Hydrangea Coffee Roasters
Hydrangea Coffee Roasters is a specialty coffee roaster out of Berkeley, California. Their artwork is unique and memorable and their mission is to provide you with the highest quality, experimental coffee possible; all the while remaining ethically sourced and sustainable. Their slogan, “Light, Fruit-forward, Experimental Coffees” accurately encapsulates their brand. If you’re not familiar with coffee though, the high entry price and deep coffee jargon can come across as snobby and easily turn you away from their amazing products.
Who are Hydrangea Coffee Roasters?
The owner Billy Li is a career software and founded Hydrangea coffee as a passion project. He was introduced to coffee by his high school chemistry teacher that taught him about the chemistry of coffee. His teacher would explain the various methods of brewing and extraction of different types of coffee.
As for the name, Billy’s mom really enjoys hydrangea flowers which was an important factor in the decision, but Billy also has an affinity to pink, of which is a predominant color of the flower.
Where is Hydrangea Sourcing its Coffee?
Billy originally said that he spent considerable time Googling for acceptable coffee roasters to meet the quality requirements he expected Hydrangea to be at. He has to work with small farms due to the limitations of bulk orders from both a pricing and quality standpoint. Bigger farms want larger purchase orders which comes at a high price and possibly varying quality. As a result, Hydrangea purchases from smaller farms with higher quality and unique flavor profiles, while adding a bit of exclusivity to each batch.
Some of the coffee importers Billy says he uses are Apex Coffee Imports, Cofinet, and Royal Coffee, while some of the coffees are bought directly from the farmers themselves. Also sourcing from
Café Granja La Esperanza.
Hydrangea Business Ethics
All business owners want to make money, that goes without saying. What I respect about what Billy is that he states he’s not in it for exclusively profits, as the company wasn’t started with the intention of consuming Billy’s life as a business owner. It started as a hobby/passion project for specialty coffee that ended up in its own niche of unique flavors.
Since Hydrangea purchases extremely high quality coffee beans, the process to roast them at scale is limited due to lack of availability. Additionally, dark roasts are where the money is, and is what most consumers prefer, and the lower quality of the bean has a higher profit margin for the company. Hydrangea’s profit margin is only about 20% while the industry standard is about 60-80% on a bag of coffee.
Another admirable aspect of Hydrangea is they fairly pay their artists and have custom art for every batch of coffee—something not really seen in the coffee industry and a quality I appreciate as the artwork is gorgeous. Billy also believes in sustainability and ensures everyone involved with Hydrangea is paid well, because again, Hydrangea is not a profit seeking company. Running a sustainable and morally conscious company that roasts limited batches of coffee requires significnt money, and for a business to continue increasing profits means to decrease the quality in the operations—something Billy isn’t willing to compromise.
Coffee Flavor Review
I had high expectations going into Hydrangea based on reviews and the art style. I feel any company with creative branding has to have good quality products since such consideration in branding usually means the owner has a clear vision for how the company is perceived.
I subscribed to the roaster’s choice to get started on my journey with Hydrangea. So far I’ve had two bags sent to me with two more on the way. My first batch contained Los Pirineos Pacamara and Los Capachos Washed. Enamored with the artwork I was excited to start grinding. I started with the Los Capachos which has notes of lime, hibiscus, and pomegranate.
Upon opening the bag I could immediately smell the citrus notes which was enough for me to know I was in for a good brew session. As expected, the Los Capachos had a lovely fruity and citrus flavor. I’m not trained on the tens of official flavor profiles of coffee, but I could taste the intense flavor of citrus. This was my favorite of the two.
The Los Pirineos has the flavor profile of praline, lemonade, and grape. I couldn’t identify the flavor notes as easily as with the Capachos. It definitely lacked the citrus I was accustomed to from the first bag. The Pirineos fell a bit flatter but I did get some nuttiness of the praline. The coffee is still excellent and has a very distinct flavor that I thoroughly enjoy. All coffee sold by Hydrangea are lightly roasted and really bring out the flavor of the bean. Every cup I drink has left me extremely satisfied, more than any coffee to date.
Conclusion
Hydrangea Coffee Roasters do not have a high profile online presence so it took quite a bit of research to find the information I could. Hydrangea achieves a feat most commodity companies could only dream of executing, and that’s starting a company out of love and growing it with respect for every piece of the operation. Employees are paid well, the coffee is sourced from lots free of exploitation, artists are well compensated, and the customers are offered a superior coffee that is rarely available. Hydrangea Coffee Roasters will keep my subscription for quite some time as I highly recommend anyone to grab a bag or sign up for yourself.