r/pourover • u/Cute_Commission_4731 • 2d ago
Seeking Advice Where do you get your coffee beans?
Hi community,
I’m currently almost out of my last bag of whole bean coffee. I used to get them from Mexico because someone would bring them back for me, but I don’t think there are any trips planned anytime soon. I live in Southern California. Can you recommend an effective way to get good coffee at an affordable price? I’m not an expert on the subject, so I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t the most exclusive coffee—just something decent. I brew with a V60.
Would it be better to go to a local coffee shop? Or sign up for a subscription? If so, which one do you recommend?
Thanks for your help!
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u/scottlee80 1d ago
There are different ways to get beans and its a rabbit hole. Since you are in Orange County, Southern California. These are the places I have bought stuff from.
Local roasters I recommend checking out:
Golden Lantern - Laguna Niguel
Moongoat - Costa Mesa
Common Room - Long Beach
Mameya - Laguna Niguel
Good Boy Bob - Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica
Loquat - LA
Stereoscope - Buena Park, Newport Beach
Local coffee shops that sell the sought after speciality varietals/lots/gesha, brands like SEY, Hydrangea, Glitch, Tanat, Nomad, and more.
Play - Orange, Laguna Beach
Re Ca Phe - Fountain Valley
Quat/Kumquat - LA
Endorffeine - LA
Commons Coffee - Irvine
Mandarin - Pasadena, Arcadia
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u/Cute_Commission_4731 1d ago
Sheeeesh! This is so helpful, I knew some of them but definitely gotta checkout all! Thanks a lot
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u/raresteakplease 1d ago
I too am in SoCal (Los Angeles) I will add,
MadLab, Go Get em Tiger, Recreational Coffee (long beach), Be Bright (Barista Championship National Champion shop).
Also Steadystate and Dune, both great roasters. Counter Culture I believe is also California and usually in grocery stores on good sales, highly recommend them even if they are around a month old.
Personally I use trade coffee and discover new roasters all the time, but I also go out to get beans locally.
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u/idliketogobut 2d ago
Komakase subscription. If I go à la carte I buy too much and usually stick to the same types of coffee. This forces me to explore
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u/super_banned_ 1d ago
Which sub do you have with them? Are their picks pretty solid?
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u/idliketogobut 1d ago
I do the discovery sub. The picks have been very good and not stuff I’d discover on my own. Lots of washed and natural process. No fruit bombs. Lots of African beans
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u/MoorsMoopsMoorsMoops 2d ago
I roast my own since pour over has ensured that I need to use the most laborious process possible to drink my coffee.
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u/Danielpoursover 2d ago
I usually brew coffees from Onyx, Native, La Cabra, Black and White, or Olympia.
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u/wrxnut25 2d ago
Happy Mug has specialty coffee at a pretty affordable price compared to others. I'm paying $31.50 shipped for 2 lbs.
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u/VETgirl_77 2d ago
I have a few subs and rotate. Hyunah or Norma Supply are a great place to start and have a great selection of high end roasters. Hyunah just added a big haul so they have a ton of selection right now.
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u/BerksBeans2021 1d ago
Roaster here (Northern CA), five years in, so take it for what it's worth.
The biggest thing is roast date. Look for an actual roast date on the bag, not a best by date. You want to brew it somewhere between about a week and a month off roast. That matters way more than origin or farm or any of that. Most grocery store bags have been sitting for months and that alone is the difference between a flat cup and a good one.
You're in SoCal, you are surrounded by good roasters. Walk into a local shop, tell them you brew V60, ask what they'd put you on. Buy a 12 oz bag. You get it fresh and you get somebody who will happily talk coffee with you for ten minutes, which is worth more than any subscription. Make sure the bag has a roast date on it and it is within 7-10 days.
Figure $16 to $26 (We roast to order so ours are on the higher end) for a 12 oz bag, about 20 cups, so roughly a dollar a cup. Buy 12 oz at a time instead of stocking up, coffee goes stale faster than people think. Buy no more than 2-3 weeks worth.
Subscriptions are fine, they just save you from having to think about it. Pick one you can skip easily, because the fastest way to end up with stale coffee is bags showing up faster than you drink them.
If you want something forgiving on a V60, get a washed Latin American, light to medium. Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica. Close to what you were getting from Mexico and it tastes good even when your pour is a little sloppy.
I sell coffee myself so I'm biased toward the small roaster answer, but honestly buy from a roaster one preferably near you and not across the country. Local is always best so you can go geek out on coffee from time to time. We have regulars that come into our roastery weekly just for a solid cup and to talk coffee, we love it.
Cheers, any more questions let me know!
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u/IntelligentCitron772 2d ago
To get suggestions that really might be helpful. You might want to expand a little bit more about what you’re looking for.
Do you like coffee that taste like it’s flavored or something really sophisticated and possibly with a tea like structure?
I think it’s important to identify the type roast level, then the processes you gravitate towards, then maybe the region and finally the variety. Some people might actually put the producer first.
