Blog — Olympia Coffee

Think of the last coffee description you heard or read. Did the words "dark," "light," or "medium" come up? Or maybe you noticed terms such as "French," "Italian," or "espresso?" All these words can be used to describe a coffee roast: the particular way in which a coffee was transformed by heat from green seeds to the dark-brown beans you find at the store or your neighborhood café. But what, exactly, do roast levels mean? And how important are they to picking the perfect coffee for you? Beyond country of origin or even flavor descriptors, roast levels are the primary...

This week, we're cheering on our resident cup tasting legend Jake Donaghy as he heads to the World Cup Tasting Championships in Athens, Greece! Jake's journey from Olympia Coffee roaster and green coffee buyer to U.S. Cup Tasting Champion has been a wild and exciting ride for us, to say the least. For those following along, you might be thinking, "Wow, what a pro!" You might also be thinking: "How can I get this kind of tasting experience for myself?" Or, possibly: "What's with all the slurping?" Whatever your questions, Jake's here to help answer them! In this quick video,...

Our co-founder Sam Schroeder returned from Portland with a shiny first-place trophy from the U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship... and half a mind to take a couple days off after a very long weekend. So, after some well-earned rest, he was gracious enough to meet us back in our Training Lab to chat about what’s next at the World stage of this competition. And to make one of his winning cocktail recipes: a custom creation that he's whimsically dubbed the "Hot Mama." For competition, Sam was tasked with mixing up three cocktails: two of his own creation, one hot,...

In a weekend abuzz with the nation’s most prestigious coffee competitions, Olympia Coffee showed up strong and took not one, but two first-place wins in the 2023 U.S. Coffee Championships! In the U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, Olympia Coffee co-founder Sam Schroeder took the top spot. And, in the U.S. Cup Tasters Championship, roaster and green coffee buyer Jake Donaghy nabbed first place with a perfect score sheet and the fastest time. The Coffee in Good Spirits Championship tests the limits of both coffee and cocktails, and Sam showed off his mastery of both mixology and coffee craft. After...

We know our Gatta Anaerobic is good. Crazy good. Good enough to take to competition, even. Still, when Coffee Review in their March tasting report awarded this recent Ethiopian micro lot with a soaring 94 points, we were blissfully over the moon. Gatta Anaerobic is Olympia Coffee's first-ever anaerobic coffee from Ethiopia, sourced from producer Kenean Dukamo of Gatta Farm in Sidamo. It also happens to be the only lot on Coffee Review's list that hails from the African continent. While more farms in Latin America seem to have jumped on anaerobic processing, the trend has picked up more slowly...