Roaster Profile: Hygge Coffee Co.

Hey, gang! This is the first of a new KC Coffee Geek feature I’m testing out… separate posts for our featured roasters, rather than trying to build their stories into the reviews. This will keep things more readable and concise in the reviews and give me an opportunity to share the cool stories of the roasters that support KC Coffee Geek’s mission to bring great coffee to you from the heart of the country in Kansas City! If you have an opinion about these posts, leave it in the comments!

HYGGE COFFEE CO.

You can’t start a story out about Hygge Coffee Co. without dealing with the elephant in the room first… how the heck do you pronounce that word, and what does it mean? It’s said, “hyoo-guh,” and (not “High-ghee” like I was saying!) it’s a Danish word that “symbolizes the art of building sanctuary and community, of inviting closeness and paying attention to what makes us feel open hearted and alive.”[ref]http://hyggecoffeeco.com[/ref] Dang! That’s deep, my friends. The word also has connotations with simplicity and mindfulness of the present moment, feeling rooted, generosity and at the same time, acceptance of the generosity of others.

Hygge Coffee Co. is a retail and wholesale roaster (no cafe at the time of this article) that started like so many others with a pan, a fire and some green coffee beans from Sweet Maria’s. Hygge is based in Missoula, MT and was founded by Andrew Squires and John Yoder. They roast on a San Franciscan SF-25 and try to focus on fair trade and organic coffees whenever possible. I couldn’t find an exact date of when they started operations, but they got their big SF-25 roaster around August or September of 2014 and have since developed quite a few retailer and wholesale relationships in the Missoula community. Hopefully we can get Hygge Coffee Co. shipping all over the world now!

On that note, Hygge’s shipping for US customers is always free and coffee prices range in the $12-$16 range per 12oz bag on everything they have available currently. I even spied a Long Miles Coffee Project (readers know how much I love those coffees!) Gishubi Hill offering for only $12! Whoa!

Andrew from Hygge Coffee Co. sent me three of their coffees to try out: a Grade 1 Banko Gutiti natural from Yirgacheffe (which I’m drinking right now and is floral and sweet), a Brazil from Fazenda California and some of that Burundi Gishubi Hill I just mentioned. Woo hoo! You can look forward to these reviews in the coming week and we’ll roll into the 4th of July weekend tomorrow morning looking at that Ethiopian natural. Keep on geekin’ on, my friends!