The Best Coffee Roasters in the U.S. Right Now

Over the past few decades, the way America thinks about coffee has changed dramatically. Just as the rest of the food and beverage world has seen a shift away from high-volume, low-quality production and toward local, deliberately crafted options, coffee has evolved from its days as little more than brown diner sludge. Today, we’re living in the best era ever for quality coffee.

Like wine and beer before it, specialty coffee is finally getting its due as a complex, varied and exciting beverage. Coffee used to be seen as a commodity—lumped together in bulk, regardless of quality, and roasted dark to mask the flavor—but today the best beans are praised for the subtle flavor notes that differ based on the origin of the beans, the elevation at which they were grown, and dozens of other factors, just like the region in which a wine is grown might affect its taste. The old-fashioned coffee pot is out of style, and manual pour overs, which offer more clarity, are in. If you thought your daily trip to Dunkin’ Donuts made you a coffee snob, think again.

“Companies like Starbucks and Peet's opened people’s minds to what coffee could be, but [they] had stopped short of really completing the story,” says Chris Kornman, a roaster and quality control pro at Intelligentsia Coffee in Chicago.

Stepping up to the plate are craft roasters, who engage in practices like sourcing their coffees from the best farms on the planet and roasting the beans in ways that highlight their unique characteristics. Tons of these companies have sprung up in recent years, and hardly any city is without a specialty roaster putting out coffee intended to be savored. Some of these companies have become national brands, while others remain regional favorites, relegated to a few select coffee shops for those in the know.

Long story short, it’s time to step your coffee game up. Just like discerning dudes should know what breweries are putting out great beers, the modern man needs to know where to turn for a cup (or a bag) of quality coffee. Cutting-edge coffee shops are increasingly offering lineups of multiple roasters to choose from, just like a wine bar might, while others are giving customers the chance to choose what equipment they’d like their coffee prepared with. And anybody can get some of the best coffee in the world by heading online. How can you navigate all of this and make sure your coffee dollars (we didn’t say this new era was cheap) are well spent? Know the roasters that are consistently putting out a great product and pushing the industry forward. Here are the Best Coffee Roasters in the U.S. Right Now.

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23. Joe

Location: New York, N.Y.
Founded: 2003; began roasting in 2012
Where to get it: Joe locations in New York and Philadelphia; online at joenewyork.com
Roaster recommends: El Salvador Finca Sierra Nevada. The current lot was processed in the style of farmers from Burundi. A second lot of the same coffee that uses a Kenyan process will be available later in the year, giving people a chance to see how washing processes affect taste. It's best brewed as a Chemex, Hario V60, or Kalita Wave pour over.

Joe's coffee shops have been destinations for New York's coffee lovers for a decade, so the company's figured out a few things about what its customers are looking for. As of July, the company now roasts all of its own coffee, giving it even more control over what goes into that perfect cup.

"In a way we are working backwards by adding the roasting component 10 years after opening our first store," says Amanda Byron, Joe's director of coffee and roasting. "For us, though, it's been such a great way to ease into a new business venture and we are able to lean on the infrastructure of the stores as we learn about how to run a roasting operation."

Fortunately, Joe's roasting staff have proven to be quick learners, and they're already putting out some of the city's best, most interesting coffees, landing them a 2013 Good Food award for coffee. Expect big things to come from this growing operation.

22. Dogwood

Location: Minneapolis, Minn.
Founded: 2010
Where to get it: Dogwood Coffee Bar in Minneapolis; Urban Bean in Minneapolis, Press Coffee Bar in Dayton, Ohio, and select coffee shops in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Colorado, Oakland, and Chicago; online at dogwoodcoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Honduras Edgar Enemecio Marquez. "This is a new origin for us, so it's exciting to be in the first year of developing these relationships," says director of coffee Stephanie Ratanas, who describes it as "pretty mellow, lots of chocolate and toffee flavors." It is best brewed with a Chemex or Aeropress.

Although it's a recent arrival, Dogwood has already established itself in many of the Twin Cities' coolest and most trusted coffee shops. Describing its coffees as "well developed light roasts," the company has quickly proven that it has an eye for quality and a knack for getting the most flavor out of its beans by not under roasting them.

