Stumptown Coffee

It seems like most of the coffee shops that Pouregon spotlights uses Stumptown Coffee Roasters. They wouldn’t serve it if the public didn’t enjoy it. Opening in the Fall of 1999, Stumptown Coffee Roasters on Division Street is the store that started a coffee revolution in Portland. This is where they still roast many of their coffees and frequently host other events. There are nine Stumptown Coffee Shops including one in NYC and another in Amesterdam.

They travel worldwide because they are committed to sourcing and roasting the best coffees available anywhere. Along the way, they search for partnerships with farms to share in a belief that working together year after year results in the highest level of quality.

Time Magazine had an article in March about Stumptown becoming the next Starbucks – “the most conspicuous exponent of coffee’s ‘third wave’.”

(From the founder Duane Sorensen) – “We started Stumptown with the idea of getting to the source,” he says. “That was the concept, and that excitement is what we wanted to bring to our customers.” Every Stumptown bag has a card in it that describes the elevation, location, varietal and tasting notes of the beans it contains. Then you turn it over and there’s a profile of the area as well as technical information.

What I have learned since starting Pouregon is echoed in this article and I think many may not be aware of it:

What all the third wave coffee people have in common is a thinly veiled revulsion at Starbucks and its rivals, in particular the way they overroast their beans. “Coffee beans aren’t supposed to be uniformly dark and shiny,” says John Moore of Dallis. “Every bean has a level it’s supposed to be roasted to, so that you can taste it. Otherwise it’s like cooking all meat well done.“

I have often wondered if fast food has killed my taste buds so that I don’t always taste the slight differences to foods that others do. Can you taste the difference between coffee roasters or has insta-coffees, office coffee, and burnt bean ruined your ability to taste the different styles and blends local roasters like Stumptown put together?