Thanksgiving Coffee Company

Roasting on the Mendocino Coast since 1972

Thanksgiving Coffee has roasted in Fort Bragg since 1972. Joan and Paul Katzeff founded it, and the line they built it on, Not Just A Cup, But A Just Cup, still explains the operation better than any product list: the stated purpose is to improve wellbeing from the grower to the drinker. The business is roastery-first. Beans, coffee clubs, monthly and roastmaster selections, green coffee and wholesale take up more of its attention than a dining room ever could, so the counter is the front of a working roasting company rather than a café that happens to sell bags.

A catalogue organized by roast and by conscience

The range is unusually broad for a single roaster. Coffees are sorted by light, medium, dark and very dark, then again by category: classic blends, single origins, espresso, decaf, flavored coffee, green beans, organic, fairtrade, bird friendly and cause coffees. The named lots give the clearest sense of the house palate. Ethiopia Yirgacheffe from the Worka co-op in Gedeb runs to peaches and graham crackers; the Costa Rica is milk chocolate, smooth and rich; Vienna is the dark roast, with dark chocolate and toasted cashew; The Upsetter is the light one, caramel, citrus and milk chocolate; Royal Decaf is sweet and bold. The quarterly Roastmaster’s Select adds caramel and a long finish. Ecology sits alongside all of it, through family farm cooperatives, shade-grown coffee under the Raised In The Shade banner, and cause coffees that have raised more than $650,000.

How to choose from the catalogue

Approach it as a roaster rather than a café: the decision to make is which coffee to carry out, not what to eat. Take the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe for fruit and sweetness, the Costa Rica for milk chocolate and body, Vienna if you want the dark end, The Upsetter for a lighter cup with citrus, or Royal Decaf when caffeine is not the point. The coffee club and the quarterly roastmaster’s selection are the routes for people who would rather be sent something than choose. Numi teas cover the non-coffee side. The credentials behind the counter are real: Roast Magazine’s Roaster of the Year, B Corporation certification, a Good Food Award, a Global Citizenship Award, and B Lab’s Best For The World recognition for community, which is a lot of recognition for a company this size on a coast this remote.