A Look At Portola Coffee Lab

Portola Coffee Lab is all about bringing coffee directly from farm to your cup. What makes them unique is their extreme dedication to source coffee from all over the world in their unyielding pursuit of perfection. So it’s no wonder that they were voted Roast magazine’s 2015 Micro Roaster of the Year! Portola Coffee Lab was founded by owner and roastmaster Jeff Duggan and his wife Christa. Jeff’s approach to brewing is to achieve uncompromised quality in every cup of coffee, and he does this by finding the highest quality coffee beans out there no matter where the journey takes him.

Coffee sourcing is of great importance to Portola Coffee Lab, and they take it very seriously. Jeff travels to Africa, South America, and Central America every year to search out the most dedicated farmers in the world. They know that the farmer is essential to the existence of specialty coffee because quality begins at the farm. Along the way, they forge lasting relationships with these farmers and learn about their cultures, bonding over their shared passion for quality coffee. Portola Coffee Lab buys their coffee directly from these farmers and cooperatives, and they are devoted to sustainability. They pay a premium price to these farmers because they truly appreciate the coffee they produce.

Portola Coffee Lab likes to do things the Portola Way. For them, this means they have a set of strict standards to keep their coffee at the highest coffee possible which is as follows:

• First off, they only establish relationships with people who share their level of passion for quality.
• Sustainability is extremely important to them, so each grower they work with must be willing to disclose all information for verification.
• They always pay at least 25% above the Fair Trade minimum to the grower, but often they pay over 50% above that price.
• Their sourcing model is “At Origin”, and they are committed to supporting producers through education and monetary incentives.
• Lastly, they visit farms and cooperatives yearly no matter what so that they can witness first-hand the conditions of where their coffee comes from.

Clearly, the Portola Way is very impressive, and we support them whole-heartedly. Portola Coffee Lab has also teamed up with Bird Rock Coffee Roasters and Klatch Coffee to form Roasters United. This is a collaboration driven by the principle of sustainability. They work to improve the overall quality of coffee beans in the world by supporting farmers through financial support, which is also very impressive and admirable at that.

The result from this strict set of quality standards is coffee full of passion, creativity, collaboration, and hard work. Their coffee is roasted specifically to bring out the natural flavors in it. You can be assured that while you’re drinking your Portola coffee, you have benefited sustainability and supported farmers all over the world.