Why We Switched to Stumptown Coffee

When we opened in 2021 we were running a perfectly fine commodity-grade espresso. The drinks were good. Customers liked them. We were not thinking very hard about beans.

Then in early 2025 we did a side-by-side cupping with Stumptown's Hairbender blend, and the difference was not subtle. Where our old espresso went bitter at the tail, Hairbender held a clean, sweet finish. The crema was darker. The shot pulled cleaner. We tried it in a latte. The chocolate notes carried through the milk in a way the old beans just couldn't.

Two weeks later we made the switch.

The Direct Trade Part

Switching to Stumptown wasn't purely a cup-quality decision, though that's what made it easy. The other half of the choice was their Direct Trade program.

Most coffee in the world is sold through commodity markets. Farmers don't know who buys their beans. Roasters don't know which farms grew theirs. The price floats with futures contracts and weather speculation. It's opaque, it's volatile, and it's how almost all coffee gets bought.

Direct Trade flips that. Stumptown buys directly from farms they have multi-year relationships with. They pay a documented premium over market price. They visit the farms. They publish the sourcing chain. When a guest at our bar asks "where does your espresso come from," we can give them an actual answer that points to a real farmer and a real harvest year.

That's the part we couldn't do with our previous beans, and it's the part that mattered to us.

What Changed for Customers

If you were a regular before May 2025 and you didn't notice the switch, that's probably the highest compliment we could get — it means the swap didn't feel like a downgrade, it just felt like normal coffee that happened to be slightly better.

Specifically, here's what changed:

• Espresso pulls cleaner. Less bitter tail, more apparent sweetness without adding sugar.
• Lattes carry chocolate notes through the milk. This was the most obvious difference for the rosewater latte and mocha.
• Decaf is now Trapper Creek. Smoother, lower-acid. Decaf used to be the drink we apologized for. Now it's genuinely good on its own.
• You can buy the beans to take home. Both Hairbender and Trapper Creek are stocked at the counter — $19.95 a bag. Same beans we use, no markup over Stumptown direct.

What We Kept the Same

Our drip is still a separate house roast — different bean profile better suited to long brew times. Our Armenian coffee is still sourced separately, in small batches, finely ground for the jazve. Stumptown is the espresso program specifically.

And — most importantly — none of this changed our prices. Drip is still $4.50. Espresso is still $4.25. Latte is still $6.25. The bean upgrade came out of our margin, not yours.

The Bottom Line

If you want to taste the difference, the easiest comparison is the Coffee Flight ($17, four small pours side-by-side). Drink the espresso first, then the latte, then the cold brew, and finally the seasonal cup. The Hairbender character is most obvious in the first two.

Or just come in and order a cortado. That's the cleanest single shot of what Stumptown actually tastes like in our cups.

We're happy with the switch. Three months in, the staff likes pulling shots more, the regulars haven't complained, and a few have specifically said the latte tastes better than they remember. That's about the best outcome a quiet bean-swap can have.