Seattle Coffee Roaster
Ladro Roasting–Seattle Coffee Roaster
Seattle coffee roaster, Ladro Roasting, sources and roasts all coffees for Caffe Ladro and wholesale partners. By building relationships with coffee growers and millers at origin, we hand select the best coffees. We also ensure the agricultural practices are sound and the working conditions are good. Trips to find and purchase coffee happen during the growing season.
Roasting
Head Roaster, Ryan Rabaca, explains, “We start with a roast level in mind and we look for coffees that we think will shine with that roast. For our light roasts, w
e are looking for bright, fruity coffees. Our medium and dark roasts focus on heavier, more complex, and caramel notes from the coffee.” With each new coffee, he prepares a sample roast. Then the team uses a process called cupping to discuss the aromas,and flavors. Their perspectives guide the plan for bringing out the coffee’s best taste notes. Ladro has four blends with distinct roast levels, ranging from light to dark. Rabaca clearly defines his goal as a Seattle coffee roaster. He states, “I strive to roast coffee in such a way that our customers drink the best expression of that particular bean.”
Single Origin Coffees
“On our single origin coffees we know we want them pretty light as to not “cover” the nuances we want to highlight. We taste various roasts curves and adjust them to balance sweetness and acidity,” clarifies CEO Jack Kelly. While discussing Caffe Ladro coffee offerings, Kelly indicated the “most consistent element is our desire to offer a balanced range of coffees. I think we have something for everyone. Our light roasted single origins are amazing and bursting with fruit, but we still have some darker roasts which are incredible and have bittersweet cocoa notes and huge body. We are always innovating, learning, and experimenting. Our ability to change factors like airflow and roast curve (time and temperature) permits us to pull sweetness, acidity and body from beans to create balance in the cup.”
When not sourced at origin, Ladro works with ethical coffee importers who establish relationships with farmers and millers. Those importers include: Atlas, Royal and Sustainable Harvest.
Diablo has been my go-to bagged whole bean coffee, ground at the store and consumed happily at home for years.
Suddenly, as of the last month or so, the beans (whole or ground) have zero aroma and the brewed coffee tastes like dirt. Yuck! 🙁
Have bought and returned 3 different bags from 3 different grocers over the last 3 weeks and have been validated by one of the store managers that there has been a recent quality issue with Diablo.
Not sure what you’re doing differently (heard you are in a new facility?) but whatever it is, please stop it and go back to what you were doing before.
Posta,
We’ve done much coffee cupping in response to your concerns. We’re scratching our heads because we’re not finding what you are finding. We love that you’ve sought beans from different grocers to see if that impacted your flavor experience. We are not in a new facility. We’ve been roasting off Nickerson in Queen Anne, Seattle since we started roasting. We do have to rotate beans due to seasonal sourcing issues, but that happens every year and we work very hard to find beans that carry the flavor profile we know you’ve come to expect. All we can think of would be to check the roast dates on the bags you have purchased. When we ship directly to online customers and send coffee to our stores weekly, we know those beans are fresh. When we sell coffee to grocery stores, we work with them to keep things fresh, but if stock sits, we don’t always know and cannot always manage freshness for those retailers. We wish we had an easy answer for your experience. We’ll keep trying to roast the best beans we can find for you. We hope you’ll give Diablo a try from one of our cafes or from our online store at caffeladro.com