San Jose. After starting to roast coffee in Hawaii, its founder, Carlos, brought the roaster to California in 2012. It has been based there ever since. Their attention to detail is so great that they use a proprietary mineral blend in the water they use…

  Blue Spruce Decaf Coffee Co is an exciting player in the current decaf scene. Since their founding in 2017, they’ve focused on carefully sourced, shade-grown coffees. All of their offerings are 100% Swiss Water Processed. Chad Polski, the roaster’s founder, has expressed a familiar sentiment as to why he started the company. As with…

We love getting local, small batch coffee. We also love third-wave roasters that have grown into powerhouses. But sometimes you can’t get beans from a tiny local operation. Sometimes you can’t even find Intelligentsia or Blue Bottle. In that case, you’re usually left with a few decaf options from the major coffee chains. When it…

Savorista is a leading roaster in the modern decaf landscape. In fact, they were among the very first roasters we profiled when we launched. Caffeine consciousness is the name of the game for Savorista and their founder Kait Brown. Caffeine Conscious Coffee is the tagline of their name, after all.  We recently sat down with…

Roaster: Equal Exhange Roast: Medium Origin: Blend Decaffeination Method: CR3 Natural Liquid Carbon Dioxide Taste: Caramel, Raisin, Brown Sugar The Roaster Equal Exchange is the largest, and oldest, Fairtrade company operating today. Their trademark red bags are hard to miss. The company was founded in 1986 by Jonathan Rosenthal, Michael Rozyne and Rink Dickinson. The…

Roaster: Intelligentsia Roast: Medium / Medium-Light Origin: Blend Decaffeination Method: Swiss Water Process Taste: Milk Chocolate, Grapefruit, Blueberry The Roaster Intelligentsia Coffee is one of the biggest names in recent coffee history. Since their founding in 1995, the Chicago roaster has been one the major success stories of third wave coffee. They first expanded outside of…

Roaster: Try Hard Coffee Roasters Roast: Medium Origin: Single (Cauca, Colombia) Decaffeination Method: Ethyl-Acetate Taste: Raisin, Cherry, smoke The Roaster Try Hard Coffee Roasters is an Austin based roaster and cafe. In addition to coffee, they also make limited edition vinyl for local artists, and their cafe is soundtracked by vinyl DJs. I was recently…

Roaster: Allegro Roast: Extra-dark Origin: Blend Decaffeination Method: Swiss Water Process Taste: Dark chocolate, molasses, hazelnut The Roaster Allegro Coffee is one of the largest roasters in the craft coffee world. It was founded in Boulder, CO in 1977, putting its origins somewhere between the second and third waves of coffee. The roaster was already a…

Roaster: 365 by Whole Foods Market Roast: Dark Origin: Blend Decaffeination Method: Swiss Water Process Taste: Sugar, almond The Roaster One interesting throughline I’ve found writing for DecafLife is how consistently I enjoy coffee made by Whole Foods. So far, both the 365 by Whole Foods Market No Buzz Decaf and the Allegro Decaf Organic Italian…

Roaster: 365 by Whole Foods Market Roast: Medium Origin: Blend Decaffeination Method: Swiss Water Process Taste: Milk chocolate, toast, smoke The Roaster Whole Foods has been in the coffee roasting game ever since they bought Allegro Roasters in 1997. The chain first featured Allegro’s coffee as their signature house roast, and has continued to expand its…

Roaster: Counter Culture Roast: Medium Origin: Guatemala and Peru (Blend) Decaffeination Method: Swiss Water Process Taste: Dark chocolate, cherry, cream The Roaster Counter Culture Coffee has been a major player in the third wave coffee world for almost 30 years now. In fact, they were on the ground floor of the very movement. Since its founding…

Roaster: Backyard Beans Roast: Medium Origin: Honduras (Blend) Decaffeination Method: Mountain Water Process Taste: Caramel, blueberry, cocoa The Roaster Founded by the husband-and-wife team of Matthew and Laura Adams, Backyard Beans Coffee Company has been roasting coffee in the Philadelphia suburb of Lansdale since 2013. True to their name, Backyard Beans truly began in a backyard.…

Roaster: Philly Fair Trade Roast: Medium-Light Origin: Chiapas, Mexico (Single) Decaffeination Method: Swiss Water Process Taste: Milk chocolate, cherry, caramel The Roaster Philly Fair Trade Roasters was founded in 2010 by Joe Cesa. Their commitment to fair trade is present throughout the entire company. According to the roaster, they pay employees higher-than-average wages and are committed…