Kaldi's Coffee Roasting Co. Office Roastery

The tech department over at Kaldi's has never done us wrong. Efficient, friendly, extremely well informed AND informative! Sean came a great distance today to bring our shop a new, gorgeous, heartthrob of an espresso machine. During the long wait for this machine, we felt this team was somehow holding their breaths with us from a distance. That is the type of compassion you don't see from every person or team. Today we felt a big sigh of relief and the excitement of a new chapter. I truly feel that that this crew has been rooting for our little shop. It means a lot to all of us.

We were in town and was talking to one of the baristas at one of the Kaldi's Coffee shops, they mentioned the roasting facility does cuppings. It happened to be that day and we made it over for their cupping class. It was very informative and so was the tour. The staff was great!

Thanks to the expansion of Via Metro STL in South County and with the famous Call-a-Ride, now people that may be over 50 can also work for Kaldi's as well as the young.

I’ve always wanted to visit the Kaldi’s Roastery and do a cupping and tour, which they do on Friday afternoons. I finally was able to attend on in February 2023. It was even more fantastic than I had imagined.They have occupancy for up to 10, and it’s completely free. Just make a reservation online and you’re good to go.After checking in, I was led into the Cupping Room and introduced to Este and Jake, who are two of the four roasters at Kaldi’s. To think, I’ve drank gallons of coffee that was personally roasted by these two!For the uninitiated, a cupping is a standardized means of tasting and grading coffee, based on its aroma, taste, etc. The preparation method is an immersion style similar to French press, but instead of a plunging filter you just scoop the grounds out carefully with spoons before tasting. So, after 10 minutes of immersion in hot water, you use a spoon to break the top layer of grounds and immediately get your nose in there and give it a good sniff. There were six coffee varieties that we went around the table smelling. After this, Este and Jake carefully removed the grounds with spoons and we were able to taste each of them. Traditionally you just dip a spoon in, sip off the spoon, and then rinse the spoon in water between coffees. Because of COVID, we now use the spoon to scoop some out into a separate cup that we taste out of. No complaints here – I’m all for being more sanitary!Throughout this whole process, Este and Jake shared their expertise and were fascinating to talk to. They both said their go-to is the 700 espresso blend. I like it – especially as far as espresso blends go – but I love the fruitiness of their natural processed single origins.I talked to Este and Jake about my brewing methods and preferred coffee styles and they made personalized recommendations. I was very appreciative that these guys who get to the roastery as early as 5 AM to start heating up the roaster would take their time to give a free tour and answer so many questions.After we finished tasting, we were led to the production area. Amazingly, most of Kaldi’s coffee is roasted on a vintage 1937 Probat roaster – allegedly one of two left in the world. It’s cast iron and every component is as heavy duty as they come.When ready to roast, the green coffee beans get poured into a feeder and then lifted up via auger before falling into the drum. There are two temperature probes inside, one for air temperature and one for bean temperature. The roaster watches the computer very closely as the temperature curves populate the screen. When it gets close, they have their hand on the lever ready to dump the beans, as a few seconds can make a difference.After this, we walked by some of the offices, the Firepot tea room, barista training kitchen, and through a room with an incredible coffee bean mural of St. Louis before finally returning to the lobby as our hour-and-a-half experience came to a close.I loved being surrounded by fellow coffee enthusiasts. If that’s you, know that these are your people and you owe it to yourself to make it out to a Kaldi’s cupping as soon as you can.

Shhh! Let me tell you secrets. Did you know that John H. has tried beans from every STL roaster (well, he believes every roaster, though he could be wrong), and Kaldi 's always re-emerges as his favorite? Now, did you know you can buy 5-lb. bags of beans from Kaldi 's? And, did you know that you can sign up on their website to receive coupon codes for new variety launch parties? Did you also know that the beans will be shipped to your home for free (minimum purchase, $20, I think)? Now you know what I know, and why there 's always plenty of Kaldi 's for John H. 's burr grinder.