Mighty Good Coffee Roasting Co, Freshly Roasted Coffee Delivered Daily

Coffee beans are known to be the most heavily traded commodity after oil. Science, politics, and market economics all play major roles in the drama of coffee, from planting of the coffee seed to consumption of the beverage. While we can't wax on about all that on this page, we'd like to give you some blurbs that should assist in furthering your love of coffee.

Coffee Varieties. There are mainly two botanical varieties of coffee widely available today. One is generally called "robusta," and the other, "arabica." The arabica variety, which is grown in the highlands, has unquestionably superior aroma and taste, as well as significantly lower caffeine content than the robusta variety, which is grown in the flatlands. The vast majority of the coffee companies use the robusta variety, because robustas are more plentiful and therefore less expensive. On the grocery store shelves, however, it's not very easy to distinguish arabica beans from robusta beans, as there are currently no laws in the U.S. requiring such a labeling. Mighty Good Coffee Roasting Company uses only arabica beans that qualify as "specialty-grade," which is the grade of beans with the fewest or no defects.

What's "Fresh" Coffee? Sure, freshly brewed coffee is better than an hour-old pot on a hotplate. But there's much more to fresh coffee. True freshness begins with a current crop of coffee beans, roasted within the last 1-2 weeks, and brewed immediately after grinding. Beans get noticeably stale a few weeks after the roast, and within a matter of a day (or less) after grinding. It is extremely difficult to find beans that are less than 2 weeks out of the roaster, because the typical distribution and retail channels require weeks, if not months, before beans reach the consumer. Even beans in grocery store bulk bins, which imply freshness, are typically roasted at best a few days before the bins are filled; and once they go in the plexiglass bins, constant exposure to air and light accelerates their staling process. By the time beans in the middle of the bin empty out, they are generally not much fresher than pre-packaged beans.

What about those one-way air valves? Many "premium" coffee beans come in bags with a one-way air valve. Those valves let air out but not in, so they certainly can't hurt. But how fresh are the beans that go into those bags? If they are days old to begin with, they are not going to be fresh when consumed. Not surprisingly, most coffee companies don't want to tell you when their beans were roasted. Also, how much oxygen remains in the bag? Even a tiny bit of oxygen (e.g., 2%) has been found to cause the beans to stale, so there is no way to "lock-in" the freshness unless the bags are absolutely vacuum sealed.

What Else Makes a Difference in Taste? Good coffee beans begin with the right variety of seeds, good soil, climate, careful processes for picking, washing, drying, grading, hulling and sorting, and minimizing exposure to heat and moisture in transport and storage. At each of these stages the beans, if mistreated, can lose their full potential. At Mighty Good Coffee we test samples after samples to ensure that the beans we purchase have the most desirable characteristics of the region from which they were harvested. And once we have the green coffee beans we like, we roast them in a traditional drum-style coffee roaster to coax the beans into the optimal roast stage for those particular beans. Sumatras, for example, are roasted darker (to a "Viena" roast) in order to accentuate the heavy, complex flavors, whereas Kenyas are roasted lighter to preserve that unique brightness without sacrificing their delicate body.

Mighty Good -- Your Local Roaster. At Mighty Good Coffee Roasting Company, we do not pre-package our beans. What's more, we don't even roast our beans until your order date or the next day. Once roasted, we seal the beans in our one-way valve bags within the hour, and send them off to your address within 24 hours of roasting.