FAQ

Rustic Route goes through an extensive process to find the highest quality beans available with unique flavor profiles. We roast all beans in Barnesville, MD on our new Mill City roaster. If you have questions about the beans, roasting process or products please contact us through email.

All our beans are roasted and sold as single origin. This offers the greatest chance of tasting the authentic flavors of the beans from different locations, We aim to have specialty origins throughout the year.

When you order it! We do not roast any beans until they have been purchased. You could have the highest quality beans, but they won’t taste right unless they are as fresh as possible. Every bag will have a roast date on the bottom. Beans are best if used within 2-3 weeks of roast date.

See our locations page for store names and addresses where you can purchase Rustic Route Coffee in person.

High quality beans are grown in idle settings for coffee beans that create their own natural pest control such as bats and birds. Pesticides are only needed when growing in regions that are not natural for coffee plants.

 

There are many key words in coffee that describes the quality of the bean you are purchasing. Organic is a key word that has great intentions. It implies that the beans are “clean” and were grown without pesticides. Typically Arabica coffee grown at high altitude in shade doesn’t need pesticides. The best quality beans come from these regions and this is where our beans are grown. In addition, the organic label is expensive. Many smaller producers cannot afford an organic certification which comes with a huge price tag and a lot of regulations that are costly. Unfortunately, these costs are not usually reflected in the sale price of the beans.

 

This is also true for coffee roasters. The cost of being able to label our products organic is prohibitive for an artisan roaster even though most of our beans are grown in organic conditions. We purchase most of our beans from Sweet Maria’s, a major coffee importer that specializes in traditionally grown coffees and small coffee growers who use sustainable farming methods. (see https://library.sweetmarias.com/organic-certification-and-green-coffee)