In addition to a short list of relationship-based single origins, Dogwood also offers three eye-catching blends emphasizing balance and presented with a sense of fun—if you order beans of the Zamboni Cold Brew blend, make sure to pick up the matching bottle to store it in. "We just want to buy really delicious coffee and roast and brew it the best we can, and in the process have everyone benefit from its existence," says Ratanas. Hard to argue with that.

21. Ceremony

Location: Annapolis, Md.
Founded: 2002
Where to get it: Ceremony's roastery and shop or Caffé Pronto in Annapolis, Md.; coffee shops nationwide, but primarily on the East Coast; online at ceremonycoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Ethiopia Sidamo Azmera. It's a naturally processed coffee (in which the fruit dries around the bean, giving it a strong berry flavor), described online as "Raspberry and vanilla aromatics. Rosewater and delicate oak in cup, candy sweetness with cherry acidity." It's best brewed as a Hario v60 pour over.

You're not likely to see Ceremony playing the role of the new Starbucks, with a shop on every corner, any time soon. Its coffee is carried in shops in places as far away as Hong Kong but maintaining quality standards takes precedence over business growth. The company isn't afraid to cut back on the number of coffees it offers at any time if they aren't up to par. According to design and marketing manager Josh Harding, Ceremony rejects about 95 to 98 percent of the coffees it gets in.

Then it lets the product shine, avoiding the type of dark roasts that, much like a well-done steak, cook out unique flavors. With these firm quality standards and educational programs like twice-monthly cuppings, the intention is clear: "We definitely aim to raise the...level of what [people] should be expecting from their coffee," Harding says.

20. Barismo

Location: Arlington, Mass.
Founded: 2008
Where to get it: Barismo's Cambridge cafe, dwelltime; select coffee shops in Boston and Cambridge, Baked and Wired in Washington, D.C.; online at barismo.com
Roaster recommends: Costa Rica Finca El Quizarra. As an espresso it's "citrusy, with sweet caramel and baking spice notes," and as a drip it's "delicately floral with honey sweetness and nougat." It's best brewed as a Hario V60 pour over.

Barismo keeps its operations small, and it likes it like that—after all, it would be difficult to deliver 90 percent of your beans by bike, as Barismo does, if the majority of your customers weren't in the area. But just because it's small doesn't mean it isn't doing seriously cool stuff.

Barismo customized its equipment to provide tighter control over factors like heat and air flow—roastery manager Tim Borrego describes roasting on it as "like driving a sports car versus a dump truck"—and recently brought several of its farmers (Barismo is all about Direct Trade) to Cambridge for a week-long series of events called Origin Week. Also, its flagship café, dwelltime, sells bottled cold brew in growlers (those big beer jugs). There's no guarantee you won't want to drink it all in one sitting.

19. Colectivo

Location: Milwaukee, Wis.
Founded: 1993
Where to get it: Colectivo cafes around Milwaukee; coffee shops primarily in Wisconsin and Illinois; online at colectivocoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Kenya Ichamara. It's a coffee with juicy acidity and flavors of tropical fruit and pie crust that's best brewed with a Hario V60 pour over or Aeropress (or both ways and mixed together).

Colectivo's Milwaukee origins are clear in its approach, from the use of beer terminology to describe its flavorful "Session Coffees," to the focus on roasting coffees to appeal to a broad clientele, to its longstanding reputation as a reliable, low-key roaster. Formerly known as Alterra, the company recently sold its name to a global distributor but held onto the same practices and values by rebranding as Colectivo.

When the company launched, dark roasted coffees were the norm; today, specialty coffee roasters are trending light, to the point of emphasizing unique flavors over balanced ones. The roasters at Colectivo have taken a more moderate approach throughout both phases, focusing on creating a well-rounded cup that appeals to both coffee nerds and those looking for a more accessible experience.

"We're trying to strike that balance between preserving all the characteristics that come from the coffee's origin and also developing the coffee so that it's sweet and balanced and enjoyable," says director of coffee George Bregar. Trust the crew from a beer town to know what people really want to drink.

