Yeah, that’s right, we’re fussy. When it comes to sourcing coffee and selecting the producing partners we work with, we tend to be tough customers. Why? Because as our favorite fictional nun put it in Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird, attention and love are just about the same thing. We love coffee. So we pay attention to it. All of it. Be it a single origin or be it a blend.
And more often than not, it's going to be a blend. More than 80% of the coffee that our production team packs up and sends along to you is a blend. We put as much attention—as much love—into our blends as we do for our beautiful microlots. One of the joys that blends offer is they allow you to taste coffees across the full spectrum of roast depths. There's something so lovely about a darker roasted coffee with a little bit of sweet cream. Likewise, we're thrilled by the complexity and sweetness that some coffees offer when we roast them in a blend like Panorama. Earlier this year, that blend even snagged a 93 on Coffee Review (so we know other people were loving it, too).
When you brew one of our blends, you’ll be drinking a coffee that’s in season and roasted to order, with care and attention. Our strict quality protocols don't just exist for our single origin coffees--every batch of Driftless or Panorama is data logged and run through our roast color analyzer to confirm that the cup you drink will be consistent. Every week, our quality team bellies up to the cupping table and analyzes the previous week's roasts, noting subtle differences and working with our roasters to fine tune our roasting profiles and keep each blend tasting delicious and distinct.
This constant honing means our blends have gotten better as we've grown. Growth means a more complete team at our roastery tasting coffee, managing inventory, testing theories and looking for ways to get better. At origin, growth has allowed us to invest more, not less, resources towards the quality of our product. Growth has given us more opportunities to connect directly with producers and to keep enhancing our sourcing model. And because our minimum price guarantee applies to all of our coffees, growth means paying farmers more for their coffee every day.
We aren’t going to argue with you over matters of taste. As my daughters put it, you do you. We, however, will be working diligently in the background to make sure whatever Wonderstate coffee you choose will have the same rigorous sourcing and quality standards behind it. Which is to say, it will be no ordinary cup of Joe. Perhaps it will be an invitation to the Wonderstate.