The 2024 Sacramento Coffee Lover’s Guide
A coffee tasting class at Chocolate Fish
COFFEE 101
What’s the difference between a French press and an AeroPress? Want to get an A+ from a Q grader? We spill the beans on a handful of regional roasters that are offering classes to help you make the leap from coffee newbie to home barista.
Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters
Understanding how to taste coffee is just as important as knowing what to taste. Chocolate Fish’s director of education Nathan Welsh leads an affordable, hour-long overview of flavor profiles, growing regions and the agricultural steps influencing the taste of your coffee, all while you drink, discuss and dissect the flavors of four freshly brewed examples from Chocolate Fish’s array of roasts. Offering a great start to better appreciate specialty joe, the East Sacramento roastery hosts these tasting classes every other Saturday. (For those who want to take their coffee game to the next level, they also offer latte art and home barista courses.) Pro tip: Sign up early. Classes can fill up months in advance. $25. 9 a.m. Second and fourth Saturdays. chocolatefishcoffee.com
Old Soul Co.
Farm to fork? How about seed to cup? Each of Old Soul’s monthly two-hour courses features a pair of coffees and begins in its midtown roastery with a presentation about the farms that produced those coffees, while the beans are roasting steps away from you. Then the class transitions to brewing with a cupping—aka the standardized practice of tasting and grading coffee—of the two varieties to compare and contrast them before you get to choose which roasted-before-your-eyes variety you’d like to take home in a 12-oz bag. $65. Times and dates vary. oldsoulco.com
Notes and handouts to help students describe the flavors they are tasting at one of Chocolate Fish’s biweekly classes
Pachamama Coffee Farmers
To taste coffee like the pros, taste with the pros. Every Wednesday, Pachamama’s midtown cafe opens its Quality and Cupping Lab to let coffee lovers join in a professional cupping. The weekly event is free, open to the public and offers three varieties to taste side by side with Pachamama’s own team members, followed by a Q&A session at the end. And then for those looking to refine their at-home skills, Pachamama provides ticketed brewing classes every Saturday, with each teaching the finer points of using French presses, AeroPresses or other methods of making coffee. Cupping class: Free at noon on Wednesdays. Brewing class: $10 at 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays. drinkpacha.com
Temple Coffee Roasters
Drop by your local cafe, learn something new: That’s the idea behind Temple’s free classes. On the first and third Fridays of each month, the trainers at this Sacramento roasting mainstay head to its East Sacramento outpost for an hour-long, no-reservations-required class where anyone is welcome to grab a seat. From pour-over brewing with a Chemex carafe, to the role of coffee filters and how water temperature influences coffee’s flavor, each class covers a different topic. Participants taste and discuss what the trainers brew up and go home with a coupon for 10% off Temple products. Free. 1 p.m. First and third Fridays. instagram.com/templecoffee
Valiant Coffee Roasters
Taking full advantage of Valiant’s new, expanded headquarters, owner Erik Werner walks groups through the foundational hows and whys of the coffee-brewing process, followed by a cupping, at least twice a month. Werner is a trained “Q grader”—coffee’s equivalent to a wine sommelier—and classes at his Auburn roastery approach each sip with a specialist’s eye. Each gathering focuses on five coffee varieties, often with fun twists like disassembling one of Valiant’s blends and tasting its individual single-origin parts. Students receive a 12-ounce bag of their favorite coffee beans at the end. $50. Times and dates vary. valiantcoffee.com
—Sean Timm