18. Kickapoo

Location: Viroqua, Wis.
Founded: 2005
Where To Get It: Coffee shops throughout the Upper Midwest, including Bradbury’s in Madison, Wis. and Brewed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; online at kickapoocoffee.com
Roaster Recommends: Organic Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Idido. The roaster describes it as having a bright citric acidity with flavors of tart red cherry and strong spring floral notes. It's best brewed as a Hario V60.

Known for sourcing coffees that are almost all organic, Kickapoo is a standard bearer for the idea that sustainability and quality aren’t mutually exclusive focuses. Not only does the company look to source its coffee directly from certified organic farms focused on environmentally friendly practices, but it also works exclusively with small producers in democratically run co-ops, to ensure that the farmers are having a say in what happens to their coffee.

What Kickapoo is doing has helped it stand out, as the company won Roast Magazine’s Micro Roaster of the Year award in 2009 and a Good Food Award this year. Perhaps the most visible sign of Kickapoo’s environmental commitment, though, is the fact that, since 2007, its coffees come in steel cans rather than plastic or foil-lined bags. The cans great reusable containers for coffee or other items, and steel is the most widely recycled metal, explains co-owner and head of sourcing Caleb Nicholes. In contrast, those lined bags “are one of the worst things to biodegrade.” If you’re in need of a new place to put your pens or store your spatulas, it’s a no-brainer.

17. Metropolis

Location: Chicago, Ill.
Founded: 2003
Where to get it: Metropolis Coffee Company cafe in Chicago; select coffee shops throughout the U.S. and Canada, including Hoche Cafe in Montreal; online at metropoliscoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Costa Rica Finca La Mirella Organic (washed or honey processed). The same farm applied different processing techniques to two lots of the same coffee, giving each a distinct taste, although both have similar notes of black cherry and sugar cane.

The Metropolis cafe in Chicago isn't the type of sleek, laboratory-style coffee bar that's come into vogue in recent years, but rather a familiar neighborhood hang and community hub that happens to offer a world-class coffee program. The father-son company purposefully takes a populist approach to its roasting, striving to offer coffees with a variety of flavor profiles at a range of price points. "We believe that everyone, regardless of status or background, should have access to amazing coffee," co-owner Tony Dreyfuss says.

Among the other things Metropolis believes are that it should be improving the lives of the people it comes into contact with—whether financially, ecologically or aesthetically—and that, according to its website, "coffee cannot exist without art." With an approach like that, it's no wonder Metropolis was named Roast Magazine's Micro-Roaster of the Year in 2007, or that it continues to be a local favorite in an increasingly coffee-oriented city.

16. PT's Coffee

Location: Topeka, Kan.
Founded: 1993; began roasting in 1997
Where to get it: PT’s cafes in Topeka; select coffee shops nationwide, especially in the Midwest and Upper Midwest, including Pound the Hill in Washington, D.C, and Greyhouse Coffee in Lafayette, Ind.; online at ptscoffee.com
Recommended: Panama Elida Estate Natural. It’s “always a favorite because it tastes like strawberries” and is best brewed in a Chemex or French press.

When PT's Coffee founder Jeff Taylor founded his coffee shop in Topeka, Kansas, in 1993, the idea of small-batch specialty coffee didn't really exist. "Back then I'd go out and I'd buy coffee from these guys, and I swear it all tasted the same," he explained. But even when Taylor started roasting the coffee himself in 1997, it wasn't good enough. He decided that he'd have to seek out the best coffee farmers himself, and he made his first trip to origin in 2001.

Today, PT's Coffee is a standard-bearer for the Direct Trade movement, cultivating numerous longstanding relationships with individual farmers and getting involved in their communities. PT's has done everything to help farming communities from handing out soccer jerseys to local kids, to, in one recent case, helping a farmer replace his production equipment after it was stolen by bandits.

With a focus primarily on light roasts and a history of bringing award-winning coffees to the States, PT's also earns its seat at the table with more well-known roasters in the country's coffee hubs, even winning Roast Magazine's Roaster of the Year award in 2009. "I'm not in San Francisco, I'm not in New York, I'm not in Chicago," Taylor notes. "I'm doing a lot of those things [and] then more [that] a lot of the other roasters are doing, and we have a lot of great coffees. I just happen to be located in a small market." That may not be the case for long, though: With a nationwide fanbase and a solid reputation, PT's is looking to expand in the near future.

