It’s been 5 years since they opened their doors, but there is not a day when you can walk into Ritual Coffee Roasters and not find a line of people eagerly waiting for their famed coffee. Turning back the clock to when Eileen Hassi first opened Ritual’s doors on Valencia Street across from her hero, writer David Eggers’ Pirate Store, she started with a simple mission of making great coffee for the people of San Francisco and to always remember that no matter how tough things got, to always be nice. This goal of making great coffee set her on a journey that led to origin, to the farms, and to the people and communities where coffee is grown...
It was then that her journey became a personal one. Seeing “The Big Picture” -- that coffee is the number two-traded commodity in the world, Eileen felt she could make a difference. This means that the way we buy coffee has a huge impact on communities all over the world and in countries like Guatemala and Rwanda.
Setting forth to make a positive impact, Eileen spends great efforts in educating and connecting her staff with this ideal and by sending her staff to origin to see what it is to pick coffee. Whether it’s contributing by buying school supplies for the coffee producers’ kids in Honduras, or sponsoring music programs in schools in Brazil, Ritual strives to educate employees that what they are doing is connected to something bigger and that they are the last step in a long chain of people who have worked very hard. These efforts do not go unnoticed…
The bustling café has become iconic in the world of coffee. Ritual is commonly known and credited as being in the forefront of the 3rd wave coffee roasting movement. Ritual has a strong emphasis on Single origin coffees. Great effort is taken to educate customers about the origin of the coffee bean. Café blackboards honor the farmer by listing the coffee estate, type of bean and the country it was grown in. With great focus on seasonality and sustainability, the coffee changes frequently. Ritual favors medium roasts that preserve flavors better than dark roasts do. When asked Eileen will tell you, “Our goal in roasting is to be invisible. If you can taste the roast, we’ve done something wrong.”
We think that Ritual is doing a whole lot of things right.
5 Years later, Eileen’s mission statement has changed… “To be a playground for people who love coffee while building a sustainable business model and investing in the communities both locally and globally.”
Roasting Process / Roaster:
Gas - Drum / Probat L12
