Yes, we are proud to roast our coffee to order in small batches to ensure that you are always receiving the freshest coffee beans possible. Roasted to Order is our commitment for every coffee order placed online: whether it's directly through our online coffee store or through our valued partners at Trade, Beanz, Bean Box, Mistobox, Terra Kaffe, and Bottomless.

Our philosophy of freshness extends to everywhere else that you may encounter Equator Coffees out in the world, too. We're always delivering freshly roasted coffee to our grocery, restaurant, and hospitality partners.

The Equator Coffees roastery is located at 115 Jordan Street, San Rafael, CA, 94901. This is our center of operations where all of the roasting magic happens.

We also have twelve Equator cafes located throughout California in Marin, San Francisco, East Bay, Peninsula, Los Angeles and Orange County, all of which can be found via our cafe locator.

Our philosophy of traceability and transparency in sourcing coffee here at Equator goes back to the very beginning of our story. Just after her first trip Guatemala to study coffee production with the Chipicay Cooperative in the late 90's, our co-founder Brooke McDonnell helped to establish Equator Coffees as an early partner of Fair Trade USA. Their innovative model of responsible business and conscious consumerism helped to shape they way in which we've sourced coffee for almost 30 years.

We believe in fostering longstanding direct trade relationships with farms, cooperatives, and exporters that align with our values of sustainable farming practices and fair worker compensation. Some of our longest standing partnerships include Hacienda La Esmeralda in Panama, Koperasi Ketiara in Sumatra, and El Injerto in Guatemala. A detailed chart of our long term producer partnerships can be found on our Impact page.

We buy our coffee from top sustainable farms and cooperatives from throughout South America, Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Indonesia, many of which are USDA Organic, Fair Trade, or Regenerative Organic Certified®.

Look for the Origin Story section on any coffee page here on our website for a detailed breakdown of where each coffee comes from.

Among the many species of coffee, the two most broadly cultivated are arabica and robusta. At Equator, we only source arabica coffee due to its higher cupping quality and superior taste profile.

The heritage of the Arabica coffee that populates farms throughout the world can actually be traced back to a small number of trees from Ethiopia, where Arabica coffee is native.

Today, the largest producers of arabica coffee include Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, and Honduras.

The coffee that you encounter out in the world falls into one of two categories: specialty or commodity. These classifications represent very different degrees of care and traceability.

Commodity coffee (the 'C Market'), as its name might suggest, prioritizes mass production over quality. The low price of this coffee often undervalues the intense labor and investment required from communities to grow and harvest coffee.

In contrast, specialty coffee represents higher commitments to harvest quality and unique flavor profiles and typically reflects the best growing practices for any given region. As defined by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), these are coffees with a score of 80 or above when tested for flavor, aroma, mouthfeel, and other key grading attributes. Alongside their high quality, specialty coffee producers—from independent farms to grower cooperatives—are customarily more sustainable, traceable, and better compensated for their efforts.

At Equator Coffees, we exclusively purchase specialty coffee and frequently pay an additional premium to ensure that we are sourcing the best of the best and sufficiently investing back into our talented producer partners and their communities.

In 2011, we became the very first coffee roaster in California to be certified as a B Corporation, marking a pivotal moment in our dedication to sustainable business practices. We have maintained this certification ever since.

Our B Corp Certification underscores our unwavering commitment to transparency, accountability, and positive impact across our entire company, from our supply chain, to our employees, to the wider community and environment. Being a B Corp affirms our belief in using business and coffee as forces for good.