By Eric WolfDirector of Coffee    Last month I had the pleasure of returning to Colombia for the first time since 2018. Every year, we try to visit each of our key origins, but we missed the trip in 2019. Little did we know then that the world would shut down only months later and it would be another two years before we could return. Of course, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and as I texted to some co-workers a few days after my arrival, “in case you were wondering, the coffee here is still really good!” The hiatus between trips also served to highlight change in a ver ..read more

  A few years ago, we decided that we needed to make sourcing Mexican coffee a priority at Little City so we began obsessively cupping Mexican coffees, learning the regional profiles, traveling to Mexico, and building relationships with growers and other supply chain partners. Eric participated in the International jury for the 2019 Cup of Excellence in Veracruz, and Joel traveled to one of Mexico’s largest organic co-ops in Puebla, with whom we worked to help organize their first coffee quality competition in 2020, an event that was unfortunately canceled due to COVID-19.  During t ..read more

Or should I say, introducing a man who needs no introduction, at least in the massive world of the Brazilian coffee industry. Sebastião Afonso da Silva has risen from humble beginnings—he is one of over 20 children born into a family of rice sharecroppers—to the top echelons of Brazil’s specialty coffee industry, winning numerous awards along the way, including the prized Cup of Excellence. A quick search for him and his farm, Sítio Baixadão, yields hyperbolic headlines such as “Best coffee on the planet” and “Coffee grower sells coffee for record price.” While many farmers have dreamt of lar ..read more

Five years ago I got a call from Joel Shuler: “Hey Eric, we’re looking to start a cold brew program for Little City and are wondering if you’d be interested in helping us develop some products.” Joel and I had gotten to know each other when I was working at a brewery across the parking lot from his roastery, and although we’d spent hours geeking out about our respective favorite beverages and even co-teaching some coffee and beer classes, I didn’t know the first thing about coffee. I was a beer brewer, but being an unemployed beer brewer at the time, I said, “Sure. Why not?”  Beer is fam ..read more

I first met Anabella Meneses nearly a decade ago. My wife, Lisiane, had spent some time at Santa Felisa, Anabella’s farm, volunteering for a social initiative supported by Santa Felisa as well as Coffee Kids. Lisiane was impressed with Anabella’s genuine care for her community, but also her depth of coffee and agricultural knowledge and her sincerity in seeking out quality in so many aspects of production. Naturally, I was intrigued and eager to meet Anabella myself. Words like “best” and “great” have lost much of their meaning lately. They are the low-hanging hyperbolic fruit everybody reac ..read more

2020 threw more than its fair share of punches, but one good thing that came out of this year is our free next-day local delivery program. With grocery stores having out of stock issues, carriers experiencing shipping delays and people trying to avoid going to stores, we realized we were able to serve the Austin community in a unique way by freshly roasting, packing and delivering their coffee the next business day - at no extra cost. Our mantra at Little City is “Everyone deserves a great cup of coffee.” But we know that “great” is different for everybody. For us, it’s the moment of content ..read more

Introducing Felicidad, our new holiday blend. Invoking the comforting flavors of the winter months and festive gatherings (most years anyway), this year’s blend combines a chocolatey and spicy Costa Rican coffee with a naturally processed Brazilian that pops with notes of red fruit and roasted nuts. While cupping the components and dialing in the final blend, one of our roasters excitedly exclaimed, “It tastes like a fruitcake!” We confirmed that he intended this as a compliment, and we all agreed that it did remind us of a delicious holiday dessert, just maybe not that dense brick re-gifted ..read more

Little City is rolling out our NEW nitro cold brew coffee cans — roasted, brewed and canned in Austin, Texas — with an early release at select Torchy's Tacos locations in TX, LA, CO, MO & KS! Made from the highest quality beans sourced directly from our partner coffee growers, our cold brew is naturally sweet and chocolatey with subtle notes of red-fruit and a smooth finish. Inspired by craft beer, we add nitrogen to give our coffee a rich, creamy texture with no dairy or added sugars.  We’re thrilled to partner with Torchy’s to offer a delicious new beverage to pair with your favori ..read more

This October we launched Finca Fatima, our first microlot from Mexico in quite some time. It was an exciting occasion for us here at Little City, not only because this is an amazing coffee, but because we’ve been working hard over the past few years to make Mexican coffee more of a focal point in our sourcing. As Texans (well, most of us anyway), Mexican culture is ingrained into our daily lives. Our food, music, language, style—everything we do—either comes from or is inspired by our southern neighbors. So why not our coffee? We’ve often asked ourselves the same question, and we realized th ..read more

This September, we launched our first direct-trade microlot from a single producer in Ethiopia, Tariku Mengesha. Sourcing a coffee that is traceable all the way back to the grower can be quite difficult in Ethiopia, so you don’t see them often. In this article I touch on a few of the many logistical and regulatory challenges of direct-trade sourcing in Ethiopia and discuss some of the work we are doing to improve the ongoing quality and traceability of our Ethiopian offerings. Tariku at his farm ourside of the kebele (village) of Chelchele in the Gedeb region. Most coffee farms in Ethiopia ar ..read more