At Ketch Coffee Roasters, our passion is exploring the range of flavors inherent in coffee and cacao from around the world.  For most coffee and cacao, this means manipulating how we roast it to accentuate or diminish certain inherent flavors while at the same time striving to produce an overall balanced product.  By balanced, we do not mean that the level of acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and body are equal.  We mean that these individual components compliment each other and work in harmony to produce a cup of coffee or chocolate product that is unique, flavorful, and enjoyable.  

At a lighter roast level, coffee and cacao both tend to be the most unique and flavorful.  When you look at the coffee and cacao flavor and aroma wheels, you are going to be able to experience more of those flavors and aromas with lighter roasts.  As coffee and cacao are roasted darker, those unique flavors and aromas begin to be diminished.  We find that for many coffees, a medium-dark roast level is as dark as we can roast and still retain inherent flavors that make the coffee unique and special.  For many coffees, once they are roasted darker beyond this point they tend to take on a generic dark-roast flavor profile.  Cacao is similar to coffee in that when roasted darker it takes on a more generic chocolate flavor profile.  

While it may be taboo to say among speciality coffee and cacao roasters, not every coffee or cacao is best roasted lightly.  There are some coffees and cacao that only offer unique, inherent, and most importantly desirable flavors experiences when roasted darker.  Some have inherent qualities that are undesirable at anything less than a darker roast.  

Our goal is to roast the coffee and cacao in front us and to celebrate it for what it is and what we believe showcases the best representation of it.  Often we believe that the best way to accomplish this goal is to showcase it as both a lighter and a darker roast.  Ultimately, our guiding principle when it comes to roasting coffee and cacao is whether or not the flavors we taste are balanced.  When it comes to coffee, we prioritize perceived sweetness over other sensory attributes.   

If there is a specific flavor profile that we do not offer and you prefer, please let us know.  If you prefer a coffee from our menu roasted lighter or darker than we offer, we are happy to roast it for you the way that you request so long as you prepay for the order in advance.  At the end of the day, taste is subjective and everyone has their own personal preferences regarding flavors, aromas, and textures.  The coffee that is right for you is the coffee you enjoy.    

Our focus is on providing fresh, small-batch, specialty grade coffee that is primarily roasted upon order.  In order to ensure freshness, our goal is to maintain a limited stock of roasted coffee that is three to five days off-roast.  While it may seem counterintuitive, roasted coffee can be too fresh.  For most brew methods, waiting three to five days after the coffee was roasted to brew it will yield much better flavor results.  If you need to purchase in bulk for long term storage, we offer vacuum sealing options.  For more information about these topics, please visit the coffee education section of our website via the “learn” tab.

Cacao is completely different from coffee in terms of chocolate production and maintaining freshness.  Bean-to-bar chocolate production is a labor and time intensive process often carried out over a three day period of time.  If you want to learn more about the process, read our blog post about what all is involved in transforming a raw cacao seed/bean into the final chocolate product: https://ketchcoffee.com/what-is-bean-to-bar-craft-chocolate-2/.  Like other chocolate makers, we make and package bulk amounts of chocolate, which we then place in a freezer until the time of order fulfillment to maximize freshness.