Coffee is an agricultural product and subject to the ebbs and flows of nature. Temperatures rise, soils change, periods of heavy rainfall or drought all can have an effect on yields and quality. Inevitably, coffees will change in flavor from harvest to harvest from even the most careful producers. To us, this seasonal change is what makes specialty coffee so incredibly valuable and exciting.
Our approach at Zazen is to embrace the seasonality of coffee by constantly rotating our offerings with the most recent harvests. We buy only what we need to get us through a few months of orders. This requires a ton of work on our end to constantly be sampling, cupping and developing different coffees but to us it is well worth the effort.
This approach may mean that a coffee you love is only available for a few months but that coffee will be at its most delicious during that time. Going through our inventory quickly means that these coffees don't have a chance to fade in quality before they get rotated out with a fresh harvest.
We encourage customers to try new coffees from various regions, roast levels and processing methods because it may end up being the best cup of coffee you've ever had. We get it, change is scary. But what's scarier, doing the same thing every day for the rest of your life or trying something new?
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