Firehouse Coffee Roastery

Specialty Grade Coffee: We do not sell lower grade coffee beans common to large coffee companies. Our exclusively gourmet, specialty grade wholesale coffee beans will have passed the expert analysis and cupping tastes of the world's best specialty coffee buyers. Cheap, lower grade coffees are easy to find in the market, however we offer only the highest grade.

Colombian

Colombian coffees are well balanced, medium bodied, and bright. They are the most highly marketed coffees in the world. A lot of Colombian coffee, however, is not that truly special. On the other hand, a lot is praise-worthy. The task is to search out the exceptional among the merely decent cups. Colombian is just starting to market and sell its coffee by region and finca, as opposed to just the Colombian Mountain Grown label. Colombia was a latecomer to the micro-region vintage model of coffee marketing. If you drink coffee, you already have tried Colombian

Panama

Panamanian coffees are under appreciated. The coffees from the Boquete region of Panama are subtly bright, well balanced, with fruit, and dark cocoa tones.

Guatemala

Guatemalan coffees are some of the most amazing fragrant and aromatic coffees in the world. The natural shade and jungle of the Guatemalan highlands are the perfect environment for the bourbon botanical variety of arabica (a spontaneous variety of the original typical), which lends itself to a very nice and very natural full cup.

Hue Hue Tenango (way way ten-na-go) in the northeast frontier produces a wonderful bright coffee with nice body, and excellent floral tones and fruitiness. Besides all these great cup attributes, it's a fun one to say, Way Way.

Coffees from around Lake Attilan are a classic Guatemalan cup. Atitlan's are coffees with deep body, stunning acidity and fruit, and hints (more than mild suggestions) of chocolate and cinnamon. Atitlan's are truly a classic amazing cup.

Antigua is Guatemala's oldest and most famous coffee growing region. The magnificent volcanoes of Agua, Acatenango, and Fuego enclose this valley. Fuego lives up to its name (fuego means fire in Spanish) by spewing forth volcanic ash continuing to add to the rich soil of the area. Antiguan cups are nice bodies, full-on bright coffees with spice. There is a reason this region is so loved and sought out by the coffee connoisseur.

All in all, Guatemala must be a stop on your coffee journey.

Mexico

Mexican coffees are light to medium body with mild acidity and balanced, with delicate fruit and spice overtones. Mexican coffee is moderately priced and thus very popular in blends and as a flavoring base. But don't let this make you think that Mexican coffee does not stand on its own as good coffee!

Oaxaca on the southern Mexican Pacific coast produces some wonderful medium body coffees with milk chocolate and almond flavors coming through in the finish. These delicate well-balanced coffees can compare with certain Island coffees in the cup. (Though this would make some of these Island fans blanch, it can be true in an exceptional cup)

Chiapas, the tropical jungle that is the most southern eastern part of Mexico, borders with Guatemala. Chiapas is the coffee little brother of Guatemala's Hue Hue Tenango region, and this comes through in the cup. Chiapian coffees are brighter, sweeter, with a definite clove spice to compliment the apricot fruit that is in the cup.

Ethiopia

Ethiopian Yergacheffe is a very alluring coffee! The citrus notes have a truly unique character. After grinding, you will notice a sweet caramel fragrance. After brewing, you may notice a spicy, pepper note. The finish is zesty with hints of plum.

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. The regal coffees from this country are deserving of such a heritage and stand up to the calling. Referring to Ethiopia as a country of single origin, however, is misleading. Coffees from the different growing regions vary so incredibly that they do not even seem to be from the same planet!

Ethiopian Yergacheffes are amazing and unique coffees. Yergacheffe is a town in the Sidamo region of Ethiopia, and the coffees from this region will surprise you with their floral and tangerine notes.

In a stellar Yergacheffe, even the grounds have an exotic tropical toasted coconut aroma that will knock you over with its charms. Sometimes Coffee Joe's will try to compare Yergacheffes to other coffees, such as a bright Central American or an exciting Kenyan, just south of the border from Ethiopia, but there truly is not a real comparison. I guess you can compare a new Beaujolais bursting with wild fruit to a regal old Cabernet that has been thinking about being a wine for a decade and call them both reds, but . . . well you get my point.

Another amazing growing region within Ethiopia is the Harrar region. Harrars are wild coffees. What's a wild coffee, you ask? The term is a fancy name for dry process or natural coffee where the coffee fruit dries on the bean, imparting the flavors of compote fruit and dark rich chocolate. Harrars are this and more! You will taste blueberry jam, cocoa, and maybe even a touch of cinnamon and cardamom in these amazing coffees.

