1 There’s more to coffee than just Starbucks. We love a good cup of Pike Place as much as the next person, but what’s a coffee lover to do when they’re all S-Boxed out? If you live in the same neighborhood as the O.G. When you’re taking a break from Starbucks, which is the small storefront at 1912 Pike Place, there are a lot of small-business coffee roasters to try.
2 Seattle has 56 coffee shops for every 100,000 people (as of January 2020, according to Seattle Pi), and many of them roast the beans right under the same roof where they serve you. Different roasters have different histories, specialties, ways of doing things, and beliefs. We’ve put together a list of roasters, from ones that are owned by minorities to ones that have been in Seattle for decades, to ones that sell coffee that isn’t even coffee. In the meantime, Starbucks isn’t going anywhere, so it doesn’t hurt to support other places.
3 The Burnt Coffee was made by two friends who looked at coffee from different parts of the world. One of the owners grew up drinking Turkish coffee; another is from the east African country of Sudan, which has a strong coffee culture; a third is familiar with the Kenyan coffee economy, and the fourth started roasting coffee after working as a barista.
4 This roaster honors Africa, where coffee is thought to have come from. Their stock is roasted in small batches as needed to make sure it is as fresh as possible, and the brand says that its roasters use a slow-roasting method to get the best flavor. The coffee in the shop comes from four different countries: Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.
In Seattle, Burnt Coffee is at 3232 15th Ave. W., Suite 101.
5 Avondale, a coffee roaster in Seattle at 2330 E Union St., is a good place to get good Ethiopian coffee. It has the well-known Yirgacheffe bean, which is smooth and tastes like chocolate when roasted just right. Ethiopian Guji and Sidamo coffees are also on the list. Guji, whose beans are picked by hand, is known for being a soft, bright brew with rosy undertones. Sidamo makes a lot of coffee that tastes different from one batch to the next.
6 Solomon Dubie, the owner of Cafe Avole, told Community Roots Housing in an interview that the shop is a way for him to honor his Ethiopian roots.
His business in Seattle is more than just a good cup of coffee, though. Cafe Avole works with local farmers, gives money to different charitable causes, and does community outreach.
7 Espresso vivace would be your motto if you were very excited about espresso. At least, that’s what this shop says, since that’s how you could loosely translate its name. Espresso Vivace says that the roasters who work for them have been getting better at what they do for 30 years. This cafe roasts its coffee in the Northern Italian style and focuses on making mild coffees with the right amount of caramelization.
David Schomer, the founder, has been interested in coffee his whole life. “Espresso Coffee,” his book about how to be a professional barista, has been updated more than once to reflect his ongoing research. Emeril Lagasse, a well-known chef, is said to have said that Espresso Vivace’s coffee is the best espresso in the United States.
Espresso Vivace has three locations: one in South Lake Union at 227 Yale Ave. N., the flagship store on Capitol Hill at 532 Broadway Ave. and 321 Broadway Avenue. A coffee stands on the east sidewalk.
In Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood, Armistice Coffee Company has been roasting coffee since 2018. The shop’s website says that it has a smaller selection of beans, but it roasts new coffee on-site every day to make sure that its products are fresh and of good quality. Armistice offers both in-store and online shopping, as well as subscription services. It gets its coffee from many different places, like Mexico and Brazil.
Armistice has all the classic coffee drinks made with espresso, like corridors and cappuccinos. Armistice has teamed up with a local bakery so that you can enjoy a pastry while you drink a beer.
The Armistice has three places to visit in the Eastlake, Roosevelt, and Pike Place neighborhoods. 1914 First Avenue and 6717 Roosevelt Way NE # 101
8 Caffe D’arte has two locations in Seattle: 99 Yesler Way and a cafe at SeaTac Airport. People who like real Italian roasted coffee will appreciate their work. Since its founder brought a wood-fired coffee roasting machine from Italy to the United States, this shop has been getting better at what it does for a long time. Mauro Cipolla, the founder of Caffe D’arte, learned how to roast coffee in Naples from a master coffee roaster who had been doing it for four generations.
Caffe D’Arte’s website says that it is one of the few shops that use the post-blending method. This is when the different single-origin coffees that make up a blend are not mixed together until after they have been roasted. So, the roaster has more control over the best way to cook each origin and can get the best flavors out of each.
READ MORE ARTICLES;
