PERC Coffee is a colorful, small business coffee roasting company located in Savannah, Georgia. PERC started as a grassroots company founded in 2010 by Phillip Brown. The owner started as a one-man company before hiring his mom and dad as additional help—so a legit family business.
As the roasting business started taking off, Philip realized he’d need to start opening some retail locations. There are now six, modern and beautifully cozy cafes located around Atlanta and one in Savannah, the primary location, all built on the careful roasting of their carefully procured coffee.
The team has grown significantly and many of whom can be found on their team page. It’s nice to see that the team appears to be vibrant and passionate, and the exact people I would want to roast my coffee.
Coffee Sourcing From Traceable Estates
PERC coffee sources their coffee from all over the world. This is a good sign because it means they aren’t relying on a single farm to overproduce, and it also means we get coffees from a diverse range of estates. Each new product release is accompanied with a short biography of the origin and coffee attributes (elevation, varietal, brew guide, flavor). Transparency is welcomed as it allows us the due diligence to not only learn about the coffee and its process, but to also learn about a certain producer if we wish to continue supporting them.
As of writing this, the “Colombia Edinson Argote Gesha” is the latest release. For this coffee, Edinson Argote is the name of the coffee producer. A quick search validates Edinson’s credibility in the industry; a young Colombian coffee producer, known for his extremely bold flavors and high-quality beans. PERC Coffee securing a batch from Edinson’s estate is a great sign of supporting farmers directly, while giving PERC customers the ability to enjoy a taste from this esteemed farm. Edinson’s coffee is available through many specialty roasters, which tells us the coffee is in demand and PERC has established a relationship with a reputable coffee producer for their customers. By collaborating with varying coffee producers, the customers can continue receiving quality coffee without having to constantly rotate between roasters for new flavors.
Recruitment Lots – An Opportunity to Explore Up and Coming Coffee Producers
Occasionally, PERC will release a “recruitment lot” which is coffee from inexperienced producers to give them a platform to sell their coffee. This is another great example of how PERC isn’t just sourcing for the prestigious coffee producers around the world, but they are uplifting communities to provide income and critique to their coffees. In any industry, breaking through as a new entity is difficult. When I saw the recruitment lot was available, I knew I had to give it a try. And as expected, the flavor wasn’t matching their more established roasts, however, for the price and quality, I’d buy it again just to support the mission and the fact that the coffee made a great daily driver for work.
The goal of the Recruitment Lot is to identify and develop emerging producers who have chosen coffee as both a passion and a profession. The program goes beyond supporting youth. It highlights talented producers crafting exceptional coffee while helping them to establish and build their brands. Once approved, the coffees are blended into a large shared lot.
Roasting Profiles Skillfully Bring Out Flavor
The coffees are all roasted with careful consideration of its origin and flavor notes. What I really appreciate about PERC’s product listings is that they don’t give you the choice of roast profile, meaning the coffee is roasted to how they believe it should be consumed. Instead of the standard light to dark profile, they simply give you a range of strength from “mild” to “wild”, mild being a standard, albeit great coffee roast that you can reliable predict the flavor, and wild being for the more experimental flavors that bring out unique, uncharacteristic flavors from the coffee.
A nice feature of PERC is that they have a page that explains all the details of how their bags are color coded to visually represent the flavor profile. Blue bags being the more mild, smooth experiences while the pink bags are more experimental. What I found strange is they do not disclose what the yellow bags are, of which I have bought many times (blends perhaps?).
Now, with all that said, PERC does offer darker roasts in the blue bags. I haven’t tried one and what I immediately noticed was that their current dark roast has little information about the process and origin, but is advertised as the flagship espresso coffee, known as The Juggernaut.
How’s the Taste?
PERC’s coffee generally tastes like the flavors they claim, and the coffee is very good. Many of the flavor names are a bit grandiose such as “jolly rancher”, “gummy bear”, etc. which are not in the official sensory lexicon of coffee flavor profiles. Often times the more detailed flavors are in the description. I’ve yet to have a bad bag of PERC and really appreciate the consistency in quality.
Each coffee release has supporting documentation (yes, documentation) about how to best process the coffee, either by pour overs, espressos, cold brews, etc. PERC goes to great lengths to ensure their customers are bringing out the best flavor possible of their coffees. Given how expensive the coffee can be, it’s integral to grind and brew it correctly. Personally, I put everything through my Chemex or Hario, and I imagine most specialty coffee connoisseurs do something similar, but the additional guides are a welcomed insight to how PERC believes the coffee should be processed.
Conclusion
In my opinion, PERC’s greatest strength is they make their specialty coffee culture very welcoming. This is a great case study of how branding and marketing are extremely important, as it can drive the right consumers to the brand. Admittedly, PERC’s colors and simple designs are what drew me in, and then the depth of their credibility and coffee knowledge is what kept me as a customer.
Specialty coffee has a tendency to scare away new consumers away due to price point and complexity, but where PERC shines is they have a coffee for the consumers that just want a solid, consistent cup of coffee, and limited releases with experimental processing at higher price points. Veterans and casual coffee drinkers are welcomed at PERC.
I can highly recommend PERC if you want a good blend of consistent daily drivers and some rarer estates on rotation. I tend to grab a couple of the usual bags and one featured bag for each of my purchases. Either way, you won’t be disappointed, so give them a try if you’re looking to expand your coffee collection.