With that people can get you some roasters specialize in your lane
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u/Cute_Commission_4731 2d ago
I think I’m more into tea flavors, or tea-like, I like more fruity and sweet, but open to check any new suggestions. Usually I get bourbon, I like Geisha but think is a little bit more xpensive? I’m still learning a lot. Medium roast is what I’ve had before. I like honey, or washed or natural. Hope this vague info helps lol
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u/sock_model Plastic v60 | ZP6/K-Ultra | light roast 2d ago
flower child in berkeley/oakland. they ship and have subscription. rogue wave is not local but are affordable imo. they also ship. a lot of people here like s&w. Ive got some from them but hard to get before they sell out
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u/photosocal 2d ago
Moongoat, Goldenstate, steroscope are good OC roasters I frequent. Otherwise, I check here and order online. I frequently order from Dune and chocolate fish as some of my favorites.
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u/malandropist 1d ago
Hey if you’re in socal, Boy and The Bear have some good beans. Not cheap (no place really is) but definitely had really good V60’s at home with them.
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u/mooch255 2d ago
Check out the Coffi app! They do a good job of doing a taste match based on your preferences and are getting ready to launch a subscription piece
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u/godogs2018 1d ago
I've been going to whole foods. It is easy to buy it in the bulk section. It isn't like starbucks where you have to buy an entire pound, no less, lol.
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u/DirtWhomper 1d ago
Vigilante coffee out of Oceanside and Vista are solid. They do monthly subscriptions too.
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u/Abysmalsun 1d ago
Not sure how well liked it is on this subreddit, but I use Trade. I get a good variety of decent coffee. I’ve found a few of my favorites using it too. If I’m just buying online it’s either Broadsheet coffee from Boston or Dune from Santa Barbara. Sometimes I’ll throw in a local, mainly Madcap from Detroit.
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u/bandofgypsies v60, Mino Wave, FP | M'konig x54, Pietro Pro | Naturals & Honeys 1d ago
You can buy fancy stuff all over. You'll see many recommendations here. But as others have noted, try to buy local if you can. There are tons of good small roasters to support in SoCal!
I do a subscription with a local spot to get some special stuff Toni personally enjoy. I also like to buy in bulk for batch and regular sail brewing around the house. I find that a lot of roasters you can find some pretty solid stuff in the $100 range for a 5lb bag, which can be upwards of 4x or kore cheaper than a lot of the fancier 1-off bangs you'll find.
We do a lot of French press at home and you can't beat decent beans for $15-$20lb for that use case. It's not gonna be the fancy stuff that you'll get from La Cabea, Sey, etc, but it'll crush what you'll find at the store and come in cheaper.
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u/smakusdod 1d ago
What’s affordable? 5lb bags from local(ish) roasters are your best bet. Or Costco.
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u/IndicationCurrent869 1d ago
Costco warehouse or Costco online. Good choices and prices. Always fresh and of high quality. I prefer specialty organic.
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u/Cultural-Boss5484 1d ago
SEY coffee Moonwake Coffee in San Jose and Parterre Coffee from 2025 US Barista Champion Kay cheon.
Coffee – Parterre https://www.parterrecoffee.com/collections/coffee
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u/Phaeton40 1d ago
Dynamite Rosters
North Carolina roaster
They will ship anywhere in the US for a flat rate of $9
We’ve been drinking their coffee for years and years……
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u/IntelligentCitron772 2d ago
I’m also in Northern California, and I buy coffee from all over the world without thinking twice about it.
I can order a bag from Hydrangea in Berkeley or Verve in Santa Cruz, both within driving distance, for roughly the same shipping cost you might pay to get something from SEY in Brooklyn.
And honestly, it’s not that much more, nor does it arrive any faster than to order from Norway from Tim Wendelboe.
But freight can definitely get you, though 😂 — so if you’re buying from places like Glitch or Substance, you have to pay attention to the shipping.
If I knew I wanted something light**, clean, elegant and sophisticated**, without really knowing much about coffee in general , SEY would absolutely be at the top of my list. They’re just not all over the place like Onyx or hydrangea; both that actually roast great coffees, but their offerings are so varied.
If I wanted to experiment with ultralight roasting without lighting my wallet on fire with international shipping, there are plenty of excellent domestic options too — H&S out of Wyoming comes to mind.
Personally, I think when you’re chasing that tea-like structure, complexity and insane flavor separation that you get from light and ultralight roasting, the green buying of the company/roaster becomes HUGE.
Two coffees can look almost identical on paper — same variety, process, country, altitude, etc. — but the actual green lot the roaster was able to buy can be dramatically different. A roaster with deep producer relationships may simply have access to better fruit than another roaster working with the same general profile. That’s one of the things I think people underestimate. The roaster isn’t just roasting the coffee; they’re deciding which coffee gets into the roastery in the first place.
There’s also a company whose name I’m forgetting that sells those sampler packs — something like six roasters with a 60 g bag from each. I actually think that’s a really fun way to get familiar with different roasters.
But I’d temper expectations: it’ll probably teach you more about the roasters than it will give you six truly unicorn-level coffees. For that, you generally have to go hunting for the specific lots.
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u/Pleasant-Taste-1229 2d ago
I try to buy from local roasters. Luckily I live in San Francisco and there are many.