15. George Howell Coffee

Location: Acton, Mass.
Founded: 2004
Where to get it: George Howell Coffee Cafe in Newtonville, Mass.; select coffee shops primarily in the Northeast but throughout the U.S., Canada, and the world, including Joe Pro in New York, Comet Coffee in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Elixr Coffee in Philadelphia; online at georgehowellcoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Ethiopia Sidamo Deri Kochoha. The roast is coming soon, and described as "the best Ethiopian we've had...very floral, candy lemon, apricot, peach, but especially [a] sweetness and tongue-coating mouth feel." It's best brewed as a paper drip.

When it comes to most of the trends today's wave of roasters take as a given, George Howell is the OG. He's been pushing light roasts and single origins on people since the '70s, when he ran a company called Coffee Connection (it was sold to Starbucks in 1994). In 1999, he started the Cup of Excellence program, which focused on highlighting farmers who were going above and beyond in growing their coffee—only to have it sold as a commodity in lots with the subpar stuff everyone else was growing.

Described by the New York Times in 1993 as "a walking encyclopedia of coffee," Howell obsesses about anything that will get in the way of tasting great beans, whether the obstacles are brewing methods that leave too much sediment or thin light roasts that ignore the target, buttery mouth feel he says is essential to a satisfying sipping experience. "Aficionados! You have barely tasted the tip of the potential quality iceberg!" his website reads, a fitting summary of his lifelong belief that coffee could be way better.

He's offering some of the most acclaimed coffees on the East Coast and thrilled about the explosion of like-minded roasters, but Howell is still a huge advocate for moving toward coffee perfection. "Roasting is still in the development stage," he says. "I don't think we've come to the end solution."

14. Blue Bottle

Location: Oakland, Calif.
Founded: 2002
Where to get it: Blue Bottle shops in Oakland, San Francisco, and New York; coffee shops nationwide but primarily throughout New York and California; online at bluebottlecoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Rusty's Hawaiian Kenya Style. It's grown on Hawaii's Big Island (a rare American coffee) and described online as creamy and complex with raspberry aromatics and tastes of red apple. It's best brewed as a drip, nel drip, French press, or siphon coffee.

If you walk into Blue Bottle's flagship shop and roastery in either Oakland or Brooklyn, it's immediately apparent that the company takes the freshness of its coffee very seriously, since you can see the roasting underway as you place your order.

What might surprise you is that these guys aren't going to serve you beans right out of the roaster—they've determined there is such a thing as too fresh, giving new meaning to the phrase "fresh to death." According to Blue Bottle's standards, espresso beans are best served four to seven days after being roasted, and drip coffees taste best between day two and day six.

In the interest of making it easy to bring the same scientific precision to your home brewing, the company has one of the most elegant online stores in the business, with detailed picture guides for different brewing methods, and it ships all its coffee out within 48 hours. It also offers lots of educational events, including two weekly cuppings at the Oakland store and a weekly one in Brooklyn.

But all that effort wouldn't be worth it if the beans weren't fantastic. Fortunately, Blue Bottle offers several smooth blends and a handful of unique single origins, the majority of them organic.

13. DOMA

Location: Post Falls, Idaho
Founded: 2000
Where to get it: Select coffee shops throughout Eastern Washington, North Idaho, Montana and Utah; De Luxe in Brooklyn; online at domacoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Ethiopia Gelena Abaya. This naturally processed limited summer release shipped in a decorated steel can with juicy red fruit flavors and is best brewed with a Chemex, hot or iced.

DOMA's philosophy is to "be a force for good, not for evil," according to owner Terry Patano and roaster Rebecca Hurlen Patano, the husband-wife duo that runs this supremely fun, environmentally-focused roasting company in Northern Idaho. To maximize the good they're doing, they focus on treating producers fairly—they belong to a cooperative of 23 North American roasters dedicated to Fair Trade sourcing—and minimizing the environmental impact of their roasting process. The roastery uses a low-energy Loring Smartroast roaster, which cuts gas use by 80 percent as compared to conventional roasters while increasing control over the roasting process, and the company composts and recycles aggressively, among a slew of other sustainability initiatives.

