Roast Magazine is the most trusted and respected resource for craft roasters, covering the art, science and business of coffee for both a national and worldwide market.
Once a year, they embark on a worldwide search to award their prestigious Roaster of the Year honor, recognizing those companies that roast coffees of award winning quality, exemplify a dedication to sustainability, promote employee and community education and demonstrate a strong commitment to best of class business practices. To be recognized by Roast Magazine as a top roaster in North America is the pinnacle of industry awards.
1. COMPANY MISSION
Our commitment to quality of product, lasting community relationships and impeccable business practices stood out among the competition. We are a family enterprise, working to benefit our clients, suppliers and employees alike, all while treading as lightly as possible on increasingly fragile natural resources, and we have an industry-wide reputation for maintaining a consistently high quality in our coffee.
2. SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES
We’re proud to be recognized for our ecologically sound business practices. Through composting spent grounds and chaff; recycling more of our paper, plastic, burlap and pallets; and reusing more boxes, liners and paper, we’ve reduced our waste by 85 percent. We expect to become 100-percent solar powered in the coming years and are constantly looking to
improve our environmental programs. Of course, we also partner with our suppliers to ensure that they use environmentally sound farming methods. Thanks to practices like these, we were awarded the Alameda County Green Business Certification in 2000.
3. COMMITMENT TO EMPLOYEES AND EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES
It was noted that our company culture respects the rights and dignity of each employee, and those attitudes are apparent in our daily operations. Our horizontal management philosophy gives every employee a voice on issues of efficiency and dedication to the company’s core values. We also evaluate our employee benefit levels annually to ensure that our workers compensation packages are “better than competitive” with comparable businesses.
All new hires also undergo a weeklong orientation to get to know the functions of each department, sharing the pride together in
every benchmark and achievement. We make it easy for all of our employees to enjoy career-long learning opportunities that include paid Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) training courses.
4. INNOVATIONS IN ROASTING, MARKETING AND BUSINESS PRACTICES
We are honored to represent some of the industry’s best practices in utilizing cutting edge technology and more effective business practices. Our leadership in both areas has been chronicled, including our becoming the first U.S. specialty coffee roaster to introduce the Blossom single-cup brewer to the hospitality industry. Also of note: our leadership staffers are frequently asked to serve as judges for SCA cuppings and U.S. Barista Championship competitions. To tell the story of our business, a strategic new marketing plan is in the works, focusing on our unique history, our passionate insistence on quality and our reputation for sterling business practices… all while growing more responsible to the environment and the communities that we serve and partner with each year.
5. QUALITY OF COFFEE
All coffees submitted for the award were cupped and scored according to complexity and depth of flavor and aroma, as well as body, acidity, and the sweetness/bitterness ratio among other criteria. Our score was a testament to our commitment to quality. In fact, all of our single origin and blended coffees have to rank a minimum quality score of 84 out of 100 as the Peerless standard – well above specialty market quality. And of course, we’re proud of the awards that we’ve collected over the years, including winning over 40 medals including overall chain champion from the Golden Bean North America roasting competition since 2016.
We are grateful to have been awarded 2019 Roaster of the Year, and we’ll strive to remain a leader in the industry for many years, and generations, to come!
