Globally Sourced, Freshly Roasted Coffees
Behind the Beans
Why Does a Coffee’s Story Matter?
The story of coffee is a story of people all over the globe working incredibly hard to create this beverage we love so much. The story of a specific coffee - how it was grown and how the people involved in farming and transporting it were treated and compensated - is deeply ethical and inextricably tied to the coffee’s quality. Farmers can’t justify the cost, time, and labor required to make the high quality coffee if they’re not compensated adequately for such a difficult undertaking. We take the stories of our coffees seriously out of concern for people and our love of coffee.
We specifically choose coffees and import partners based on quality and ethics. A wide range of ethical claims intended to offer quick peace of mind exist throughout the coffee industry, but we’ve found that the size and complexity of the supply chain don’t really fit into such convenient labels. Our approach is to work with farming and importing partners whose standards are oriented towards improving farmer well being through financial traceability, ever improving coffee quality, and sustainability.
Why Our Coffee Costs What It Does?
At Lore & Roast, our pricing reflects the quality, care, and authenticity behind every cup. We source premium-grade beans from places like Ethiopia, Colombia, Thailand, Vietnam and beyond — regions that have been perfecting their coffee for generations and produce globally celebrated coffees with distinct profiles not grown in India. Each origin has its own personality, its own story, and honestly, its own magic.
To protect local coffee farmers, India imposes a 100%+ import duty on green beans. We fully support these protections and source responsibly, in small batches, to complement rather than compete with domestic production. But it does mean that getting these high-grade beans here is not exactly budget-friendly.
Despite these duties and logistical challenges, we choose to roast locally, not import pre-roasted beans so we can deliver world-class freshness and flavor to Indian consumers. Coffee starts losing its character the moment it's roasted, so we want to control that process and get it to you as fresh as possible. Our goal isn’t just to offer better coffee, but to elevate the market standard for what coffee can be.
We are not trying to be coffee for everyone, we are coffee for people who have had that ‘wow’ moment when they taste something truly great and realize there's no going back. This is coffee for people who know the difference and are willing to pay for it.
Why Roast matters?
Coffee is as complex as wine. It has the potential to have a wide array of flavors and aromas, varying levels of sweetness and acidity, and can possess body and flavors unique to the region and soil in which it was grown. These incredible characteristics can be destroyed by roasting or accentuated by it. We take account of many factors to roast each of our coffees with a tailored roast profile in order to develop this dynamic character in a way that creates a balanced yet interesting cup.
Washed, Natural - What Does Processing Mean?
Washed coffee doesn’t mean the beans are scrubbed like vegetables (haha, at least not quite!).
Dry processing, sometimes referred to as "dry washing," is one method of handling harvested coffee cherries. In this method, cherries are simply spread out in the courtyards of farms and left to dry naturally under the sun. This is the original processing style developed in Ethiopia and now widely used in Brazil as well.
In contrast, wet (or washed) processing involves peeling the fruit from the beans on the day of harvest. The beans are then placed in large cement fermentation tanks, where they rest for 12 to 24 hours (and in some cases, up to 2 to 3 days). During this time, naturally occurring bacteria begin to break down the sticky mucilage left on the beans after depulping.
Once fermentation is complete, the beans are rinsed to remove the remaining slime, often using a system of washing channels, before being dried.
That said, fermentation does occur in the dry method as well. It just happens naturally as the cherries dry in the sun, without being soaked in water or placed in tanks. Both methods involve fermentation, but the approach and process are quite different.
Coffee starts as the seed of a small cherry-like fruit. Before it can be roasted coffee has to be processed - the skin and flesh of the fruit need to be fully removed and the seed dried. There are several ways that this can be accomplished. Two of the most common are “washed” and “natural” processing. Washed process coffee tends to have a more mild character because the skin and fruit are washed off of the seed before it is dried. Natural processed coffee tends to have a more wild and often very fruity flavor because the fruit is left on the seed for part of the drying process and some amount of natural fermentation occurs. We get excited about both washed and natural coffees. Have you tried both?
How Elevation Affects Taste?
The elevation at which a coffee is grown doesn’t inherently make a coffee good or bad, though it can be used as an indicator of what quality to expect. At very high elevations, the coffee cherry is able to mature more slowly and a denser seed can develop. The density of the seed is important to us because a denser seed allows us to roast a more complex coffee. Along with the density, the elevation of coffee impacts its levels of sweetness and acidity and the flavor profile in general.
The information on altitude is just about the only statistically accurate indicator used in the entire coffee industry. There is very little room for mathematical parameters in the segment where taste is the main criterion of evaluation. Arabica coffee grows in altitudes higher than that of robustas and the greater the altitude of growing coffee, the more acidic it is in its flavor profile. This is why Arabica beans have an order of magnitude more pronounced acidity.
What Is The Role Of Fermentation In Coffee Processing?
Anyone might think roasting is the most important stage in a coffee bean’s journey, but it’s more accurate to say that if roasting marks the transition into maturity, then fermentation is the adolescent phase.
Fermentation, in simple terms, is the conversion of sugars and starches into alcohol and carbon dioxide by microorganisms, in the absence of air and with the help of enzymes. This process releases energy and initiates the breakdown of sugars in the coffee beans, allowing flavors to develop more clearly and distinctly.
Some believe that the fermentation stage in coffee processing is inspired by similar techniques used in cocoa processing. Whether or not that’s true, fermentation remains an essential part of coffee treatment today, contributing significantly to the final cup’s character and complexity.
How Is The Size Of Coffee Beans Related To Taste?
If you have two batches of roasted coffee beans - one with larger beans and the other with smaller ones, but both from the same parent variety, there should be no significant difference in taste purely due to size. In practice, bean size is more relevant for roasters than for consumers.
Larger beans offer a greater surface area, which allows for more even heat distribution during roasting. This makes them easier to roast consistently, which is why roasters often prefer them. As a result, larger beans tend to be in higher demand and naturally fetch a higher price.
However, the common belief that larger beans taste better is a misconception. This artificial link between size and flavor is more of a marketing tactic than a scientific truth. Visually, consumers are more inclined to choose bigger beans, which gives them a strong edge on the shelf—but not necessarily in the cup.
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