Roast journal is thrilled to announce the finalists for the twenty third Annual Roaster of the Yr awards!
The Micro Roaster class contains corporations roasting lower than 100,000 kilos of espresso every year, and the Macro Roaster class contains corporations roasting greater than 100,000 kilos yearly. The award winner in every class will probably be introduced on Monday, Oct. 19, and featured within the November/December 2026 difficulty of Roast journal.
The Roaster of the Yr awards acknowledge corporations that roast coffees of wonderful high quality, exemplify a dedication to sustainability, promote worker and neighborhood training, display robust involvement within the espresso {industry}, and a dedication to variety, inclusion and fairness, amongst different standards. To view the award standards and software for the 2028 Roaster of the Yr competitors, click on right here.
Micro Roaster of the Yr Finalists
The finalists within the Micro Roaster class are listed beneath in alphabetical order, with data obtained from every firm’s award software. (There are 4 finalists resulting from a tie within the first spherical of judging.)
Chocolate Fish Espresso Roasters
Established in Sacramento, California, in 2008, Chocolate Fish Espresso Roasters is a roaster-retailer and wholesaler producing roughly 93,665 kilos of espresso yearly. Owned by Ali Syed and Asif Alvi, the corporate operates six brick-and-mortar places throughout Sacramento and the East Bay, two licensed places, and provides practically 70 shops by way of its wholesale companions. Chocolate Fish facilities its mission on making espresso approachable by way of training, accessibility and neighborhood engagement. Its sustainability efforts embody composting espresso grounds and filters, reusing inexperienced espresso packaging, providing compostable merchandise, and partnering with food-rescue applications. Since 2014, the corporate has donated greater than 200,000 kilos of compostable supplies to assist divert natural waste from landfills. Training is central to its operations, with structured barista coaching, ongoing wholesale-partner assist, public espresso lessons and an in-house training lab. In roasting, Chocolate Fish makes use of infrared-burner tools and manually adjusts gasoline, airflow, temperatures and roast occasions to refine profiles for particular person coffees, together with experimentally processed heaps that problem its group to adapt roasting approaches. Its neighborhood involvement spans native organizations, colleges, environmental initiatives and coffee-industry occasions, reflecting its dedication to constructing connections by way of espresso.
Dessert Oasis Espresso Roasters
Based in 2009, Dessert Oasis Espresso Roasters (DOCR) is a Michigan-based roaster-retailer and wholesaler roasting roughly 68,000 kilos of espresso yearly. Led by proprietor, president and director of espresso Nathan Hamood, the corporate operates 4 retail places in Rochester, Royal Oak, Ferndale and Detroit, supported by a 9,000-square-foot Ferndale headquarters housing its roastery, bakery, distribution operations, high quality management and coaching heart. DOCR emphasizes considerate sourcing and long-term buying relationships with producers and exporters, alongside sustainability initiatives that embody electric-vehicle deliveries, coffee-waste reuse, bulk espresso choices and food-waste discount. The corporate additionally invests in worker advantages, profession growth and a devoted Training Division that gives structured coaching for employees, wholesale companions and the broader espresso neighborhood. Its dedication to {industry} engagement contains public espresso lessons, assist for workers attending {industry} occasions, and involvement in neighborhood training initiatives reminiscent of Detroit Espresso Week. In roasting, DOCR focuses on cautious profiling, weekly manufacturing cuppings and consistency, utilizing Probat profiling software program to assist high quality management and spotlight every espresso’s greatest qualities.
Idle Arms Roasting Co.
Established in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah, in 2021, Idle Arms Roasting Co. is a roaster-retailer and wholesaler producing roughly 85,000 kilos of espresso yearly. Based by Adrian Bradshaw Tezjan, Ricky Dyson and Peter Jones, the six-person firm facilities its enterprise on transparency, long-term producer relationships and measurable affect all through the espresso provide chain. Idle Arms publishes its sourcing and pricing data and releases an annual Accountability Report detailing its buying practices, environmental efforts and progress towards sustainability objectives. Its producer partnerships have supported initiatives together with a neighborhood water initiative in El Salvador, espresso seedling donations in Guatemala and milling tools for a Colombian producer. The corporate roasts greater than 90% of its espresso on a Loring S35 Kestrel and makes use of weekly quality-control cuppings, roast-color monitoring and Cropster manufacturing information to keep up consistency and traceability. Past its roasting operations, Idle Arms invests in worker growth, wholesale coaching and public espresso training, whereas supporting organizations together with World Espresso Analysis, the Specialty Espresso Transaction Information and Elevate the Bar. The corporate additionally serves the broader {industry} by way of its involvement with the Alliance for Espresso Excellence and worldwide espresso competitions. Its strategy displays a central mission: to go away espresso higher than it discovered it by way of better transparency, producer collaboration and shared {industry} data.
