Best Coffee in Alaska

For the record, I never drank coffee until my mid-20s – right about the time I took a full-time job as a new media (web designer) director at Internet Alaska (circa 1997). Through my coworkers, I was fortunate to have been introduced to one of Alaska’s better coffee houses, Kaladi Brothers. My drink of choice at the time was a calorie laden and chocked full of chocolate mocha. This led to a dangerous and expensive habit of 2-3 mochas per day. Several years later, I had developed a taste for coffee – just the coffee. Thus began my movement to drink only Americanos. (The fact that Kaladi then sold Americanos for $1 was also a major contributor.)

Fast forwarding through many years of coffee drinking, experimentation with brewing at home and even a corporate job at Starbucks Coffee – I have truly tried and tested nearly every coffee out there (at least from Seattle Portland to Fairbanks Nome). I’ll just skip to the punchline, the best coffee in Alaska is Raven’s Brew Coffee. Now, let me explain why and how I came to this conclusion…

1. Taste, consistency and freshness. Taste is a subjective topic, but in my mind there is no other coffee in Alaska (or Seattle) that compares. I have some favorite blends, but most importantly – I have NEVER had a bad cup of Raven’s Brew coffee. Even with my subpar Krups espresso machine (at least 8 years old now), Raven’s Brew coffee always produces a rich, smooth and crema topped shot of espresso. Never bitter, burnt or thin.
2. It is roasted locally. Okay, sure there are other roasters in Alaska including some great companies like Kaladi Brothers and Heritage Coffee. Raven’s Brew has three roasting facilities in USA: Anchorage, Ketchikan and Tumwater (Washington). If you are even remotely aware of the value of fresh roasted coffee you should already know why buying a pound of name brand coffee Peet’s, Starbucks, Kiva, etc. from the grocery cannot even compare to the locally roasted bean.
3. Great people, great company. I don’t know all the people at Raven’s Brew, but I have worked with the Anchorage roasting crew on some promotional projects. Their passion is very simple: Make the best coffee. I’ve often asked them about opening their own cafe’s, which is repeatedly met with the concern that running a cafe would detract from their core mission of coffee roasting. From my personal observation: They really do care about roasting, it’s their #1 mission and it shows in the final product.

I could go on and on about the taste, quality and freshness – but I will spare you the details. In short, Raven’s Brew has been on my favorite coffee list for at least the last 5 years. Not to be forgotten, many of Raven’s Brew beans are organic! I still try other beans from time to time and reluctantly drink other brands while traveling, but have yet to find any bean that surpasses the sheer drinkability of Raven’s Brew.

Now, thanks to this lengthy rambling about my favorite coffee – my cup of Three Peckered Billy Goat® is at room temperature (and actually still tastes great). So, in celebration of this late spring snowy day – I’m off to pull another shot.

(Disclaimer: My last business did some marketing exchange with Raven’s Brew – but I’ve never been paid to promote them and I am most certainly am not being paid for this article.)