Tag Archives: Ritual Roasters

Ritual Roasters: First Impressions

Coming off my first full pound of Ritual Roasters – Hacienda Carmona, Guatemala, now onto the Sweet Tooth Espresso – Yara Columbia. The Guatemalan was excellent, although I think that I’ve grown partial to Guatemalan coffees lately cause I keep writing about how much I like them. First it was the Los Espiritus and now this. In fact, I placed a follow-up order with Ritual yesterday and two of the three bags ordered were Guatemalan. I think that my liking of them lately has to do with them being somewhat all-purpose. They seem to go with everything and stand on their own very well. I don’t see that with other regional coffees lately, mostly African. Those have that in-your-face, COFFEE(!) sort of flavor, and if I’m not expecting that it can be a little overwhelming, especially Ethiopian coffees.

So, the Ritual Roasters – Hacienda Carmona, Guatemala. The beans were roasted very well, nice and milk chocolate brown and no extreme variance in the size of the beans. Pleased that I’ve found yet another roaster dedicated to the art of coffee and attention to detail when it comes to their product. These kinds of things are important when you’re paying a premium for good coffee. I don’t expect I would have ordered another three pounds from Ritual had the first order been somewhat lacking in quality. There wasn’t any variance from the first pot brewed to the last pot brewed, the beans held true through the whole batch. I didn’t expect them to vary, as I received the order about three days after roasting and finished up the first pound about five days after opening the bag.

I’m into the Sweet Tooth now and I can discern a difference between this and the Guatemalan. Not a bad one at all, I can just tell that it’s an espresso. I’ll report back once the rest of the second shipment from Ritual has been consumed, I expect all will be excellent.

New coffee, old coffee

Finished up the last of my 49th parallel Guatemala Los Espiritus and was sad to see that last bean fall into the grinder burr. This was one of the most delightful coffee finds in some time. I’m definitely keeping 49th parallel roasters in rotation, they roast a damn fine bean. I do wish that they’d sell in 1lb bags though, but I’m sure that it’s a decision to save shipping costs.

Ordered from Ritual Roasters:
Hacienda Carmona, Guatemala
Sweet Tooth Finca Yara, Colombia

Went back there to order this year’s cup of excellence winner, as I do remember seeing some available there last time I visited the site, but it’s not there anymore. Either way, I’m excited to try their beans, as this will be my first time with them. Also, if I do come across a spare $12,000 some time in the near future, I’m buying one of these: