Boulder coffee shops by roaster
[This will be another ongoing post. Please comment with updates and added intel.]
Alphabetical listing….
Allegro Coffee (consistently bland)
- Joe’s
- Ozo (they know how to serve Allegro, though)
- Vic’s
Boulder Organic Coffee (just so-so)
- Burnt Toast
- Dish
- Espressoria (Jet’s)
- Tee & Cakes
Conscious Coffees (consistently the best roast in Boulder)
- Coffee Sanctuary
- The Cup
- The Kitchen
- The Rail Car (Nederland)
- Sidney’s
- Tea Spot
Coda Coffee Company (from Denver, CO)
- They brew 3rd St. Chai – found at numerous Boulder coffee shops
Kaladi Brothers Denver (decent…probably second to CC)
- Laughing Goat
Novo Coffee (from Arvada, CO)
- Cafe Babu (1335A Broadway in Boulder – on the corner of University and Broadway, next to the Boulder Mountainering shop)
- Pekoe
- Folsom St. Coffee Co.
- Winot Coffee
Solé Coffee Roasters (we haven’t tried it enough)
- Cafe Solé
- Great Awakenings
- Logan
- Shamane’s/Rustica Baking (2825 Wilderness Place, Suite 800)
- We wish. This is the best coffee in Portland, Oregon and better than anything we’ve ever had.
The Unseen Bean
- Unseen Bean (Downtown – Broadway and Pearl)
Veloce Coffee Company – but do they have it in any shops?
Coffee roasted at:
4919 N. Broadway, Unit 35
Boulder, Colorado 80304
Boulder, Colorado 80304
someguy said,
May 7, 2008 at 10:30 pm
The best coffee hands down is served at Moe’s Bagels. That’s right, a frickin’ bagel shop has all of these other places beat.
bouldercoffee said,
May 8, 2008 at 8:11 am
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
oh god, sorry, i have to pick myself off the floor
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
The Real Deal said,
May 16, 2008 at 7:24 pm
These boards and blogs are hilarious, isn’t it obvious that the folks at Conscious Coffee have a hand in writing these?
Give me a break…
bouldercoffee said,
May 16, 2008 at 7:39 pm
’tis the risk in writing an anonymous blog and the only reason we stay anonymous is because we are working professionals in Boulder and many people know us. The fact is, there are only three roasters in heavy use in Boulder: Allegro is straight up swill (my fellow authors don’t agree fully with my harsh assessment, but I’m the one writing, so….) and Boulder Organic is inconsistent at best. That leaves CC. If you actually drink them side-by-side, or even if you go to as many different Boulder coffee shops as we do, the differences are obvious. we’re not shilling, we’re just calling it as we see it. if you’d like to awaken us to a new roaster, we’re all ears.
Coffee Snob said,
May 17, 2008 at 9:41 am
My two cents:
Allegro coffee is good, too bad it gets stale before ever being brewed anywhere.
I think the places serving it do a great job, but it’s too bad Ozo, Joe’s, Maxpresso, all the Vic’s, and that place by Office Max that brew it come out with the same cup.
Boulder Organic coffee is better, maybe their customers would benefit from better training. I particularly enjoy it at Tee and Cakes but do they do any light roasts?
Conscious Coffee is good, but lets face it, just because it’s all Fair Trade Organic doesn’t necessarily translate into a great cup. Like all other coffee you’re only as good as the people making it.
Never tried Coda Coffee, I’ve seen it in Ft. Collins and they brew it at Rush! but I’ve only had their bad smoothies.
I’ve only ever had Kaladi’s at the Laughing Goat, I found it weak and stale which might have been due to the time of day I went by.
Novo coffee is almost as pretentious as Conscious Coffee. They brew it at Peko but I always get tea there.
Sole roasters is decent, besides Logan’s and Cafe Sole they also brew it up at the Trident (worst cup in Boulder) and Foolish Craig’s but I’ve never been there for breakfast.
Stumptown puts all to shame, with bottomless pockets it’s easy to buy the best coffee. They bought Marcio Peralta Paguaga’s crop that won it for an astounding $47.06/lb. Talk about Fair Trade!
Never tried the unseen bean.
Veloce is decent, Moe’s serves it at it’s stores, nothing to write home about…
A couple more entries would be:
Silver Canyon, I think they traded quantity for quality years ago…
Coffee Jones, how does someone sell Fair Trade Organic without being a Transfair Liscensee (or being a member of the coffee cooperative that CC is), or a Certified Organic Producer?
