Our goal is to produce nuanced, complex, and clean coffee while cultivating relationships with the farms. These relationships are rooted in understanding, knowledge, skill, service and mutual respect. We shoot for the stars when curating our menu, searching for the best coffees available at any given time, setting the expectations extremely high. We specialize in strong relationships with the farms, traveling the world to find the right beans from the right farms to get the right coffee.
Roasting coffee is deceivingly complex, you can't just drop green beans into a hot roaster and wait until they turn brown. Roasting beautiful coffees requires an understanding of physics, chemistry, and intuition that we have developed with over 20 years experience. To get the best flavor out of each and every bean, we need to consider a bevy of technical details - cultivar, elevation, processing method, moisture level, density, and bean size.
The beating heart of our operation is a 1957 Probat UG-15 - a fully cast-iron roaster built in Germany. Roasting by hand with minimal technology involved, we control temperature, airflow, and time to draw as much flavor as possible out of each coffee. We aim for supreme balance in our coffees - sweetness, acidity, and body all the while highlighting the unique character of each bean and the farmer behind it. Every single batch of coffee we roast is critically evaluated to ensure consistent quality - we take detailed notes on each coffee, using the feedback to keep our coffees tasting the way we want.
Joshua Millman
FOUNDER & OWNER
Joshua first dove into coffee at the young age of 16 in Chicago - inspired by the Beatniks, he wanted to immerse himself in that community of artists sharing their knowledge and experiences. Working in coffee for over two decades, Joshua has experience with every aspect of the coffee industry. After being a barista in Chicago, he moved to San Diego where he helped open and manage a cafe in downtown. In 2011, Joshua laced up his boots and set out to build a Chicago coffee company with respect built into its DNA - beans treated with respect at every step from seed to cup and an inclusive attitude that welcomes others to take this journey along with us.
