I am new to the espresso world, but have been an avid coffee drinker (moka pot and french press mostly) for decades. I live in a fairly small city (Mobile, AL), but we are near New Orleans, and so we get a New Orleans influence. In other words, the people here won't settle for mediocre food/coffee/drink.

What surprises me is this. My city of 200,000 or so has three excellent roasters within 20 minutes of my house. One in particular (Serda's) knows as much about roasting and beans as any place I have ever been. When I go in there the owner or one of his roasters (he has two) will corner me about some excellent beans they were able to find, etc., etc. These people know their coffee and could rival the Seattle places. The two other roasters in town (Carpe Diem and Coffee Loft) are also good, but Serda's is superior.

So when I read what other people post on here, talking about ordering online or (gulp) going to Starbucks, I am surprised. Am I that fortunate? I cannot believe my little city is that progressive. Maybe it is.

Can you elaborate a bit about Carpe Diem, The Loft and Serda's as you've experienced them?

When I visit Mobile I bring my own beans and brew device of some kind since in previous trips I found that Carpe Diem and Satori Sound, while nice venues, were not preparing the coffee the way I enjoy it these days. If I run out of beans I check The Fresh Market ( Airport at MacGregor) for Counter Culture or other fresh roast with little success.

As I said, my favorite is Serda's. John Serda actually has a coffee importing business (Quetzal Coffees). He usually has a number of SO coffees and maybe 4-5 blends. He roasts the coffee in the back of the store. I tend to prefer the SO coffees in a medium roast, with my personal preference being for the African SOs. However with my new foray into espresso, I am not sure that they are best choice. His Royal St. Espresso blend is what he uses in house and is nice, in my opinion.

I like Satori's atmosphere very much and the owner is a good guy. However he doesn't roast his own beans. I have always thought Carpe Diem and the Coffee Loft (in Fairhope) roasted good coffees but I have been to them much less. I also find they tend to roast beans much darker than I prefer.

I would be very interested in hearing what you think about Serda's, as you have more experience than I do. That said, his Coastal Clear Blend got a 90 point review on Coffee Review.

Also-if I wanted to order a coffee online as a "baseline," to test Serda's against other coffees, what would you suggest?

It's always good to support a local roaster if you can. I live all the way up in Alaska and actually have a quite good roaster right down the street from me. He roasts fresh every Sunday and has a good variety of blends and single source beans he offers, and definitely takes pride in his roasting. It's not top shelf or highly exotic, but he is consistent, the beans are fresh, the price is right, and I would be much saddened for him to go out of business.

Thus, I've been resisting ordering beans online since he meets my daily needs quite nicely with his product.

There are several roasters here in Alaska that I'd say are better than average. But my small, local roaster in this town of 30k people is better in quality and dedicated years to carving out a local market niche. I may well experiment with some exotic beans off of ROASTe or other places online, but Sleepy Dog Coffee Co. is my hometown bean source

I would be very interested in hearing what you think about Serda's, as you have more experience than I do. That said, his Coastal Clear Blend got a 90 point review on Coffee Review.

I used to keep notes and post them here on HB but I don't think I ever set foot in Serda's. I'll stop by next time I'm in town and plan to source some fresh roast for our morning coffee.

Arctic Mama has a good point. Whether you roast yourself, order on-line or have a local roaster that you like, intentional roasting that provides you fresh beans is a big step toward memorable coffee, in my opinion.

If you want to compare, Ken David's Review can help you find an origin that you know you like and choose one that scored well. I did that a few years ago with a Kenya AA that had scored 94 points (Buck's County coffee in PA) and was really thrilled, started looking for more fresh roasted, artisan coffee. If you want to stay regional look at roasters in the Carolinas, or Chattanooga TN, or Atlanta and just give it a shot.