Always Roasted to Order
Orleans Coffee Exchange has been the premiere micro-roaster in New Orleans since we began our business in 1983. We roast beans every day in our roastery near the New Orleans airport. We're a touch fanatical about the quality of our coffee and roasts, so there's always a lot going on. But we're never too busy to have a little fun while we're at it. This is still New Orleans, after all!

When coffees arrive at our roastery from the dozens of countries around the world that produce quality beans, they're packaged in large burlap sacks that protect the green beans from sun, heat, and moisture. Each sack is marked with information about the farm where the coffee was produced, and is often accompanied by colorful logos. Many people use burlap coffee sacks as wall decorations.

Green beans, you say? Well, yes. Coffee beans are raw and green when we buy them. It's not until we roast the beans in our Diedrich roaster that the beans take on the range of browns—from light cinnamon to dark, oily and almost black—that most people identify with coffee beans.

Coffee roasting is an artesian craft, and our Master Roaster takes special care to roast every bean with the correct combination of heat, airflow, and timing to deliver the perfect cup.

Quality in Every Bean
One of our favorite activities at the roastery is "cupping" coffee. Coffee cupping is very similar to wine tasting and we do it to evaluate the flavor profile of a coffee, and also to evaluate a coffee for defects or to create coffee blends. We evaluate the green and roasted coffees, and we taste each one. This coffee cupping technique is how we come up with the description of notes, acidity, and body that are referred to in the descriptions of coffees on our site.

For instance, our Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is a full-bodied coffee with a bright acidity and notes of jasmine, tangerine, and berry. Once you take some time to search your palette for coffee notes, you'll start to know exactly what kind of coffee you prefer. It's just like knowing whether you prefer dry or fruity red wine.

Shipped Daily
Once your beans are roasted, we package them in vacuum-sealed bags, label them, and assemble each order. As you can imagine, that means a lot of different coffees to sort and pack! Once the packing is done, the boxes are picked up by UPS, and they're off to be delivered to you.