I recently moved to San Diego, CA from Portland, OR.  As I search my new city for the local coffee roasters upon whom I’ll be relying for expertly-roasted coffee, it made me think of the e-mails I receive by people looking for a roaster near them.  I thought I would summarize the steps I’ve taken to find the local roasters here in San Diego, in the hopes that you can use the same advice where you live.  If you’re having trouble finding a quality roaster near you, e-mail me and I’ll help you.

Portland, OR is a coffee city.  In fact, some believe that it’s overshadowed in size by Seattle to the north and San Francisco to the south, but that it truly is the coffee mecca of the US.  Long story short, I was very spoiled in Portland, where you can throw a rock in any direction and hit a great roaster.  Now, I live in San Diego, where one prominent roaster even admits of the city’s coffee scene, that “we are admittedly playing catchup with the coffee scenes of cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Minneapolis.”

Read: The Coffee Scene in San Diego

YELP
     This is an easy one.  Yelp is the former Yellow Pages on steroids, not only a business directory, but an interactive one that allows for reviews.  There are a couple setbacks to using Yelp to find a local roaster.  First, it will show you MANY cafes, but you’re looking for companies that roast their own coffee so you can talk with the artists themselves.  While it’s not foolproof, look for company names that contain “roasters” or “roasting”.  Second, you may have to drive to the closest quality roaster near you, whereas Yelp shows you businesses that are in your vicinity.  This last challenge brings us to the next suggestion.

GOOGLE
Google is also a business directory.  Do a search on “coffee roasters [insert your city name]“.  It will show you a whole map of businesses that fit that description.  The results will likely include cafes that serve somebody else’s coffee, as well as roasters, so the same advice as above in finding coffee roasters specifically.

COFFEE REVIEW
For those of you on Twitter, I suggest following @coffeereview, the handle of Kenneth Davids, renowned coffee writer and the architect behind a coffee report card system.  Roasters submit their prize roasted coffee for evaluation, and when a coffee scores in the 90%’s, it gets listed on Twitter.  Now, here is where I’m giving my humble opinion only.  I have never had bad coffee from a good roaster.  Good roasters do much experimenting that I don’t necessarily get subjected to, but when it’s put on the shelf, I’ve found almost invariably that it’s good product.  For this reason, when Coffee Review scores a coffee highly from a roaster that is in my area, I immediately make a point of checking it out.  Not just for the highly rated coffee, but to learn more about the roaster that made the grade.  This is how I found Cafe Virtuoso, a roaster here in San Diego who recently received a great Coffee Review.  Because of the suggestion above to look for “Roast” in the company’s name, I would have otherwise missed this one.

LISTEN TO THE INDUSTRY
Last year, Roast Magazine named San Diego’s Bird Rock Coffee Roasters the 2012 Micro Roaster of the Year.  There’s not too much more I need to know, and it was one of my first stops when I arrived here.  So far, I’ve only had one of their coffees at home, but it’s been phenomenal and I’m looking forward to returning.  Of course, their location in La Jolla also makes it attractive!

Read: Profile Roast Magazine

     I haven’t been here with an update in over a month, and I sincerely apologize for that.

This weekend and with great sadness, I packed up and moved from my home in Portland, Oregon, to San Diego, California.  Portland is an incredible city that I’ll always visit, and always miss.  I drove Highway 101 down the coast of Oregon, and much of the infamous Highway 1 down the coast of California.  After San Francisco, I had to (literally) switch gears and move back onto the beaten path so that I got to San Diego before the weekend ended.

This past Monday was painful.  I took over the lease for my new home, but it would be a day before my coffee gear would be delivered.  After everything was delivered (today), I had a pound of Caribou Coffee that I bought in Minnesota last week, and that I was ready to brew.

And in the handful of days that I’ve been here, I can’t get a handle on the coffee scene.  I don’t put all my stock on Twitter , but I did shout out three separate times to the Twitter universe to let me know where in the city I could get the best and most attentively roasted bulk coffee.  Three times, nothing back.  Even after a friend coached me on how to use hashtags better in my tweets. #dumb

     Yelp told me that there was a coffee cart downtown with perfect ratings, that was a quick walk from my place.  Here was the exchange between myself and the cart’s owner and operator when I found her.

