Portland Coffee Roasters celebrates 25 years
Mark Stell, Portland Coffee Roasters co-founder and managing partner, with the 25th Anniversary Roast
One of Portland’s original boutique roasters is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Portland Coffee Roasters began in 1996 as Portland Roasting and is now the city’s largest independent roaster. For 25 years, Portland Coffee Roasters has been dedicated to creating positive human connections through coffee by building a socially responsible business.
To celebrate the company’s 25 years of “doing good and making good coffee,” it has just released its limited-edition 25th Anniversary Roast. This medium roast is a unique blend of washed and natural processed coffee from La Hilda Estate in Costa Rica—which has been a Portland Coffee Roasters partner for 25 years—and it balances the bright citrus flavours of this growing region with deeper chocolate notes. It is available now through September at portlandcoffeeroasters.com and at its cafe locations: one in Southeast Portland and three at Portland International Airport. It will also be at all New Seasons Market and Zupan’s Market story, plus selection locations of Market of Choice and Fred Meyer, by May.
“Over the last 25 years Portland has become an epicenter for specialty coffee roasters, and we’re proud to have been one of the early leaders,” said Mark Stell, Portland Coffee Roasters co-founder and managing partner. “The 25th Anniversary Roast not only celebrates our long-standing relationships with our farmers, but it is a tribute to all of our partners all along the coffee chain, and to our customers who enabled Portland Coffee Roasters to keep growing.”
At the heart of Portland Coffee Roasters is its ongoing commitment to its global coffee community, and to improving the lives of the people it works with through impactful projects around the world. Every year, the company commits resources to coffee communities in need.
Community project highlights include a daycare center for the children of its farmers’ migrant workers in Costa Rica, installing and renovating a wastewater collection system for more than 600 coffee growers and their families in Colombia, bringing drinking water closer to the homes of 2,000 people in Tanzania, and numerous other projects. Portland Coffee Roasters also produces an annual holiday blend with a portion of sales supporting people in coffee-growing communities.
“Nothing has been more gratifying than our deep and long-standing relationships with our coffee growers and their families,” said Stell. “We are committed to helping make the world a better place, and it’s wonderful that something as ubiquitous and loved as a cup of coffee can do that.”
Portland Coffee Roasters also centres sustainable practices across its operations. The company is certified with the Sustainability at Work programme through the City of Portland and has received Gold Certification three times in a row. Its headquarters and other buildings are supplied by 100% renewable energy. Other efforts to stay green include composting organic waste, doing zero-emission deliveries for local customers via B-Line tricycle delivery, and donating used burlap coffee bags to local farmers and gardeners.