FAQs

Why Heritage Coffee Roasters?

With a background as a barista, GREAT tasting coffee is our passion! We got tired of settling for store-bought commercial coffee that left us jittery and feeling toxic! Enter the homesteading lifestyle and we were on a new path to finding better quality coffee! Other coffees we tried were either too acidic or bitter, so we researched and tested various regions and roasts - finding that we really enjoyed chocolate nuttier notes that are brought out in medium-medium dark roasts. This roast level leaves a smooth, well-balanced cup of coffee that isn't acidic or bitter. So we roast what we like best, and our customers have LOVED those same notes and roasting profiles too! Win-Win!

Do you have organic coffee?

We do offer some USDA certified organic coffee options; however, we are not a certified organic facility and therefore cannot use the USDA Organic symbol on our packaging.

Where do you source your beans?

We procure specialty grade, micro-lot coffees through a trusted reputable importer that has long-standing relationships with farmers and producers all over the world, some that even span multiple-generations - beans are sourced from various regions, with most of our favorites coming from Central and South America, while also offering Indonesia, SE Asia, and East Africa coffees.

How do you roast your beans?

We use a small commercial fluid-bed air-roaster, which allows us to roast in small batches to achieve optimal consistency with each batch that is roasted - and efficiently being able to produce up to ~150lbs+ a day at 3/4 to full-time, max-capable hours of roasting time. Through our micro-roasting, we specialize in Medium-Medium Dark Roasts that you get a well-balanced cup every time.

Is your coffee flavored?

No, we do not use any added artificial flavors. Our roasted coffee acquires the flavor profiles of each region in which the beans are grown, their climate and the altitude at which the beans are grown - it's through the roasting process that highlight fruity/floral/citrus notes if it's a light roast; chocolate and nutty notes if it's a medium roast; and darker roasts being more smokey, earthy, and robust. (Flavor profiles will differ based every person's palette).

How do you store roasted beans?

In a cool, dry place away from light, moisture and air. Tinted/opaque containers are best. Some may even vacuum seal in Mason jars, or store in the freezer.

What's the shelf life?

We think this is subjective and based on personal opinion/experience. Ground coffee will start to oxidize within 24-hrs, whereas Whole Bean coffee is much longer lasting. With that said, some believe it's anywhere from 4-6 weeks to 6-12 months (if properly stored). The longer coffee sits open to air, moisture, and/or light, it will go stale - even in the freezer, but it can last for quite some time, it just might not taste as good as it did when it was freshly roasted. Fresh roasted coffee peaks between 5-20 days and when it is best enjoyed.

Is your coffee mold-free?

We get this question A LOT. Being homesteaders and natural/holistic-minded, we did our research and asked our supplier about this before partnering with them.

"Mycotoxins, specifically Ochratoxin-A (OTA), results from poor post-harvest conditions: improper storage and/or drying practices. This is more common in conventional coffee, and not so much in specialty grade coffee. If producers dry the coffee properly, and store it in a dry space the presence of OTA is greatly reduced and hardly detectable. We don’t test for mold/mycotoxin, but we DO follow good agricultural and warehousing practices, e.g. we dry the coffee to 10-12%, store in a dry place, and ship in a proprietary liner.

Our parent company's extensive history in the importing industry has led to a number of producer relationships that extend multiple generations and have lasted for decades. Transparency regarding the conditions under which the coffee is grown, harvested, processed, and exported will result in a higher level of understanding of both intrinsic quality and the intangible value of knowing and trusting the names and faces involved in creating the product. We buy our coffees from our sister companies at origin where we also have Q-Graders trained to taste and identify any issues in the cup as the coffee is purchased from the producers. So through trusted relationships, practices and systems we take all appropriate measures to mitigate the presence of OTA in our coffees and everything we sell is specialty grade.
 
An independent lab can measure if any given coffee presents any level of Ochratoxin-A. We do not measure this level on a regular basis, because our sister companies take all appropriate measures to mitigate the presence of OTA in our coffees, and all of our coffees are specialty-grade, micro-lot. The crux of it is that mold in coffee would significantly and negatively affect its QUALITY CUPPING score, which means QC would reject it and we wouldn't buy it due to quality concerns."

Here is an article we find to be very informative and helpful to understanding the mold in coffee issue. Grab yourself a cup of Heritage Coffee and enjoy the read!

How do you make Cold Brew?

We use our Robusta Rooster Blend for making our Cold Brew using the Rumble Jar Filter. We also sell the Rumble Jar Filters on our site, which you can find here!