The smell of freshly roasted coffee came to Bellingham in 1971.
From the beginning, we roasted our coffee in small batches, selecting the best beans we could find from around the world.
In the early years, we roasted in our coffeehouse, street-level space in Fairhaven’s historic Terminal Building. We filled customers’ orders from glass jars with freshly roasted beans from Antigua, Guatemala to Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia. The coffeehouse brought locally-roasted coffee and espresso to Bellingham, becoming one of the cultural staples in the community. From the start, we were drawn to the fact that coffee brings people together.
We travel every year to visit the coffee farms that make what we do possible. These direct relationships help to broaden our understanding and appreciation for all that goes into making an exceptional cup of coffee. We are keenly aware of the many hands it takes to prepare a great cup of coffee. Alfredo Pacas, a third-generation Salvadoran coffee farmer, and a direct trade partner of ours say it best: “When I taste a great cup of coffee, I stop because I know that it’s a miracle.” In 1995, we moved our roasting operation a few miles north to the Irongate District. This move helped us provide wholesale coffee to more locally-owned grocery stores, offices, cafes, and diners in Bellingham and the Seattle area.
Our commitment to sourcing high-quality, sustainable coffee has always guided our path. In 2002, we became one of the country’s first coffee roasters to source organic, fair trade, shade-grown coffee from farmer-owned cooperatives. In 2004, we became members of the US Roasters Guild and, in 2012, we became a founding member of World Coffee Research, whose work help ensure the future of sustainable coffee production.
We’re not stopping there though, by the year 2030, we’re pledging to become historically carbon neutral, meaning we’ll have offset our entire carbon emissions from 1971 to 2030. We encourage you to follow along in this journey as we share sustainability updates.
Finally, in late 2020, we learned that Roast Magazine had named us the 2021 Macro Roaster of the Year. We’re incredibly humbled by this national recognition. It serves as a reminder that we’re only able to do what we do thanks to the hardworking, innovative farmers that we partner with. Most of all, we are grateful to our longtime customers who value delicious coffee that has a positive impact on communities and the environment.
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