Coffee holds a special place in Ethiopian culture that transcends that of the coffees from other origin countries. The majority of the crop does not even leave the country and is drunk with great ceremony by the Ethiopian people. This is in contrast to other origins where coffee is a cash crop, with the best being exported, and the dregs kept locally and drunk unceremoniously with plenty of milk and sugar to choke it down.

One taste of an excellent Ethiopian coffee and you will understand this passion for the bean.

Kenya

The AA grade denotes the finest Kenyan coffees available. The main growing areas stretch south from the slopes of Mt. Kenya almost to the capital of Nairobi. This coffee assures brightness, a stoic solid body and smooth winey penetrating flavor. Kenyan coffees are as majestic as the morning African sun rising over the savannah. These are powerful bright coffees that run the gamut from lemony to peppery from blackberry fruit to winey richness. These characteristics come together in an extremely complex coffee that is truly VIBRANT. A great Kenyan is not a subtle delicate coffee but rather a coffee full of power and character.

Costa Rica

Costa Rican coffees set the standard for washed (wet processed) bright Central American coffees in both the bean and at the mill. Costa Rican coffees are exceptionally high grown in amazing volcanic soil. These two factors come together to produce a very bright and very clean cup. The best Costas are the cups that develop a bit of berry fruitiness to compliment the straight-out brightness. Costa Rican coffees serve as an excellent bright single origin coffee and will definitely add life to various blends. Additionally, these slower grown, dense, high altitude beans can take the heat of a French roast.

Another amazing feature of Costa Rican coffees is the human touch at the beneficios (mills.) where the processing and milling of coffee approaches a level of artistry not easily surpassed. Besides immaculately clean mills, which are the standard, the efficiency and beauty of the inner workings of the mill amaze.

For example, with strict Costa Rican environmental laws, wastewater from the fermentation tanks is treated with natural bacteria to break down the acidity reducing the pH back to levels that are tolerable for the streams and rivers of the country. By using the wood from pruned old coffee trees, along with the parchment from dry milling, many mills do not use a single stick of outside wood to fire the mechanical dryers. Some of the more inventive mills actually use the methane gasses produced when the bacteria breaks down the fermented pulp to fire the dryers. Finally, sun-dried coffees, of course, are just simple solar powered. All in all, the mills are an impressive sight, from the small single estate to the largest cooperatives

Nicaragua

This Nicaraguan Strictly High Grown (SHG) Fair Trade Certified™ Organic has great body, clean flavor and balance. Deep sweetness with a hint of chocolate orange. Our exclusive importer of this unique coffee is a Fair Trade Certified™ supplier. Nicaraguan coffees are frequently under appreciated by even reputable coffee connoisseurs. Upon comparison to other Centrals and South American's, their prominent body and balance are closer in the cup to Mexican coffees from Oaxaca. They

are the highest grown coffee among the Centrals and have less acidity.

Sumatran Coffee

Sumatran Coffee capture the wild jungle essence of this tropical Indonesian island. We cup Sumatran after Sumatran to find that earthy, deep, complex, full-bodied coffee that exhibits low-acidity smoothness and a touch of forest floor funk. A great Sumatran is creamy, sweet, with a touch of butterscotch, spice, and mustiness. (Yes, mustiness, not jungle rot. This is where cupping Sumatran after Sumatran pays off Big!)

Sumatran coffee is a beautiful deep blue-green color with the appearance of jade. There is a tendency to over roast Sumatrans (along with other dry processed wild coffees) as they do not show much roast color, and roast unevenly. Sometime the beans will look uneven and funky green. This is not a problem, however, or a sign of bad beans. Quality in the cup is what matters, or should matter, not mere appearance of beans.

Sumatran coffees are hand sorted, and come in single-picked, double- picked, and even triple-picked lots. Since Sumatran's are dry processed and often laid out to dry on the dirt in small villages, sorting the coffee is essential to take out the sticks and stones that the beans inevitably acquire, but triple picking does not necessarily improve the quality of cup. In fact, we sometimes find that over-picked beautiful polished coffees are sometimes bland in the cup.

Tanzanian Coffee

Tanzanian Coffee from the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the world-renowned Tanzanian Peaberry is noted for hints of gingerbread and orange with an effervescent, lively, bright body.

You don't see this on your run-of-the-mill grocery store shelf as it is not as well-known as some specialty origins.

Peaberries result when the coffee cherry develops a single oval bean rather than the normal two flat-sided beans. This occurs in only 2% of coffee cherries. Sorting these can be labor intensive resulting in higher costs.

Most coffee roasters agree peaberries are sweeter and more intense than their dual bean counterparts because nature packed all the qualities it normally puts into two beans into one.