Roaster of the Week: Ritual Coffee in San Francisco, CA

Feb. 28, 2018

We're celebrating our customers at Artisan Coffee Imports and this week we'd like to give a high-fiveRitual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco, CA. Ritual is another female-owned roaster-retailer (see our blog about Espresso Elevado last week) with 6 or 7 retail locations now, and a thriving wholesale business. Ritual was founded in 2005 by Eileen Hassi, and began with their Valencia street location in the famous Mission district.

Aaron Van Der Groen, Ritual Green Buyer

Today the roastery is at 1050 Howard St. Ruth Ann had the opportunity to visit back in November 2017 and delight in the sights and sounds. The high-ceiling roasting-packaging area is flooded with light from an open bay door, and circled by a mezzanine walkway around the perimeter. A custom-made cupping table complements a library-card drawer set re-purposed to neatly store samples of coffee.

One notices a number of employee-friendly aspects about the location also. First, everyone seems pleasant and friendly. Convenient bike racks just inside the door welcome the bicycle commuters. There is an employee coffee pot next to some delicious looking crumbs remaining from a treat that was available to workers earlier. Around 2pm, I catch a glimpse of the "community coffee break" where everyone gets to relax for a few minutes in the lounge area with sofas and over-stuffed chairs.

Aaron Van Der Groen, Ritual's green coffee buyer, gave me the million dollar tour of the roasting area, green storage area and packaging line. We cupped on the cool cupping table, and peeked in at the room with a least a dozen chrome-plated high-end brewing devices. Next we headed to the up-and-coming Bayview area and enjoyed expertly brewed coffee while sitting on heated seats in the outdoor courtyard of the Flora Grubb nursery. We were surrounded by giant ceramic planters and an amazing variety of succulents (cactus).

Altogether, the team at Ritual is at the top of the game of "crafting the very best cup of coffee available anywhere" (Ritual's motto). I will vouch for that, and their delicious assortment of coffees available, including KOPKAMA's Nyagatari from the Lake Kivu area of Rwanda!

Enter the roastery.

Custom cupping table.

Packaging line.

Employee coffee break.

Bayview location is inside Flora Grubb.

Ruth Ann, Artisan's President, admires the sample roaster.

San Francisco Roaster/Cafe Tour

Ted Stachura - Equator Coffee

June 14-19, 2012
Had the opportunity to visit and taste some great roasters while in San Francisco, June 14 - 19. Started off at Equator Coffee in beautiful San Marin county. They have just brought on a wonderful decaf Colombian from Los Cauchos cooperative in the state of Huila, Colombia. (Buy the roasted coffee here.) We happen to know the green coffee was sourced by Artisan Coffee Imports.  Equator is offering another single origin decaf with transparency -- decaf Bolivia San Ignacio Organic. TWO decaf coffees with direct trade transparency from one roaster. Talk about being on the cutting edge! (Intelligentsia, Stumptown, you're lagging.)

Eileen Hassi - Ritual Coffee - Valencia St.

In downtown San Francisco proper, it was a pure delight to tour some of the city's finest cafes on a warm, sunnny (not drop of rain in sight!) Saturday. First stop, Ritual, in the Mission District. Enjoyed the ambiance from the first step in the door. First rate baristas helped me with my order and it was fun to see Eileen Hassi and some of her dedicated and long-term staff at work installing the latest and greatest custom-designed and fabricated pour-over bar. (See photo inset and more in our Flicker photostream). Like Equator, their decaf espresso is from Colombia's state of Huila. Possibly a different lot than Equator's, but still the Los Cauchos cooperative.

Next, Sightglass Cafe. This is a very new cafe bristling with excitement, I thought. The double-loft, cavernous space has the roaster positioned prominently and centrally -- even in front of the espresso bar as you walk in! Ordered an iced coffee here, as the temperatures were in the high 80's and possibly 90 inside the store (no air-conditioning).  The barista had a bit of trouble tracking down the origin of the decaf espresso, but eventually discovered it was a blend of two coffees from Colombia. One from Huila and the other from Tolima. Visit or call Artisan Coffee Imports to learn more about the sourcing of these direct trade coffees from Colombia. In order to complete the sauna effect, I sat on the 2nd floor mezzanine where it was almost 100 degrees and I got to stare straight at the taxidermy owl that watches over the place (and is the namesake for the "Owl's Howl" espresso.)

Last stop was Four Barrel Coffee, Mission District again. Again -- no air conditioning, so another iced coffee for me. This time the Bolivian was on tap! Amazing -- among four top roasters in San Francisco, only two origins were to be found among the decafs -- the Colombian - Los Cauchos cooperative (Sightglass, Equator, Ritual) and the Bolivian San Ignacio cooperative (Four Barrel, Equator).

Four Barrel's unique bar features a REAL turntable and racks of LPs.

Great chatting with the Four Barrel roaster,Ryan, about trouble-shooting my roast profile for sample roasting decafs.