Ritual Coffee Roasters was founded by Eileen Rinaldi in San Fransisco in 2005, which is quite early for a 3rd wave coffee roaster such as themselves. Since opening their first shop, they have developed a culture that made them a no-brainer for us to select as this month’s roaster. Their values are: be nice, have fun, be inclusive, have integrity, and challenge the status quo. These 5 values are reflected in all aspects of their company from source to their coffee shops.

When sourcing coffee, Ritual spends much of their resources attempting to find gems buried in the world’s most actively traded commodities. Once they find the coffees that they love, they pay well above “fair-trade” prices. Even if the producers they find and love aren’t yet growing the quality coffee they need, they may still buy the coffee and provide quality incentives to help the producers raise the quality of their coffee. Ritual helps them meet these goals with investments in infrastructure and once they are met, producers are able to earn much more for their coffee and reinvest back into their farms.