Me: “Medium brewed coffee, please.”

Her: “Would you like some half and half in there, hon?”

Me: “No thank you.  I’ll take it black,”

Her (a little baffled): “Are you sure?”

Me: “It’s good coffee, isn’t, it?”

Her: “It is, but I just don’t get that much.”

All of this to repeat that I don’t quite have a handle on the city’s coffee scene yet, but my early guess is that I will have much more difficulty getting a good cup here than I did in Portland, with a roaster on every block.

There are two roasters here that I know.  West Bean, who only wholesales their coffee, and  has no retail store.  Bird Rock, who won Roast Magazine‘s 2012 micro roaster of the year.  Coincidentally, I just met with Roast’s 2012 macro roaster of the year, Portland Roasting Coffee.

Read: Profile Portland Roasting Coffee
Read: Profile Roast Magazine

Next stop, Bird Rock Coffee Roasters.  People of San Diego (I mean, #SanDiego), let me know where I need to go!

     I was so excited to meet Andy Davis of Portland Roasting, that I took the bus to get there.  After all, I knew that Roast Magazine’s 2012 Roaster of the Year valued environmental stewardship in virtually every aspect of their operation.  From the bicycle racks installed in their facility to encourage employees not to drive to work, to local deliveries made by tricycle, to the compostable products that they distribute, to the aid projects that they support in coffee growing regions all over the world.

Read: Profile Roast Magazine

With so much effort put into responsibility and sustainability in their business practices, how could I not take the bus to get there?

Established in 1996, PRC employs 28 people in the sourcing, roasting, distribution, service, and sales of what Roast Magazine describes as having “led the industry curve with sourcing, sustainability, and humanitarian initiatives.”

     Andy took me on a tour of the entire facility so I could see for myself just what steps PRC takes to back up their mission of not only producing award winning coffee, but doing so with as much regard for the sustainability of their partners and practices.  I knew I was in good company when I walked into the warehousing and roasting parts of the facility, to the sounds of Turbo Lover by Judas Priest.

Portland Roasting‘s coffee is enjoyed by coffee enthusiasts through a number of channels.  While their coffee is shipped predominantly within Oregon, they ship to locations all around the US.  Local deliveries are made by tricycle, which brought to mind a funny story that I shared with Andy.  Shortly after moving to Portland, I was walking past the Three Degrees Waterfront Bar, located a stone’s throw from where I live and a wholesale customer of PRC.  When I saw a PRC tricycle parked out front, I loitered until its driver walked out of Three Degrees.  I thought maybe this was like an ice cream cart, but with coffee for adults.  The PRC employee let me know that wasn’t the case .

     Farther deliveries are made by vans that run on biodiesel.  Employees are encouraged to find alternative methods to driving for getting to work.  Recycling is even found for the burlap bags after they are emptied of their coffee.  Sustainability at all steps.

In addition to supplying cafes and restaurants with specialty coffee, coffee lovers can purchase coffee from PRC’s website, and locally from New Seasons and Zupans locations.  While the grocery store is the most convenient place to buy coffee, it is not generally the one that shows the right care for coffee’s freshness.  To ensure proper handling of their expertly roasted coffee, PRC employs direct-to-store representatives who ensure that the receiving, storage, and presentation of their coffee is in line with PRC standard.

Check out Portland Roasting Coffee’s website.
Visit Portland Roasting Coffee’s online store for buying coffee.
Learn more about Roast Magazine’s 2012 Roaster of the Year award.

     And just as importantly, stay tuned!  Andy couldn’t have been more generous with his time, and made sure I left crammed with more coffee knowledge than I was prepared for.  Not only did Andy treat me to my first coffee cupping experience, and share his own personal best practices for making good coffee at home.  We also spent a considerable amount of time discussing something of great interest to me, PRC’s international aid projects in coffee growing regions.  Ventures of true partnership between PRC and their growers.

Truly a responsible company, an environmental steward, and a recognized quality product.