8 Tips for Choosing a Coffee Roastery

If you’re ready to stop drinking bland, supermarket-grade beans and start brewing something worth your time, you’re already halfway there. Now comes the next step: finding a roastery that actually delivers on freshness, quality, and honesty, not just buzzwords printed on a fancy label.

We’ve been on both sides of the counter, and we’ve seen the good, the bad, and the stale. So here are eight no-nonsense tips for choosing a coffee roastery that won’t disappoint.

TL;DR: These tips for choosing a coffee roastery are simple: skip supermarket beans. Look for a local roaster that prioritizes freshness, traceability, roast-to-order service, and real transparency. If they can’t tell you where the bean is from and when it was roasted, walk away.

1. Check the Roast Date, Not Just the Expiry Date

A fresh roast date isn’t optional, it’s the bare minimum. Yet, you’d be surprised how many “premium” brands still skip this. Some hide behind vague “best before” dates that extend a year into the future. That’s a red flag.

Freshness isn’t just about flavor. It affects grind consistency, brew behavior, and aroma. Ever had coffee bloom like crazy one week, then go flat the next? That’s stale coffee in action. You shouldn’t need to guess when it was roasted.

Good roasters roast in small batches multiple times a week. If their roast date is older than a month when it hits your mailbox, that’s not fresh, no matter what the label says.

We roast-to-order and ship fast because the clock starts ticking the second those beans cool. Anything less is just logistics dressed as marketing.

2. Ask Where the Beans Are From, Specifically

This isn’t about showing off coffee knowledge. It’s about respect, for the bean, the farmer, and your cup.

The word “origin” gets thrown around a lot. But real traceability means knowing where your coffee comes from in actual detail:

• Country
  
  
• Region
  
  
• Farm or cooperative
  
  
• Altitude
  
  
• Harvest year
  
  
• Processing method
  
  

Each of these impacts flavor. A washed Ethiopian coffee from Sidamo isn’t just “fruity”, it’s bright, floral, and tea-like because of its altitude and method. A natural Brazil like Mogiana? You’re getting a creamy body, mild acidity, and nutty sweetness. Knowing this lets you choose coffee that fits your taste and brew style.

Roasteries that skip these details often don’t know them or don’t care. Either way, they’re not your people.

3. Learn the Difference Between Commercial and Micro Roasteries

You can taste scales. The larger the batch size, the more a roastery has to compromise on nuance. Think of it like cooking: try getting restaurant-level quality from a soup prepared in a 300-liter vat. It just doesn’t work the same way.

Commercial roasters tend to:

• Roast darker to mask inconsistencies
  
  
• Prioritize shelf life over character
  
  
• Rely on blends that vary in composition week to week
  
  
• Package months in advance for wholesale distribution
  
  

Micro roasters, on the other hand, often:

• Source beans based on relationships, not price per kilo
  
  
• Roast in small batches, sometimes even per order
  
  
• Prioritize flavor, not just stability
  
  
• Publish full transparency reports or sourcing info
  
  

The difference between commercial and micro coffee roasters goes deeper than volume. It’s about values.

4. Look at the Product Range, It Should Tell a Story

A roastery's lineup is its personality. It should reflect choices, clear, intentional, and coherent.

If every product is a vague medium roast with chocolate notes, they’re playing it safe. If the packaging is louder than the flavor, you’re looking at a lifestyle brand, not a serious roastery.

You don’t need 30 different origins to be legit. In fact, too many options often means a lack of focus. What you want is:

• A solid blend for daily use (our Blend No1 hits that balance for many customers)
  
  
• Seasonal single origins that rotate throughout the year
  
  
• At least one coffee with a more adventurous profile (think anaerobic or honey processed)
  
  

The range should balance familiarity and exploration. If all their coffees taste the same, it’s a waste of choice. If you can’t find anything that feels drinkable, it’s just complexity for the sake of ego.

5. Try Before You Commit, Start Small, Brew Smart

You wouldn’t buy a whole case of wine without tasting the bottle. Coffee’s no different.

A good roastery doesn’t expect blind loyalty. They give you room to explore. That means smaller bags, 250 grams, not a full kilo right away. It means sampler sets so you can test what works for you. It means making sure even the small batches are roasted fresh and treated seriously.