Finally, what’s with Breadworks serving brewed coffee from New England and Illy Espresso? Mmmm stale Italian espresso from a can, yum!
bouldercoffee said,
May 17, 2008 at 11:21 am
good beta, thanks for all that. As much as we’ve talked about specific roasters, we’ve also said in many posts that the equipment and the barista can be just as important (maybe even more so) than the roast. So that said, I personally have never had a bad cup at the Goat and I generally think Kaladi is fine. Not awesome, but pretty good. Silver Canyon need not even pass our lips here. It’s worse than Allegro. And for as much bagging as I do on Allegro, Joe’s does about a good a job with that roast as they can possibly do and I’ve never had a spectacular cup there but it hasn’t been swilly either
Coffee Snob said,
May 20, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Ok, so I don’t know where this comment should go but….
I wasted another few dollars at Bookends. How does this even pass as coffee? I had an iced coffee and maybe someone should tell them that iced coffee isn’t just yesterdays leftovers put in the fridge.
Does Silver Canyon promote brewing their coffee so void of anything resembling body?
Are they simply using the wrong beans and don’t know, or is this how they think coffee should taste? I’m really curious. It tastes this bad everywhere and somehow they sell it.
ip said,
May 21, 2008 at 10:45 am
yea, totally. Is Silver Canyon a label of Foglers or something?
two woodwork shops « Boulder Coffee Shops blog said,
May 22, 2008 at 1:37 pm
[...] Cleaners’ front on 15th between Arapahoe and Canyon (1715 15th Street). As we noted in the “by roaster” post, they serve Cafe Solé coffee, which is halfway decent. They have free wifi but they’re not [...]
Coffee Snob said,
May 30, 2008 at 8:03 am
Another woodwork shop is Bliss Organic Ice Cream, they actually just changed their name to Pearl something or other and have a bunch of knitting crap but they do a few varieties of boulder organic coffee… I’d recommend the drip, I’m not so sure about their baristas…
Peter said,
July 1, 2008 at 4:12 pm
what’s up with trident? i went in last night and asked what coffee they serve. the woman told me they roast their own. anyone know? i thought the espresso (in a latte) was pretty good, but i’m not familiar with their drip.
Peter said,
July 1, 2008 at 4:21 pm
And while I’m here, I prolly should add more intel.
The serve CC at Radda next to Ideal Market.
They serve Novo at Pekoe next door.
Note that the method used for brewing non-espresso makes a hell of a difference too. Pekoe uses the Clover machine which has an amazing cup-by-cup brewing method. Starbucks just bought the company that makes Clover. Lots of other independent shops that made the $11k investment in the Clover are trying to figure out what to do when Starbucks inevitably stops supporting them.
With the Clover on deck, I only wish Pekoe would carry small batch or guest coffees.
Finally, the cup had two guest espressos from 49th Parallel (which were awesome, though I preferred the organic espresso blend to the epic blend) last week. The Guy at the Cup (Mark?) knows his stuff re: coffee. I hope they continue offering guest espressos or at least continue serving the 49th Parallel.
Innocent Bystander said,
July 18, 2008 at 4:16 am
Where are your smarmy little blogs chock full of your sarcastic tween wit?
Don’t you know it’s Boulder County Gold time? Or are you too busy stuffing the ballot boxes for yourselves er uh I mean conscious coffee….
bouldercoffee said,
July 18, 2008 at 7:23 am
we have real jobs and sometimes we get real busy…..
the friendly ones at Joe’s « Boulder Coffee Shops blog said,
August 25, 2008 at 10:42 am
[...] “swill”? apparently often enough that some people think we’re working for our favorites…). But Joe’s makes up for that by knowing how to work their machines. As we’ve [...]
Lizzard said,
March 14, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Has anyone here actually tried the coffees at The Unseen Bean in Boulder? It is by far the best coffee I’ve ever tasted. And it’s no wonder — a blind coffee roaster knows more about coffee because of his sense of smell and sound. Wake up and smell the passion of blind roasted coffee!
bouldercoffee said,
March 14, 2009 at 7:00 pm
once or twice. wasn’t blown away. will give it another try, since at least they’re trying to build brand awareness by having shills post on blogs.
Lizzard said,
March 14, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Not just the shill (logo designer and company namer). I actually drink Gerry’s coffee on a regular basis and have him ship coffee to my friends and me out here in Kansas City. When I come out to Boulder four times per year I load up my car with beans for my pals. And Gerry isn’t “building brand awareness” — it’s already built-in. Have you seen his press? Just Google The Unseen Bean and see how many pages come up. The dude is amazing, and more motivated than any sighted person I know. Happy buzzes to you.