Ahh, Gay Coffee, you say…?

That’s right people: it’s coffee, and it’s gay!

First, we find the highest quality fair trade, organic coffee in the world. Then, it’s lovingly roasted, in small batches, by hand – by gays! But that’s not all. At Gay Coffee, we take some stereotypes and themes we all recognize, we own them and have fun with them, and then we throw in a splash of our collective cultural and civil rights history. The result is the fusion of fabulous coffee and our unique legacy.

Gay owned and operated, we strive to make a unique product that is as delicious as it is informative and super fun, and a percentage of all profits from Gay Coffee will benefit the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Craft Roasting

We roast phenomenal tasting coffee. By hand, in small batches, one bean at a time. Ok, not one bean…but pretty darn close.

Gay Coffees are all roasted by hand on a traditional drum barrel, gas fired roaster. Our roaster can handle about 25 pounds per batch, but we don’t roast more than 12 to 15 pounds at a time, as this bean mass to airflow ratio produces a more evenly roasted bean in the smaller batch. The combination of gentle heat (conducted through infra-red heat exchangers) and the perfect amount of airflow is key to bringing the best out of the bean. Our technology may be a little old fashioned – we don’t use computerized data loggers and pneumatic loaders. We prefer our time tested profile logs, inspecting and loading the raw beans by hand, and tracking each roast as we create it. The best roasting technique bring out both the inherent flavor and taste attributes in the bean – while at the same time showcasing flavors induced by the roast profile. The result is incredibly fresh, vibrant coffee. We roast coffee the way a chef creates an individual meal. Single origin roasts are constantly cupped and profiles adjusted for crop and ambient temperature variation. And we never preblend coffees in the green for blended offerings!

Sound fancy? Fanatical? Fun? It’s all three! Gay Coffee roastmaster Melissa Krueger got her coffee roasting chops in small batch craft roasting several years ago, and unlike the vast majority of artisan coffee roasters who grow into 50, 100, or 150 pound batch machines, she founded Gay Coffee on the same principles of small batch craft roasting.

All of our coffees we purchase are certified at origin as Fair Trade and either organic or in organic transition. (‘Transitional’ coffees are from cooperatives who are on the 3 year path to organic certification. Their coffees are technically organic – and in order to meet industry wide standards they must undergo a 3 year process). We support their efforts to certify by investing in their coffees! Presently, Gay Coffee is not registered with Fair Trade USA (formally Transfair) which licenses a common fair trade label to products.. There are a lot of reasons for this, which we will be blogging about in the very near future. In short -we don’t agree with the minimized standards and manipulative branding associated with Fair Trade USA, which has moved away from genuinely supporting coffee growers. Unlike the vast majority of coffee companies in the world – even those who have a fair trade sticker on their products – Gay Coffee is a 100% fair trade company. We are looking into new, better fair trade labeling options that we feel support the mission of true fair trade, and will keep you posted. Meanwhile, in the coming weeks, we will be adding the FLO (International Fair trade Labeling Organization) numbers to our website so you – the Gay Coffee consumer – can our fair trade purchasing practices for yourself!

Want to know more? Do you have a great idea?

We’re a start-up. We’d love your feedback or ideas. What can we improve? What would you like to see? Do you know a store owner that would like to carry Gay Coffee? Do you have a crazy idea to help us sell Gay Coffee?

Send us a note on the Contact Us page.