About Us


Humboldt Bay Coffee Company is a Northern California micro roaster of super-premium coffee, including organic, fair trade, shade-grown, and Rainforest Alliance-certified coffees. Both single-origin coffees and custom blends are available at wholesale prices to all. We also provide commercial coffee service and beverage supplies to businesses throughout the region of Humboldt County, California.

Humboldt Bay Coffee Company roasts and sells coffee and related products to coffee houses, bakeries, restaurants, hotels, natural food stores, and other businesses. Certified organic coffee accounts for more than 50% of all their coffee sales. Humboldt Bay Coffee selects and roasts coffee beans of exceptional quality. Coffee, like other agricultural products varies greatly in quality. We buy only "Specialty Grade" (gourmet) coffee, which is the highest grading standard for coffee beans. Specialty grade coffee is distinguished by its lack of defects (sticks, stones, imperfect beans), consistent color and uniform bean size. Lesser quality coffee is known as "Commercial Grade." Humboldt Bay Coffee roasts the top 1% of the world's coffee and we pay a significant premium to obtain the best. Buying the best because we love great coffee, we are very selective when purchasing and we offer sustain-ably produced coffee. This included USDA certified organic, bird-friendly and single-estate coffees. Many of the growers of our coffee are vertically integrated, enabling them to maintain strict quality standards at every stage of production.

Down with defects!

Each defective bean in your coffee detracts from your enjoyment, so we aim to provide zero-defect coffee culled of imperfections at multiple stages during production, including hand-sorting. Our coffee is cupped and evaluated by professionals cupping prior to export, and again on arrival in the U.S. Then we evaluate it in our facility prior to purchase to make sure it meets our exacting standards.

Roasting with respect

The care we take in the selection of our coffee continues during the roasting process. When we receive a new shipment from any region, we re-evaluate our roasting parameters and make adjustments until we are satisfied with the results. We carefully control temperature and timing while roasting and keep logs to ensure a consistent roast profile from batch to batch.

A Kinder, Greener Bean

Humboldt Bay Coffee is very committed to environmental stewardship and community involvement. As a socially and ecologically conscious business, we constantly seek new ways to limit any negative impact we might have on our planet.

Low-Impact coffee

We strive to achieve this goal in several different ways. We've been spearheading the organic coffee movement since 1992 by centering our business around certified organic coffee. Many of our coffees are grown by farmers who take great care to operate with sustainability in mind. Many of our coffees are also shade-grown under a canopy of trees, preserving the natural habitat for migratory birds. In addition to focusing on organic farmers, we buy coffee certified by the Rainforest Alliance which is actively involved in soil conservation, reduction of pesticide use, forest preservation and restoration of wildlife migration corridors. We also offer a selection of Fair Trade coffee, which helps ensure the health and welfare of coffee workers.

Energy Efficiency and Air Quality

Humboldt Bay Coffee has acquired a new "green" roaster that will reduce our natural gas consumption and dramatically lower the emissions produced while roasting coffee. In fact, the state-of-theart afterburner will use our smoke as fuel for roasting. We are also engaging in a company-wide energy audit to identify practical ways to reduce our carbon footprint and are exploring carbon offsets in conjunction with our local energy provider.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Finally, we have made a concerted effort to reduce our day-to-day waste by implementing a stringent recycling program. In addition to recycling CDs and waste paper, coffee chaff (a by-product of roasting) is composted for gardens and worm beds. Rather than purchasing new bubble-wrap and foam bedding, we re-use packaging material collected from local businesses. Office supplies such as scratch paper, file folders and paper clips are also re-used as much as possible. Humboldt Bay Coffee has cut its trash volume in half.