Santa Barbara Roasting Company — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

Perhaps a good study spot or meeting place, as long as you don’t mind bad coffee. (2/5 green stars also) I was excited to see they had Kona coffee pour-overs, so I ordered a small one, a spinach feta croissant and a strawberry Danish ($9 total). The croissant was okay, but it was small and lacked filling. The Danish was quite good in the same way that a pastry from Costco can be quite good. The coffee was not good – it was actually awful to the point where it might as well have been Folgers instant coffee. They roast the beans on site but the end result was sadly a waste of Kona beans. They were roasting as I sat there and the aroma was of burnt beans, confirming that roasting is where it all begins to go wrong. I found three places in SB with good coffee: Green Star Coffee (in the Public market), Handlebar, and the Helena Avenue Bakery (who brews Dart coffee). The “RoCo” space is nice enough, if you’re not as fussy as me about your coffee.

I’m giving SB Roasting Co. 2/5 “green stars” for social and environmental impact, based on these reasons:

• They don’t have anything to say about sourcing of the majority of their beans (other than their “Naturally Grown” beans) and as a result it comes across that they are making commodity market purchases. • A few of their coffee beans come under their “Naturally Grown” label, which they say signifies that the coffee is organic, shade-grown and fair trade. It’s strange that they don’t use the official Organic or Fair Trade logos. I want to believe but the provided information is sketchy. The Green Star rating could be 2 stars or 4, depending on the authenticity of this label and also where they source their other beans (the majority of their coffee). • The server couldn’t tell me where the pastries were sourced & it’s not stated online. • I asked for the coffee in a ceramic cup, but they gave it to me in a double paper cup. • Cups, lids, and cold-cups are not compostable. • Packaging for beans is Mylar.

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Always pleasant to stop by here. There tends to be a selection of one or two new drinks every time I come by. The matcha latte is alright, a little grainy but flavor was not too diluted by milk or ice. Also not very sweet which is nice, gives the option to add one's own preferred level of sweetness or leave it as is.

There is a beautiful coffee roaster in the back that is fascinating to watch and smells DELICIOUS. Always well-staffed so you always have someone behind the counter to help if you need something. Large selection of coffees, great for gifts. Gives lots of variety to fit your coffee gift to whomever you are gifting to. I enjoy grabbing a coffee here with chocolates from two stores down at Maya Chocolate. Great location not too far from the beach with plenty of parking options there and along nearby streets. There is also a single restroom in the back for patrons.

Also if you want to purchase coffee bags (the big burlap ones), they are $2 each! Very sturdy and can have cool prints, sheds very easily though but great for growing potatoes or DIY decorating. We went to the coffee storage to the left of the main cafe and talked to one of the employees working back there...

Long story short: good product at great price delivered fast.

I’ve been to sb roasting a couple of times, enough to find my usual there. I’m a no frills coffee drinker, no cream/sugar/honey, and a solid go to pick is the state street blend, the dark tropical blend if you’re feeling adventurous. It’s a welcome environment and an overall great place to relax in beautiful downtown sb. But what prompted me to write this review is my recent experience. While I don’t want to go out to coffee shops in this covid 19 world, I still crave coffee and practically need it to function while working. I went online to amazon, didn’t find good price-quality -delivery speed ratio. I then hit up local coffee places, eventually getting to sb roasting companies website. Found a 12oz package and 2 2oz taste test packs, and could get them delivered for under $20 ( there was a promo code on the website, might still be up). I thought they’d deliver sometime this week, they delivered the next day( again, I’m a local in sb but), thank god the turnaround time was that fast. I hope your experience is as good as mine, def gonna have more delivered...