I'd like to report on an example of excellent customer service by ROASTe:

I started using ROASTe because I wanted to order coffee from Ecco Cafe in California, but that company doesn't offer Priority Mail shipping service. This is a must-have for shipping coffee coast-to-coast: it takes only 2-3 days, whereas UPS Ground shipping takes five business days, which turns into at least seven days with the inevitable intervening weekend. The 2nd-Day Air or Overnight shipping offered by Ecco are way too expensive to justify. The solution was ROASTe, which ships coast-to-coast via Priority Mail. Why Ecco can ship a ROASTe order via Priority Mail, but can't ship direct orders that way, is a mystery. But I didn't care because it worked. At least it did for my first few orders.

Recently, I ordered a couple of pounds of Ecco espresso blend and one pound of an SO from El Salvador that I'd tried before. Right after I placed the order with ROASTe, I went to the Ecco site and saw that they had an new SO I wanted to try. I contacted ROASTe about adding it to my order. They said it wasn't possible to modify the order, but they gave me a free shipping coupon so I could get the coffee at the same cost I would have had if I'd ordered it with the rest of the coffee from Ecco. That was the first example of really good customer service by ROASTe.

I ordered all the coffee on a Saturday, hoping that it would be roasted and shipped on the following Monday (Ecco roasts to order, a fine practice IMHO.) But I didn't get the usual "shipping" notification until Tuesday. When I did, it showed the original order was scheduled to go via UPS and the single-pound order was scheduled to go via USPS. I didn't see this email until late Tuesday, and I thought it was too late to try to change the UPS shipping of the first order. Further tracking later in the week revealed that the single-pound order indeed went out on Tuesday. I got it on Friday, three days past roast. That's just what one would expect with Priority Mail from California, and just about the best I can get from the left coast. The larger order, however, didn't ship until Thursday and was scheduled for delivery on the following Thursday, a full 8 days after roast!

I sent an email to ROASTe to let them know that I was disappointed in how the order was handled. I expected both orders to be roasted and shipped early in the week, via Priority Mail, in time to make sure the weekend (Sunday) wouldn't interfere with delivery. Instead, I got one order in good time but the other order likely will be past its peak when received.

ROASTe responded almost immediately with a phone call. Yes, a phone call from an Internet vendor! This was really unexpected and I was blown away. I had a very pleasant conversation with Scott Lush, who began by telling me he would credit me with a full refund for the coffee and shipping. He also apologized profusely for the problem. He said that they've had similar issues with Ecco for a few weeks. It turns out that they don't roast every coffee every day. As a result, some orders can been delayed several days, which has annoyed some customers (no doubt because the weekend extends the shipping time.) This is what happened with the larger part of my order. Another problem is that Ecco had previously shipped all ROASTe orders under five pounds via Priority Mail. For unknown reasons, Ecco recently decided to change that to under three pounds. My order was three pounds, so it went out via UPS.

Although it will cost more, next time I order Ecco coffee through ROASTe, I'll order less than three pounds. With flat-rate shipping at only $3.75, that's not too bad for a couple of pounds of some of the finest coffee I've sampled.

To deal with the time delay, I suggested to Scott that they should have a check-box on their order form for customers to indicate whether they would be willing to delay roast and shipment to optimize freshness. For example, if the next roast is Thursday, and the order is for the east coast, perhaps it could be delayed until early the following week. Or something like that.

I realize that roast scheduling must be a huge headache for specialty roasters. But I would think that Ecco, which is so very meticulous with its bean selection and roasting, would be more cognizant of the freshness issue for east coast espresso drinkers and would go the extra mile to help us out. I've heard that Ecco actually ships via 2nd Day Air when orders are for the east coast, but that wasn't true in my most recent case. Seems to me that they should follow Vivace's example and ship only via Priority Mail. It's really the best way to ship freshly roasted coffee.

I think specialty roasters are only just waking up to the fact that a significant and growing percentage of their business is coming from a very knowledgeable and demanding group of coffee lovers. Actually, that should be obvious when they get orders for coffee costing $15 per pound, or even $25-$50 per pound! For example, Terroir's label on their top-of-the-line coffees used to say "Use by MM/DD/YY", which was about three months past the roast date. After this became a topic of discussion on the coffee sites, the label was changed to say "Use within 5 days of opening".

But this post is about ROASTe. I can't imagine a better customer service response than I got from them. I encourage everyone to give them a try.

I agree that ROASTe are very good folks to deal with. I'm very fond of Ecco, but have almost stopped ordering from them because of their shipping policies. USPS is the only shipping method that delivers reliably and if companies don't offer it I won't order. Too many orders by UPS ten days to two weeks after roast when shipped by UPS to do that any more.

Is the any way to view espresso based offerings at roaste eliminating the "giant commercial roasters" like segafredo and lavazza?
Or espresso + top rated roasters? Can seem to do one or the other but not both and. See way too many espresso based offerings to weed thru.

I just choose from the ones that I know (Klatch, Caffe'DArte, Ecco, Paradise) and leave it at that. Free shipping over $25 and good customer service make it worth doing. Vivace is also on the list although I can get it locally.

Hrm...i was looking at it as a way to find new small roasters though...oh well.

Because several of their roasters are not widely talked about I believe the only approach would be to google the roaster or try a search on H-B or Coffeegeek.

Right...but i only want espresso based coffees in that search by roaster. I couldn't seem to add that additional filter.

You can definitely search for espresso from award-winning roasters on ROASTe.

On the left side of the "Shop for Coffee" pages, just click on

> Awarded Roaster and
> Espresso Based

Then you'll see just the espressos from award-winning roasters.

Happy brewing!

I'll sing the praises of Roaste as well. My experiences with them have largely been flawless, with maybe just a couple of exceptions. I've ordered from a few different roasters through Roaste including Ecco. I live in Southern California but even for me it took over a week from the shipping date to get my coffee. I love Ecco but I haven't ordered from them again as that was just too much time.

These days if I am ordering online I order only from Klatch through Roaste. I live pretty close to Klatch but far enough that it is not a practical drive to pick up some coffee. Ordering through Roaste has been great, Klatch roasts the day they ship and I usual get my coffee the next day which just blows me away. I've gone to Klatch's cafe and not been able to get coffee as fresh as what I can get when I order online.

My biggest hiccup with Roaste to date was a time that Klatch sent my order in a flat rate box but only paid shipping for what it would have been in a non-flat rate box. Instead of getting my coffee the next day I got a notice that I had a balance due on a package that I could pick up at the post office. This was an annoyance but it was not Roaste's fault and Scott was extremely helpful and gracious about the incident and did refund me the $5 I had to pay to pick up the coffee right away. My orders with Roaste have been flawless otherwise and the only problems I have had have been roaster related, not Roaste related.

To be sure, Klatch also made things right. About a week after the shipping mishap, just about the time I was in need of more coffee, a package just happened to show up on my doorstep with a free bag of Klatch's Belle Espresso and a note from Klatch.

Even my worst experience with Roaste and Klatch ended up being handled in an extremely customer friendly way and as a result I will be a loyal customer to both for a long time.