Coffee Common

As part of the build-up to TED, we’ve asked that each of the participating roasters write a brief introduction for one of the others. This would typically be a tough exercise, but the mutual admiration shared by these companies is really amazing.

(photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

By George Howell, Terroir Coffee, Acton, MA

In a mere five years Ritual Coffee Roasters has risen to high status among coffee cognoscenti in this country and well beyond.  The folks at Ritual are a real team.  They pioneered focusing on single estate lightly roasted coffees in San Francisco – at a time when that city was dominated by dark roasted coffee blends.   They committed to light roasting despite the apparent market in order to bring out all the nuances that only the best single estates can produce when not smothered in the generic caramels of dark roasts. Ritual Coffee Roasters is made of visionaries on fire seeking from the get-go the finest coffees by means of blind cupping and sourcing at origin.  For this reason you will find Ritual in many of the best independent cafes around the country.  Baristas love carrying their coffees in their rotations.

Ritual Coffee Roasters understands that great coffee requires great execution in the delivery of its product to the consumer.  It maintains rigorous standards in training baristas and constantly tweaks and monitors its roasts to get precisely what it knows is in each origin. It is always a pleasure to visit Ritual, a happening place never satisfied with itself and bursting with enthusiasm.