FAQs

Orders placed by 11am Eastern Time Monday through Thursday will normally ship the following day. Orders placed Friday, Saturday and Sunday will normally ship Monday. Because we only sell fresh coffee, the primary reason for any delay beyond what is previously stated would be lack of inventory. Shipping typically is 3 days or less. If we have your email address in our records, you will receive shipping tracking information via email.

We occasionally adjust this schedule based on holiday shipping restrictions and so on.

We typically ship using the least expensive type of USPS shipping, but we have options that include UPS Ground, USPS Cubic, USPS Priority and USPS First Class. The default and most applicable shipping method will populate on checkout based on your items and shipping address. We provide free shipping on all orders of three items or more with the shipping code FREESHIP23.

Please let us know if you have special shipping requests.

We are not able to adjust or correct any addresses when shipping packages. Please make sure yours is correct before submitting your order for successful shipping service.

We are unable to ship outside the continental United States.

Freshness is one of the best aspects of our unique approach toward coffee roasting. We manage a careful “just in time” inventory process so your coffee gets to you as soon as it is optimally fresh. You never have to worry that our coffee might be the least bit old. This is a primary benefit of small batch, local roasting. Most of our coffee is best if it rests 2-6 days after roasting (before it is brewed). We sell all our coffee so it has rested the optimum amount of time when it arrives to you. We grind to order so even our ground coffee and compatible brew cups are fresh. You can see the freshness when the coffee grinds “bloom” (puff up) as the coffee brews.
If you would like to know the specific day, please contact us by phone or email and we can provide detailed information about any purchase you make.

Our coffees are always sold fresh within days of being roasted. We recommend drinking your freshly roasted coffee within 60 days of the roast date for optimal flavor. After this timeframe, there are no concerns with quality or food safety, but you may notice diminishing flavor and a mellowing of the most intense flavors.

We recommend storing coffee in a cool, dark, dry place. Your pantry is a great spot. For longer storage, studies show that one month in an airtight container in the freezer ages the coffee only about 1 day for every 30 days in the freezer. However, the condensation from removing the coffee to brew and refreezing can actually age your coffee quicker. It is best to store coffee in a freezer divided into water sealed bags that will be left unopened until they are ready to be used within a week.

Coffee That Helps offers two primary decaf coffee options year-round: Decaf Colombian Gold and Decaf Bold Blend. Occasionally Coffee That Helps will feature other decaffeinated options.

Our coffees are decaffeinated using the Mountain Water Process (MWP) developed by Descamex. Beans are soaked in a proprietary, organically derived solution that is designed to use reverse osmosis in order to remove over 99% of the caffeine from coffee. This process allows for the coffee beans to retain the majority of their integrity and flavor throughout this decaffeination process. Because of this, it’s also capable of improving cup quality. All our decaffeinated coffee is tested by Descamex to verify that it contains less than 0.01% caffeine.

We do not currently offer "half-caf" blends, but we think that our Island Blend, Classic Blend and Adventure Blend all pair very well with our Decaf Colombian Gold. Our Bold Blend pairs well with our Decaf Bold Blend. You can mix them together to determine how much caffeine you would like your coffee to have.

While the majority of our coffee producers proudly possess organic certification, it's important to clarify that reselling the coffee as "Organic" requires a duplicated certification process for our roasting facility. We think the substantial costs of this duplicated certification would be adverse to our commitment to employing people as many people with disabilities as possible. Our primary focus lies in authentically trading and sourcing coffee in conscientious and ethical ways rather than diverting expenses to "perceived" green washing our labels. Please ask us about the sourcing stories of each of the coffees we sell – we love to explain our standards!

It is crucial to acknowledge that while organically grown and fair-traded certifications hold virtues, these principles may not uniformly benefit every coffee grower in every region around the world. Certain farms lack the necessary resources obtain and sustain certifications, preferring instead to allocate their means toward more important goals like equitable compensation for employees or the enhancement of their fields, processes and facilities. Our stance predominantly favors certified fair trade and organically certified coffee; however, we recognize that an unwavering insistence on universal adherence could inadvertently disadvantage some producer farms.

Our guiding philosophy revolves around a relational sourcing model that embraces adaptability in sourcing criteria. This approach aligns seamlessly with our aspiration to exercise mindfulness and ethical conduct in our interactions with farmers hailing from economically disadvantaged regions around the globe.

We roast each of our coffees in a way that is intended to balance the unique and distinct flavors of each offering with the dynamic, sweet flavors developed during the roasting process. We go through a process to find the optimum roast level for each of the coffees we source. Our offerings are roasted from light to extra-dark on a five level scale (light, medium, medium-dark, dark and extra-dark). Our goal is to create roasts that make for easy, consistently tasty results for our customers.

We have very exact processes and as a result have very careful standards of roast levels. We base our descriptors on the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) categories:

• Light Roast/City: Light brown color; beans may still have visible origin characteristics; high acidity; floral and fruity notes; no oil on the surface. Agtron color value around 90-85.
• Medium Roast/City+: Medium brown color; balanced acidity and body; sweetness with caramelized notes; origin characteristics may be less pronounced; some oil may be present on the surface. Agtron color value around 75-65.
• Medium-Dark Roast/Full City: Rich medium brown color; pronounced sweetness and body; roast flavors begin to emerge; oils are more evident on the surface. Agtron color value around 55-45.
• Dark Roast/Full City+: Dark brown to nearly black color; full body with low acidity; significant roast flavors; oils are clearly visible on the surface; origin characteristics are diminished. Agtron color value around 35-25.

[*Please note that for our roast levels we have divided the last two SCA categories (Medium-Dark Roast and Dark Roast) into three roast levels (what we call Medium-Dark, Dark and Extra-Dark). Since the majority of coffee drinkers prefer dark and bold coffee we think this helps us provide granulated coffee roasts that better please our customers.]

While our roast levels adhere to industry standard definitions, roast level is a complex issue. Many roasters mean different things by these terms. We would be glad to further explain our roast levels through a conversation with you. Did we mention we love to talk about coffee?

Our brightest coffees will generally be from Africa, while our most syrupy and rich will be from Latin and South America. Our deep earthy/spicey coffees generally originate in East Asia.

Our approach to sourcing is based on some key principles: quality, sustainability, transparency, passion, collaboration, long term relationships.  We work together with coffee producers, exporters, and importer partners to achieve responsible sourcing with an eye to the future.

We believe a successful, sustainable supply chain relies on a personal connection to the coffees and an understanding of the specific and unique challenges coffee producers face. These factors are always growing and changing.

We or our representatives have visited producers in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Sumatra, Bali, and Papua New Guinea. If you have any questions about specific projects or offerings, please get in touch.

We have brewing guides, tips and hints that can be found here.