Blog

Welcome to Specialty Coffee Week! This Friday through Sunday, April 21–23, the U.S. division of the Specialty Coffee Association is holding its annual Expo in Portland, Oregon. It's an incredible opportunity to spend precious time with old friends and new, to learn from others in our industry with knowledge and wisdom to share, and to push the limits of what coffee—and those who brew it—are capable of. The latter is the arena of the U.S. Coffee Championships. And, at this high-profile level of competition, we are proud to be cheering on four fabulous folks from Olympia Coffee. Four! Here's who...

Just recently we made the trip to visit our friends Ricardo and Marco Ariz. When we say friends, we really mean it. Yes, we purchase their coffee and have been buying their coffee for over ten years—but, at the core, Marco and Ricardo Ariz are my friends. I love these guys, and I feel lucky to do business with them. Ricardo manages the farming aspect of the family business, a busy job that covers their three small farms in El Salvador. El Aguila and Los Charras sit next to each other on a mountainside close to the towns of Santa...

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...

We here at Olympia Coffee are beyond excited for our upcoming Industry Throwdown, hosted at our Columbia City cafe in Seattle! On Friday, March 17th (which just so happens to be St. Patrick's Day), we're throwing wide our doors for an evening of coffee-crafting shenanigans as local baristas face off in a friendly community latte art competition.Whether you're planning to throw down or simply coming to spectate, here's what you can expect. The basics The event will be at Olympia Coffee in Columbia City: 4824 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118. Doors open at 5:30pm on 3/17. First pour is...

Wheels up to Denver: this weekend, March 3–5, we're headed out to the qualifiers of the 2023 U.S. Coffee Championships. And by "we," we mean the talented, passionate members of our team who have spent these past weeks in preparation mode for their respective events. Including Reyna Callejo, our Training and Innovation Director, who intends to woo the judges of this year's U.S. Barista Championships.