People ask me sometimes why we roast to order, and what that actually means in practice. It's simple, really: we get an estimate of how much coffee we need to fulfill that roasting day, and that's the amount we roast.
Wouldn't it be easier to just roast a lot and leave it on a shelf? Coffee doesn't spoil the way milk does, after all, it can actually last a year or more. And the honest answer is: yes, it would be easier. But easier isn't our way, and it's not always best.
Why Freshness Actually Matters
Here's the thing about coffee: it won't spoil the way other food does, so a bag won't ever really go "bad." But flavour is a different story. It fades steadily from the moment coffee is roasted, and by month five, what's in your cup is simply not the coffee it was in week two after roasting. Coffee is at its peak in the first month after roasting, holds beautifully for about four months, and after that, it flattens. The bright, distinct notes fade into something duller, more generic. Still coffee. Just not the coffee it was capable of being.
Being coffee producers in El Salvador for four generations, and knowing the effort our fellow producers and we put into earning a great cup score and a great harvest, it doesn't make sense to let that work go to waste sitting on a shelf. Someone spent a year growing that cherry. We're not going to let it fade before it reaches you.
You deserve better coffee, and coffee deserves to be tasted at its best, not just sold.
Why We Roast Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Coffee needs a few days to rest right after roasting and release the CO2 built up during the process, what's called degassing, and why coffee bags have a one-way valve. Those days it spends in transit to you are the perfect time to let it rest. By the time it reaches your door, it's approaching its peak flavour.
It's a little wild to think that just two years ago, we were only roasting one day a week. As Crickle Creek Coffee has grown, we've been able to add two more roasting days, and that's not a small thing to us. We know how it feels to run out of coffee and have to wait longer than you'd like for more, it's genuinely one of the worst small frustrations of a coffee lover's week. Growing enough to roast more often means you wait less after you place an order.
Bruce, Larry, and the delivery service we use do an excellent job making sure your coffee arrives safely to you. If you're in Calgary or nearby, in Okotoks, Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere, High River, Millarville, Black Diamond, Turner Valley, Priddis, Bragg Creek, or Dewinton, we have free local delivery on orders over $30. Further out, we ship free across Canada on orders over $60, and the timing works exactly the same way: roasted for you, shipped next day after roasting. Usually taking 1 to 3 days to arrive.
Why We Don't Change This
I won't pretend roasting to order doesn't create headaches. Roasting in big batches, or jumping on retail opportunities that come our way, would certainly be easier. But every time we consider it, it goes against what we're building, the vision we stand for and want to bring to you. With so many coffee brands out there, some that don't even roast their own beans, we're not interested in being one more bag on a shelf. We'll take quality, community, and freshness over speed and scale, every single time.
If you'd rather not think about ordering at all, our coffee subscription does it for you. Pick your coffee, set your frequency, save on every order. Swap it, skip it, cancel it, anytime. Set it once. We'll take care of the rest.
Brew Boldly, Live Fully.
Adriana