DOMA also offers one of the best coffee buying deals out there: Bring them some vinyl records, and they'll trade you for coffee. They say they're good on Black Sabbath, Herb Alpert, and Steely Dan records, but something more topical, like a 12-inch of Yung Joc's "Coffee Shop," might be just the ticket.

12. Heart

Location: Portland, Ore.
Founded: 2008
Where to get it: Heart Roasters cafe in Portland, Ore.; select coffee shops and restaurants in Portland and nationwide including Caffe Streets in Chicago, Cognoscenti Coffee in Los Angeles, and Ports in New York (full map here); online at heartroasters.com
Roaster recommends: Kenya Gichatha-ini. The fruity coffee has great acidity and flavors of blackberry, strawberry jam, red grapes, and caramel. It's best brewed with a Hario v60 pour over.

This small roastery founded by former professional snowboarder Wille Yli-Luoma has already attracted quite a bit of attention even within Portland's highly saturated coffee scene due its total commitment to bringing out the accurate flavor of each bean it sources. "The goal is to not add any flavors of ash or roast to the coffees," Yli-Luoma says.

With frequent visits each to the farmers and co-ops in Central and South America and Africa, Heart is making sure that those beans are some of the best anywhere. The only thing simpler than its no-nonsense approach to highlighting each coffee's flavor profile is the company's sleek, minimal packaging, which makes sitting down for a home-brewed cup the calming experience it should be.

11. Madcap

Location: Grand Rapids, Mich.
Founded: 2008
Where to get it: Madcap shop in Grand Rapids, Mich.; select coffee shops around the country including Local Coffee in San Antonio, Texas, and Box Kite Coffee in New York; online at madcapcoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Ethiopia Yukro. It's a bright, floral coffee that has spice and citrus notes and which Madcap is featuring for the first time. It's best brewed as a pour over method such as Chemex.

Madcap's head of roasting operations, Ryan Knapp, describes a recent sourcing trip to Peru that involved visiting a farm that could only be reached by a four-hour trek on foot, explaining that some of the best coffees are the ones that are "farthest removed from everything." That may be how some people see the celebrated beans coming out of this little shop in Michigan, but the accolades and success Madcap has received ensure that it won't be obscure for long. The company is in the process of expanding to Washington, D.C., where it now has a satellite office and training center, and its coffees are coveted among the country's forward-thinking cafes.

But even as it grows, Madcap is finding ways to improve, such as by recently partnering with taking on a Zero Waste initiative to compost or recycle everything it would have previously thrown out.

10. Commonplace Coffee Co.

Location: Indiana, Penn.
Founded: 2003
Where to get it: Commonplace shops in Pittsburgh and Indiana, Penn.; coffee shops around Western Pennsylvania; Moxxee in Charleston, W.Va.; Espresso A Mano in Pittsburgh; online at commonplacecoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Sumatra Wahana. Natural processing gives the region's normally chocolatey coffee strong strawberry and floral notes instead. It's best brewed as a Chemex or an espresso.

Blame it on the area's sooty, industrial past: Western Pennsylvania has traditionally had a penchant for dark roasted coffees, according to Commonplace owner TJ Fairchild. He saw an opening for the Indiana, Penn., roaster to move into the market by offering lighter roasts and by paying closer attention to the profiles of specific beans.

But Commonplace isn't leaving Pittsburgh's mechanical past behind altogether: The company displays an unusual passion for the elements of making great coffee that go along with having quality beans. In addition to cranking out the region's tastiest roasts, the company has also become a go-to destination for barista training and equipment servicing. "We're as excited with machinery working well and people working with the coffee well [as with the coffee itself]," Fairchild says, later launching into a geeky explanation of the latest high-tech brewing contraption, the Steampunk. In other words, if anyone's going to figure out the mechanics of making your coffee taste great, it's these guys.

