Fourteener Coffee Club
Where the money goes
Buy a bag from a national brand and the price splits between a distant roasting plant, a distribution warehouse and a marketing budget. Buy the same bag from a roaster in Denver, Boulder or Durango and it pays a roaster's wages on South Broadway, a barista's shift on Pearl Street and a lease on Main Avenue. Colorado has 156 independent roasters by the count of the Roast Local directory, and every one of them runs on people in this state choosing them over the grocery aisle.
Some of them say it plainly. Loyal Coffee's founders describe their decision to stay and invest in Colorado Springs as watering the grass at their feet. Sweet Bloom in Lakewood puts part of every sale back into the communities where its staff live and work. Those are business choices that only hold up when the bags keep selling.
The jobs are here
A roastery is a workplace. Boxcar in Boulder employs a team of about 50 people across its cafes, bakery and roastery. Huckleberry runs eight cafes across Denver, Wheat Ridge and Centennial, each one a set of jobs that exists because Denver drinks its coffee. Wagon Coffee in Denver hires and supports women in recovery, and wants its coffee in recovery facilities across the state.
Those jobs spread further than the roastery door. Bindle in Fort Collins has its merchandise printed locally by Pine Printshop. Middle State opened its Denver cafe with pastries from Reunion Bread Co and Sugar Bakeshop. Camp 4 in Crested Butte sells Big B's juices from Paonia, just over the pass. A roaster that buys locally keeps a second and third business going with the same dollar.
Fresher, with a shorter trip
Coffee is at its best in the weeks after roasting. A bag roasted in Colorado and mailed inside Colorado spends days in transit, not weeks in a warehouse and a truck. That is why the club's first promise is roasted and shipped within 3 days: the roaster roasts your bag to order and sends it from their own roastery, in their own packaging.
Several roasters here already work this way for their neighbors. Conscious Coffees staff deliver orders to local Boulder customers themselves. Durango Coffee Company lets customers in the Durango area pick up orders free. The shorter the trip, the fresher the cup, and the less fuel spent moving it.
You know who roasted it
A local roaster has a name, a street address and a door you can walk through. Novo runs Friday roastery tours at its Larimer Street roastery in RiNo. Peregrine in Westcliffe welcomes anyone who stops by during roasting or cupping, in a cafe that started life as a chicken house. Kaladi roasts at its Roastery Cafe on South Broadway in Englewood, with its original shop still on East Evans Avenue in Denver.
When you can name the roaster, you can ask them what is in the bag and why. Corvus prints the story of the farm on its single origin bags and says its core coffees come from farm relationships that go back more than ten years. That kind of answer is not available from a brand that roasts in another state under a label designed in a third one.
Small roasters stay open when people buy from them
The roasters that last are the ones with steady local customers. Durango Coffee Company has roasted since 1984; its first account was Maria's Bookshop on Main Avenue. Pablo's has sponsored hundreds of Denver community events and nonprofits over three decades. OZO gives to schools and local causes in Boulder, and Camp 4 closes for part of November so its staff can rest before the ski season while the owners keep filling web orders.
Every one of those habits, from the sponsorships to the November break, is paid for by people buying the coffee. When a town stops buying from its roaster, the roaster's giving stops first and the roaster stops next.
How the club fits in
Fourteener Coffee Club exists to send more Colorado coffee drinkers to Colorado roasters. Every box is a 12 oz bag from a different independent roaster in the state, roasted to order and shipped in their own bag with a packing slip that names the roaster, their shop and what to taste for. Over a year you meet a dozen roasteries you might never have driven to, and each of them is paid for the coffee they roast.
The roasters shown on this site are listed because we like them, not because they are partners. If a bag wins you over, go to their cafe, buy from them directly, tell a friend.
Start with the roasters near you
We keep a page on every Colorado roaster we follow: their story, what they roast, where to drink it and the address. Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Loveland, Lakewood, Eagle, Westcliffe, Crested Butte and Durango are all on the Colorado roasters list.