Stumptown

Caramel and citrus appear more often than any other note across Stumptown's cup descriptions. Both show up in five of the roaster's 16 active coffees, with dark chocolate close behind at four. The catalog runs to blends. Ten of the 16 are blended, 62 percent of what is currently active, and the six single origins come from Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Indonesia. That is a West Coast roaster working a fairly conventional spread of origins rather than chasing rare lots, and the pricing follows the same logic, with a 12 ounce bag sitting between $19 and $23 and the median landing at $20.

One coffee in the lineup is decaf. Only one single origin carries a natural process label, which leaves the sourcing story fairly quiet on the page. What the roast numbers show is a house style built around the middle of the scale, with a small light wing and a smaller dark one on either side.

Single Origins

Blends

Roast Profile & Flavor Range

Eight of Stumptown's 16 active coffees are roasted medium. Three are light, two medium-light, two medium-dark, and one goes dark. Nothing about that spread is extreme in either direction. Acidity averages medium and body sits a little above it, which reads as a catalog built for milk drinks and daily brewing more than for filter clarity.

The six single origins draw from five countries, two of them from Costa Rica and one each from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Indonesia. Latin America carries the weight. Only one of those lots is naturally processed, so most of what the roaster sells arrives with the cleaner, sweeter profile that conventional processing gives. Prices hold steady. A 12 ounce bag runs $19 to $23 with a $20 median, and nothing in the active catalog crosses $25.

What Stumptown Coffees Tend to Taste Like

Sugar and chocolate carry most of the notes. Caramel leads, listed on five coffees, and it is joined by brown sugar, toffee, and cocoa elsewhere, while milk chocolate and dark chocolate split the difference between the sweeter blends and the darker ones. Citrus is the counterweight, appearing just as often as caramel and giving the medium roasts a lift they would otherwise lack.

Fruit shows up in a jammy register rather than a bright one. Berry jam is listed three times and melon twice, which points to cooked, concentrated fruit instead of the fresh acidity a light-roasted washed lot delivers. Baking spice makes a single appearance. Taken together the cup reads like a breakfast table, sweet and round, with enough citrus to keep it from going flat.

Why Buy Stumptown

• Steady middle of the scale: Eight of 16 active coffees are roasted medium, with a small light wing and a smaller dark one on either side. CoffeeByMe reads that as a catalog you can order from without checking the roast level first.

• Predictable pricing: A 12 ounce bag runs $19 to $23 with a $20 median, and nothing active goes past $25.

• Sweet notes with citrus lift: Caramel and citrus each appear on five coffees and dark chocolate on four, which keeps the sweetness from turning heavy.

• Blend-first lineup: Ten of the 16 active coffees are blends. The six single origins sit beside them, five countries and mostly one bag each.

Is Stumptown Right for You?

This is a catalog for someone who drinks coffee with milk, or who wants one bag that works for a whole household. The medium center of gravity and the medium-high body point toward espresso and drip rather than a careful pour-over, and the caramel and chocolate notes reinforce that reading. Blend drinkers are well served, since ten of the 16 active coffees are blends.

Anyone hunting bright, floral light roasts should look elsewhere. Three coffees sit at the light end, and only one single origin is naturally processed, so the fruit-forward end of specialty barely registers here. There is one decaf.

Frequently Asked Questions