9. Ritual

Location: San Francisco, Calif.
Founded: 2005; began roasting in 2006
Where to get it: Ritual shops in San Francisco and Napa, Calif.; coffee shops worldwide, including Cafe Myriade in Montreal, Sweetleaf in New York, and G&B in Los Angeles; online at ritualroasters.com
Roaster recommends: Costa Rica El Angel. Described as "sweet citrus...with flavors of raspberries, vanilla, and chocolate orange confections," it's best brewed as a Hario V60 pour over to highlight acidity and sweetness.

If you're still wondering why coffee nerds love to compare the drink to wine, Ritual's approach may help explain the relationship. "Every coffee has a terroir, and we bring that out rather than showing a specific roasting style," explains Allen Yelent, Ritual's wholesale and marketing director. The company is so dedicated to profiling the unique characteristics of each of its single origin offerings that it avoids blends almost entirely (and even its one blend, a seasonally changing espresso, contains detailed notes on each of the beans included).

The company works closely with small providers like Costa Rica's Chacón family, whose farm it has made direct investments in improving. And the company's own terroir—that is, the local characteristics that make it unique—isn't bad either, with four breathtakingly sleek shops situated around San Francisco and nearby Napa.

8. Victrola

Location: Seattle, Wash.
Founded: 2000; began roasting in 2003
Where to get it: Victrola cafes in Seattle; select coffee shops in Seattle and nationwide, including Coffee Commissary in Los Angeles and Weekend Coffee in Dallas; online at victrolacoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Colombia Cerro Azul Geisha AAA. This microlot of the best beans from an award-winning grower is compared to "kissing a unicorn directly in the mouth" with notes of jasmine flower, stone fruit, and brownies. It's best served as a pour over.

A longtime favorite in Seattle, jazz-themed Victrola Coffee Roasters have recently begun partnering with a few other like-minded coffee shops around the country. The company places an intense focus on treating coffee like a market fresh agricultural product, meaning that it swaps out its coffees after a month or two for ones that are more in season. By only using the most recently harvested green beans, the company's coffees retain more of the sugars and oils that provide intense flavor.

"Speeding up that relay race from grower to consumer really brings benefit to the cup," says sales director Joshua Boyt. Victrola is so serious about those sugars and oils that it built custom equipment to help it examine the roast at different points, and techniques are adjusted every week as the coffee beans age. The roaster chose the Jazz Age to represent it, but it would be a virtuoso in any period or genre.

7. Coava

Location: Portland, Ore.
Founded: 2008
Where to get it: Coava Brew Bar or Barista in Portland; select coffee shops nationwide including WTF Coffee Lab in New York City, Milstead & Co in Seattle, and Coffee Commissary in L.A.; online at coavacoffee.com
Roaster recommends: El Salvador Santa Sofia. It's described as "a true example of how great farmers make great coffees. Grown by the ever-impressive Pacas family, this coffee has delicate floral aromatics with a brown sugar sweetness that has made it a true coffee lovers' delight." It's great brewed with a French press, Chemex, or standard home coffee pot.

It's one of the country's most buzzed-about roasters, but Coava has made a name for itself by quietly setting out to build strong relationships with both its customers and its farming partners, sticking to a motto of "craft and hospitality." The roaster offers no blends, in the interest of honoring its producers, and it aggressively minimizes waste by closely tracking roast cycles and storing green coffees in a room equipped with custom preservation tools. Its coffees are sold in 250 gram bags to keep the beans from losing their freshness.

That attention to detail and the company's humility towards its partners (each label reads "humbly crafted in Portland, Oregon") has helped Coava source coffees that many small roasters might not be able to access, according to Matt Brown, Coava's director of wholesale. The experience doesn't come cheap for customers (a 250g bag-8.8oz-can easily run for $15), but these guys make it clear that the cost is worth it. Coava's proving that, in coffee, it pays to play nice.

6. Four Barrel

Location: San Francisco, Calif.
Founded: 2008
Where to get it: Four Barrel cafes in San Francisco; select coffee shops nationwide, including Marlow & Sons and Cafe Pedlar in New York, Giant Coffee in Phoenix, and The Rose Establishment in Salt Lake City; online at fourbarrelcoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Ethiopia Bulga. It's sourced from a cooperative that just started washing its coffee this year and described as "super floral" with the acidity of pink lemonade and notes of raspberry, currant, and cane sugar. It's best brewed as Aeropress or drip.