Why does that matter? Because taste isn’t universal. Your water, your brew method, your gear, they all affect the cup. Maybe that fruity Ethiopian hits great in a V60 but flattens out in your Moka pot. Maybe you love Brazilian espresso but hate it in the French press.

Smaller bags let you experiment:

• You figure out which origins actually fit your setup.
  
  
• You notice how flavor shifts over a few days.
  
  
• You avoid wasting beans and money on a full bag of “meh.”
  
  

That’s why we offer 250g and 1kg formats. Start small, find your match, then scale up when it clicks. Do you like Sidamo? Go ahead and get a kilo next time. Same roast, same quality. Just more of what you already trust.

Try first. Commit later. That’s how smart coffee drinkers buy beans.

6. Avoid Roasteries That Pre-Grind Everything

We’ll say it again: grinding kills freshness faster than oxygen can kill fish. If you buy pre-ground, you’re already compromising and that’s fine if you have no grinder and no choice. But the roaster should be upfront about that.

If their whole offering is pre-ground, they’re targeting convenience, not quality.

A good roastery will:

• Encourage whole bean usage
  
  
• Provide grind-to-order as a custom option
  
  
• Educate customers on why grind size matters
  
  
• Help you choose the right grinder if needed
  
  

For reference: you should be grinding fresh within 15 minutes of brewing. Not days. Not weeks. Minutes.

7. Pay Attention to Customer Support and Communication

How a roaster talks to you before and after you buy says everything.

Ask yourself:

• Do they respond to questions clearly and quickly?
  
  
• Can they explain the difference between two origins without copy-paste blurbs?
  
  
• Are they dogmatic or flexible in their recommendations?
  
  
• Do they offer brewing tips or dosage suggestions?
  
  
• Will they warn you if something won’t work well with your gear?
  
  

Coffee is chemistry. Good communication helps you avoid wasting beans on bad brews.

You’re not just buying a bag, you’re buying access to knowledge. If you reach out and get an auto-reply that reads like an AI wrote it, move on.

8. Think Per Kilo, Not Per Cup

Buying coffee like it’s candy one tiny bag at a time is a trap. It’s wasteful, expensive, and usually stale before you're done. If you're drinking coffee daily, the kilo bag is your friend.

Good roasters will:

• Offer competitive prices per kilo
  
  
• Vacuum-seal or nitrogen-flush bags to preserve freshness
  
  
• Suggest freezing portions for long-term storage
  
  
• Avoid plastic-heavy packaging that adds cost without value
  
  

Plus, buying a kilo forces you to get better at dialing in your brew. You can actually learn what that bean wants.

Think about it like buying bread. Would you pay €5 for a slice every day or just buy a fresh loaf and store it right? Same logic. Better coffee, less packaging, lower cost per cup.

Bonus Tip: Skip the Buzzword Bingo

Still with us? Good. Here's a bonus most folks won’t tell you.

Watch out for the language. “Sustainable.” “Ethical.” “Hand-roasted.” “Direct trade.” Sounds great until you realize no one’s explaining any of it. Half the bags on the shelf could’ve been written by the same intern with a thesaurus and zero roasting experience.

We're not saying these things don’t matter. They do. We care about them, too. But if a roaster drops all the right buzzwords and can’t back them up with actual practices? That’s not branding. That’s theatre.

Here’s a quick test:

Ask what “farm-direct” actually means. Ask who the farmer is. Ask if they’ve visited the farm, or just “partnered through a trusted importer” (translation: bought from a spreadsheet).
If their answer sounds like a TED Talk and still tells you nothing, walk.

Real transparency isn’t loud. It’s specific.

We’ll tell you when a coffee’s traceable down to the farmer and when it’s not. We’ll tell you what “sustainable” actually looked like in the supply chain and when we’re still working on it. No buzzword bingo. Just reality.

That’s your bonus: don’t fall for the vocabulary. Ask for the receipts.

Final Thoughts

Choosing a coffee roastery is about more than just what’s in the cup. It’s about how that cup came to be and whether the people behind it give a damn.

So be critical. Ask questions. Taste widely. Compare. And once you find a roastery that matches your standards, support them.

Because good coffee doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built on thousands of tiny decisions made with care.

We make those decisions daily at Zwarte Roes, for people like you who care what’s in their cup.