Indie Espresso Roasters
Based in 2018 by Diane and Kevin McAndrews, Indie Espresso Roasters is a Carmel, Indiana-based roaster-retailer and wholesaler producing 47,386 kilos of espresso yearly throughout 5 places. Guided by its “Love What You Drink” mission, the corporate focuses on making specialty espresso welcoming and accessible by way of approachable roast profiles, hospitality, and training. Its signature Circle and Silhouette blends emphasize sweetness, steadiness, physique, and drinkability, whereas rotating single origins and seasonal releases invite prospects to discover a wider vary of coffees. Indie Espresso Roasters invests in long-term sourcing relationships, together with partnerships with underrepresented communities and producers pursuing regenerative practices. Its sustainability efforts embody composting espresso grounds, repurposing inexperienced espresso packaging in roastery gardens, increasing reusable-cup incentives, and introducing low-impact alternate options to single-use cups. The corporate additionally prioritizes worker growth by way of skilled training reimbursements, personalised progress plans, and shared possession alternatives. Day by day manufacturing cuppings, Cropster roast-curve monitoring, and pattern roasting with an Ikawa assist high quality and consistency, whereas free wholesale coaching, public cuppings, and neighborhood occasions prolong its academic mission past its cafes. Via collaborative initiatives with producers and native espresso companies, Indie Espresso Roasters works to strengthen relationships all through the availability chain and create a specialty espresso neighborhood the place extra folks really feel they belong.
Macro Roaster of the Yr Finalists
The three finalists within the Macro Roaster class are listed beneath in alphabetical order, with data obtained from every firm’s award software.
Corvus Espresso Roasters
Based in Denver in 2010, Corvus Espresso Roasters is a roaster-retailer and wholesaler producing 254,200 kilos of espresso over the previous 12 months. With six retail places and a devoted roasting, high quality management, and coaching facility, the corporate facilities its work on relationship-driven sourcing, technical precision, and producer storytelling. Corvus builds long-term partnerships with farmers, structuring costs round cup high quality, processing complexity, and relationship historical past. These relationships assist producer funding in new processing strategies and high quality enhancements, together with a decade-long partnership with Colombia’s Finca San Pedro that has helped increase its anaerobic fermentation program. Corvus applies the identical consideration to element in roasting, growing particular person profiles for every espresso and monitoring greater than 15 variables by way of a mix of Cropster information and roaster observations. The group blind-cups each roast weekly and conducts devoted analysis and growth for greater than 100 microlot releases yearly. Training is central to the corporate’s operations, with paid onboarding, month-to-month employees cuppings, free coaching for wholesale companions, public lessons, and detailed brewing recipes and dial-in guides for every espresso. Corvus additionally helps worker development, espresso competitors participation, and origin journey for eligible long-term group members. Via its packaging, academic programming, and producer-focused occasions, the corporate works to attach prospects with the folks and practices behind every espresso.
Dean’s Beans Natural Espresso
Based in 1993 by Dean Cycon, Dean’s Beans Natural Espresso is an Orange, Massachusetts-based roaster-retailer and wholesaler producing 499,675 kilos of espresso yearly. Constructed round its mission to make use of specialty espresso as a car for optimistic change, the corporate instantly sources licensed natural, Honest Commerce espresso from 11 accomplice cooperatives, lots of which it has labored with for many years. Via its Individuals-Centered Improvement program, Dean’s Beans helps farmer-led social, environmental, and financial initiatives, together with agroforestry, reforestation, and natural fertilizer manufacturing. In 2023, the corporate turned a 100% worker-owned cooperative, with 13 of its 15 workers taking part in possession and shared governance. Sustainability additionally shapes its Massachusetts roasting facility, which is solar-powered and geared up with two 70-kilogram Loring Sensible Roasters that cut back gasoline consumption and roasting emissions. The corporate makes use of Cropster to observe roast profiles and consistency whereas collaborating with producers on experimental heaps and limited-edition coffees. Its dedication to training contains origin visits, worker growth, wholesale coaching, and buyer webinars on subjects reminiscent of espresso pricing and sustainability. Dean’s Beans additionally contributes buying information to the Specialty Espresso Transaction Information and helps {industry} organizations advancing fairness and girls’s management. With long-term buying agreements, clear enterprise practices, and a give attention to preserving responsibly sourced espresso accessible, the corporate continues to attach high quality roasting with optimistic change all through the espresso provide chain.
Utopian Espresso
Established in 2006 by cousins Brendon Maxwell and Patrick Smith, Utopian Espresso is a Fort Wayne, Indiana-based roaster-retailer and wholesaler producing 987,946 kilos of espresso yearly. Guided by a mission to make life higher for farmers, workers, prospects, and the neighborhood, the corporate combines long-term producer relationships with a dedication to regenerative agriculture. Utopian has bought greater than 1 million kilos of Regenerative Natural Licensed espresso and works with producer companions on practices that assist soil well being, biodiversity, and farmer livelihoods. Its sustainability efforts prolong to its 30,000-square-foot roastery, the place the group composts espresso and meals waste, recycles, reuses chaff and burlap, and collaborates with native organizations to cut back waste and create neighborhood advantages. In roasting, Utopian applies detailed profiling throughout the spectrum, from experimental, calmly roasted microlots to its Regenerative Natural Licensed Obsidian darkish roast. Inexperienced espresso display screen grading and UV inspection additionally assist the group assess high quality and share actionable suggestions with producers. As the corporate scales, it has redesigned manufacturing workflows, established clearer worker development tiers, and developed customary working procedures with enter from manufacturing employees. A devoted espresso lab helps group growth, personalized wholesale coaching, public training, and stronger connections all through the availability chain.
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