To aggravated Bay Area techies, Four Barrel is sometimes seen as a hipster outpost due to the no Wi-Fi policy in its cafes, but its focus on providing a great product and experience has made it the darling of the coffee community (a few of whom have borrowed that same policy). Started by Ritual co-founder Jeremy Tookers, it's quickly become a staple and trendsetter in the San Francisco coffee scene.

Although it doesn't actively seek out many wholesale customers, according to green buyer and roaster Tal Mor, coffee shops around the country come to Four Barrel because of its reputation and dedication to partner education. A recently opened training center features a full-time staff of four, and the roaster directly sources 100 percent of the approximately 60 different coffees it brings each year—major commitments for a company of its size.

And the grand plan behind it all, according to Mor? "To continue to explore coffee and roasting, having cafes [and] giving good service." Four Barrel is like the kid in school who gets straight A's but who you still can't help but like.

5. Verve

Location: Santa Cruz, Calif.
Founded: 2007
Where to get it: Verve's coffee shops in Santa Cruz; select coffee shops nationwide, including Single Origin in Los Angeles and Zinc Bar in New York; online at vervecoffeeroasters.com
Roaster recommends: Kenya Chorongi. Described as super balanced with an "incredible sweetness" and tropical fruit flavors, it's best brewed with a Chemex.

"We always look at sweetness first," Verve founder Ryan O'Donovan says of his company's coffee-buying philosophy, and customers will find that the roaster's coffees emphasize flavor notes like milk chocolate and juicy fruits. As it happens, pretty much everything about Verve can be described as sweet, from the coffees they source to their laid-back California culture.

O'Donovan and co-founder Colby Barr chose their location specifically for its proximity to great surfing and mountain biking, and they roast their beans in the same building as a skateboard company. In recent years, they've hosted the regional finals for the U.S. Barista Championship, giving all the competitors a custom Verve deck (you can buy an extra one of your own online).

But even if you can't stop by one of the three Santa Cruz shops, you can easily get a taste of what Verve has to offer on its website, which features an awesome instructional video series from championship barista and skate enthusiast Chris Baca, as well as free shipping on all orders.

4. Gimme!

Location: Ithaca, N.Y.
Founded: 2000; began roasting in 2001
Where To Get It: Gimme! shops in Ithaca, Trumansburg, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, N.Y.; select coffee shops nationwide, including 506 Tea Bar in Brooklyn and Espresso 77 in Queens; online at gimmecoffee.com
Roaster Recommends: Guatemala Huehuetenango Aroma de las Flores. A blend of two top lots from the same region brought together for balance, it's described as "a warm honey stick" and "intensely sweet from start to finish," with a citric acidity and syrupy mouthfeel. It's best brewed as a Kalita Wave pour over.

Gimme! uses 100 percent green power sources, composts more than 95 percent of its waste, and sources the ingredients in its cafes from local and organic farmers. Rather than building new buildings, the company focuses on green renovation projects. Among these are the farm it converted into its roasting facility, which features soy-based insulation, heated floors, and passive solar gain design, and the converted vintage AirStream trailer that hosts one of its Ithaca cafes.

Additionally, the company's Relationship Coffee initiative helps pass profits and information down to farmers, making the entire supply chain as integrated and sustainable as possible. So yeah, sustainability's a big deal here. It also doesn't hurt that the coffee—chosen for unique flavors and overall balance—rules, helping Gimme! win Roast Magazine's Macro Roaster of the Year award for 2013.

3. Intelligentsia

Location: Chicago, Ill.
Founded: 1995
Where to get it: Intelligentsia coffee bars in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York; coffee shops nationwide including Ch’ava in Chicago, Volta in Gainesville, Fla., and 21st Street Coffee in Pittsburgh, Penn.; online at intelligentsiacoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe. “This is a fantastic year for Ethiopian coffees, generally, and washed Yirgacheffe coffees are amongst the best at exhibiting native terroir,” says roaster Chris Kornman, describing it as having “delicate and complex floral flavors, balanced citrus, tons of stone fruits [and a] creamy body.” It's best brewed as a Chemex or Kalita pour over or as espresso.

