Why Unreal Coffee?
Fresher is always better!
We are a small-batch roaster in central Minnesota.
We buy only organic coffee beans.
We roast to order.
We roast over an open wood fire, the old fashioned way.
Raw green coffee beans can have quite a long shelf life, however once the beans are roasted they only have about 2-3 weeks of maximum ideal flavor before that flavor starts significantly dissipating. When you purchase commercially available roasted coffee beans, who knows how long its been since they were originally roasted. Roasted coffee could easily be weeks to months old already by the time you see it on a shelf in a store, but then it could easily be on the shelf for weeks to months after that. It’s fair to say that any given bag of roasted coffee on the shelf at your local store is more than likely to be at a minimum 2-4 weeks old, but more likely 6-8 weeks old, if not older.
At Unreal Coffee Roasters we regularly roast enough for ourselves to last one to two weeks. So at any given moment, we may have roasted beans available that could be up to 2 weeks old at most but are ready to ship immediately. We will post what is currently immediately available on the home page.
We also roast to order. Just use the order form on the contact/order page to tell us exactly what you want, how much you want and when you want it. We will roast up your coffee order and ship it out within 48 hours of receiving payment… that’s about as fresh as you can get.
How do you know what type and roast level to get?
Bean origin and roast is a matter of personal preference. Much of your decision will depend on how you brew and what you do with your coffee after brewing it.
What’s the difference in roasts?
The difference of light roast to dark roast is a simple matter of how long the coffee has been roasted. The longer the coffee roasts, the darker it gets. From our experience, most people we know tend to prefer the flavor of darker roasts. Allegedly the ideal roast for maximum caffeine content is medium. Medium is of course the safest bet for roasting, if you don’t know what you like better and if you use a standard drip or pour over brewing method.
Dark roast coffee tends to work better with Indonesian and Central American coffees. Dark roast also tends to work best for stronger brewing, like with an espresso maker, moka pot or french press.
Light roasting tends to work better for African coffees. African coffees will often have some of the berry pulp dried onto the bean which then carries thru to some degree into the flavor of the coffee if not over-roasted. African light roasted coffees are often referred to as delicate or bright and will often have a hint of berry aftertaste. The flavor is certainly distinguished and works well for however you like to brew.
What’s the difference in origins?
Coffee is primarily grown in very warm climates and in jungles, rain forest and often at high elevation. High altitude and volcanic soil often yields ideal coffee growing and ultimately ideal flavor. Locations with both are Central America, Indonesia and some areas of South America. Hawaii is actually home to the largest coffee farms in the United States. Kona is very well known and expensive coffee that grows in the warm climates of the Big Island and in volcanic soil.
Guatemalan coffee is also grown in warm, jungle climates and in higher elevation volcanic soil, thus yielding a very flavorful and popular coffee. Most coffees from Central America will have earthy, chocolaty and caramel flavors.
How do we like to brew our coffee?
For us, our preferred coffee drink is the latte. If you don’t know, a latte is espresso (high-pressurized coffee) with frothed milk and potentially a form of sweetener.
At home we use a small personal sized DeLonghi brand espresso maker. With a standard portafilter you can get 2-3 shots worth before it starts thinning out too much equalling about 4-6 ounces worth of good thick espresso. This espresso will be noticeably stronger than a standard drip coffee maker. In a standard 15oz mug, that would fill just under half of the mug with espresso. If you really like it strong, just do 1 single shot, then dump your grounds and make another one. From there we froth about 2-3 oz. of fresh whole milk or half and half or full cream. Thick full cream does not froth very well, so half and half is the best for frothing.. however, full cream tastes the best! We also add a tablespoon or 2 of honey or maple syrup.
So, if you’re anything like us… you’ll want that coffee good and strong to maintain full flavor when watering down with milk/cream and sweetener. Dark roast tends to result in a stronger flavored espresso and maintains that stronger flavor when making a latte.
If you just drink good ol black coffee straight, then you’ll probably want your coffee a little weaker and probably a medium roast from Central America or Africa will do just fine.
We mostly only buy/sell what we know and love already which are the following in order of preference:
- Sumatra (indonesia)
- Timor (indonesia)
- Guatemala (Central America)
- Ethiopian (East Africa)
- Honduras (Central America)
- Peru (South America)
Our favorite combinations/blends are dark roasted Indonesian mixed with a dark roasted Central American. A dark roasted Indonesian mixed with a light roasted African is also quite good and gives you the best of both worlds.
