Ritual Roasters: California Coffee at its Finest

Ritual Roasters is a California coffee company nominated for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Coffee Houses.

Like Californians, coffees come from all over the world. Ritual Roasters' coffees come mostly from small, eco-minded farms in Africa and South America. Thirty steps go into every shot of espresso made by Ritual Roasters, who claims that their customers frequently say "I don't know why, but this just tastes better."

Beyond the delicious coffees, which are served seasonally to ensure that you are getting the very freshest brew, their single origin Sweet Tooth espressos are especially acclaimed.

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Every month, Ritual Roasters chooses an esoteric coffee grower for their Sweet Tooth and aims to bring their work out of anonymity. This month, the Sweet Tooth goes to Edilfonso Yara's 4.5 hectare Finca La Esperanza farm, 1650 meters above sea level in Gigante, Huila, Colombia. "The coffee is wash processed, fermenting for 24-30 hours, and sun-dried on raised screens with parabolic covers, protecting the drying parchment coffee from rain damage. Edilfonso floats his cherries before processing, helping to ensure that only ripe cherries will be processed together. In the nose of this espresso, the warm sugars and fruit aromas of Amaretto come through, and in the cup, we get oatmeal cookie, toasted almond and a finished akin to a 70% madagascar dark chocolate."

It's unknown and exotic coffees like this that keep a line out of the Ritual Roasters door.

If you're a self-proclaimed coffee snob looking for a truly unique coffee experience you can brag about to all your friends, Ritual Roasters can give that to you. If you can't stomach waiting in line, their coffees are available online and they also offer coffee subscriptions and a guide to proper brewing.

Call to see if there's a public cupping (tasting) next time you're in San Francisco or Napa.

Vote for the coffee house that you believe is the best of breed. The voting period runs through April 30 and winners will be announced on May 1.