Intelligentsia is kind of like coffee’s Harvard, with extensive internal training programs for baristas, roasters, quality control staff and green coffee buyers that include everything from regular cuppings and espresso tastings to one recent class led by a Northwestern University neurobiology professor on the genetics of olfaction. The company’s baristas routinely place high in national and world competitions, and many of its alums have gone on to other exciting jobs in the industry.

As one of the first companies to source coffee via Direct Trade and one of the largest specialty coffee companies operating today, Intelligentsia has been incredibly influential. It also continues to put out great coffees, both by building close relationships with producers and by relentlessly testing and refining blends such as its Black Cat espresso, an undertaking so important that it has the official, covert-sounding name of the Black Cat Project.

“We strive to maintain a high level of education and creativity; to do what we do with knowledge and purpose and ingenuity,” says Kornman. Whether with its innovative coffee bars or thorough coffee research, Intelligentsia is accomplishing all of those goals and setting the pace for roasters everywhere.

2. Counter Culture

Location: Durham, N.C.
Founded: 1995
Where to get it: Coffee shops along the East Coast, especially in and around cities with training centers, which include Durham, New York, Philadelphia, D.C., Boston, Asheville, Atlanta, and Chicago; Everyman Espresso in New York, Ultimo in Philadelphia, and Peregrine Espresso in Washington, D.C.; online at counterculturecoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Idido. A washed coffee with "very intense citrus or lemon grass with melon in the finish," it's best brewed as a single serving pour over.

Counter Culture's fingerprints are all over the way today's roasters are running their businesses, from the company's pioneering focus on sustainability and Direct Trade, to its model of setting up training centers and educating customers in its primary cities of operation. Although the company doesn't operate any shops of its own, if you're getting a kickass shot of espresso on the East Coast, chances are good your barista got some training here.

But learning about coffee isn't just for the pros: You too can stop by any one of the training centers on Friday morning for an educational cupping that's open to the public or sign up for brewing and espresso classes. Counter Culture rotates its beans seasonally to bring in the freshest crops, and it's constantly trying out creative new things like roasting unique microlots or offering cascara, an extremely caffeinated tea made from dried coffee fruit.

Whatever the roaster's doing, it's guaranteed to be sustainable, thanks to efforts of a full-time sustainability manager and close work with many farms chosen in part for their environmental approach. The company is part of a soil health awareness campaign called Save Our Soil, and 70 percent of its coffees are organic. Down to earth, good for the earth, and one of the best coffee roasters on earth? All they do is win, win, win.

1. Stumptown

Location: Portland, Ore.
Founded: 1999
Where to get it: Stumptown cafes in Portland, Seattle, New York, and, soon, Los Angeles; available in coffee shops and restaurants nationwide, but primarily on the coasts; online at stumptowncoffee.com
Roaster recommends: Ethiopia Nano Challa. Sourced from the birthplace of coffee and featuring notes of lime, rose water, mint, raspberry, and fresh hops “in a cup with concentrated pineapple sweetness.”

Stumptown’s fourth roastery is opening this week in Los Angeles, giving it the largest national footprint of any of the roasters on this list. But take it from Kanye: You can be the biggest name in the game and also be the best. Consistently cited as an inspiration and trendsetter, Stumptown (named in honor of Portland’s history as a logging city) has grown with the specialty coffee movement, raising awareness of great coffee on a national level and becoming an institution in its coffee-loving hometown. “It’s been cool for us to be a part of that national education process as people’s tastes have changed over the years,” says Matt Lounsbury, Stumptown’s director of operations.

The company’s buyers spend six out of every eight weeks on the road sourcing coffee, and it’s easy to try the whole selection, whether via daily public tastings in Portland and Seattle or the brew bar in New York, where you can get any coffee made using the brewing method of your choice, including a dramatic siphon. Stumptown is also popular for its bottled cold brew, which the company started making to avoid the mess of cold brewing coffee in stores. Like many things Stumptown does, the practice was a hit and is now copied by roasters around the country.