Madcap Coffee

Every single origin in Madcap Coffee's active catalog is washed. All six of them, with no naturals and no fermentation experiments anywhere in the lineup, which is a narrower position than it first appears.

The roastery works from Fulton Street in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Its active catalog runs 20 coffees and 14 of those are blends, which puts blends at 70 percent of the shelf and leaves the single-origin program deliberately small. Six singles come from two countries. Four are Kenyan and two are Ethiopian, so East Africa accounts for the entire origin list and there is no Latin American single origin active at all.

Four coffees are decaf. That is worth sitting with, because it means the roaster keeps more decaf on the shelf than single origins, and that ratio says something about who the company expects to be drinking its coffee on a Tuesday afternoon. Roasting stays in the middle. Nine coffees are medium and seven are medium-light, with two each at medium-dark and dark, and nothing roasted light.

Single Origins

Blends

Roast Profile & Flavor Range

The roast band is tight and slightly forward of center. Nine of the 20 active coffees are medium and seven are medium-light. Two go medium-dark and two go dark. Nothing is light.

Acidity averages medium while body averages medium-high, which is the reading you would expect from washed African coffee taken to medium rather than pushed light. The result carries more weight and less cutting brightness than the same lots would show at the light end of the dial.

Processing does not vary. All six single origins are washed, and that uniformity is the clearest sourcing signal in the data.

Pricing is the one part of this catalog that does not read cleanly. The most common listed size is 8 ounces, and once 11 listings above $100 are set aside, the remaining band runs $60 to $81, with the top listing reaching $835. Those figures do not behave like single-bag prices, so check the size and the term on the product page before ordering.

What Madcap Coffee Coffees Tend to Taste Like

Chocolate is tagged on nine of 20 coffees, which makes it the spine of the catalog. Around it sits a cherry theme that runs through eight more tags, with black cherry on four coffees and dark cherry on four others, so red fruit here means dark stone fruit rather than berries.

Texture words carry real weight in these notes. Deep appears four times and syrupy three, with creamy on two more, which together describe a heavy, coating cup. Brown sugar adds sweetness on three coffees and honeycomb on two.

The bright side is quieter but present. Blood orange, citrus, black tea, and floral tags each show up on two coffees, and those are the ones that betray the washed East African sourcing under all that chocolate.

Why Buy Madcap Coffee

• A washed-only single-origin program: All six singles are washed, which is a clear stylistic line rather than a default setting.

• Blends built for routine: Fourteen of 20 coffees are blends and the roast band holds near medium, so orders repeat well.

• Serious about decaf: Four decafs in a 20-coffee catalog means more decaf on the shelf than single origins.

• Chocolate over dark cherry: The catalog reads as heavy and sweet, with the washed East African brightness showing up late, in a flash of blood orange under the cocoa.

Is Madcap Coffee Right for You?

Buy here if you want blends. Fourteen of 20 coffees are blends and the roast band sits tight around medium, so the shelf is built for repeat ordering rather than for exploring. The four decafs make this an easy roaster for a household that drinks in the evening.

Look elsewhere if origin variety is the point for you. Two countries and six washed single origins is a narrow program, and there is nothing natural, fermented, or roasted light to be found. Anyone who shops by price per bag should also read the listings carefully, because the sizes and terms here vary more than the coffee does.

Frequently Asked Questions