Here are some tips for choosing a coffee
1. When in doubt, just start with Lobster Butter Love! If your go to is a rich, full, smooth cup of coffee, this is your performance enhancer.
2. Do you go for super dark, Italian roasts? Portland in the 90s might be your jam.
3. More of a French roast lover? Try Rich French Neighbor!
4. Prefer light roasts? A-A Cowboy is where you hang your hat. Or geek out with our rotating selection of small batch limited offerings, which are always roasted light or light medium for those who like a tangy bite in the morning.
5. Do you jump start your day with a shot of espresso? We put “machine” in the name of Roos Machine because it just works so well with your espresso machine. That said, all of our coffees pull beautifully; grind size, pressure, and technique will make or break your shot more than the blend you choose!
6. Need a low acid coffee? We recommend Lobster Butter Love! But don't overlook your brew method: cold brew and Aeropress both naturally produce a mellower, less acidic cup.
lobster butter love
Tastes like
Smooth, buttery, sublime
About the beans
Smooth and strong when you need a win right out of bed. Your future self is already awake. It’s a super drinkable performance enhancer and, by far, our most popular coffee. If you’re new to RoosRoast, start here.
The Story Behind the Beans
Here’s what we know for sure: in the early 2000s, John was roasting, bagging, printing, and hustling coffee one bag at a time, trying to will coffee entrepreneurship into existence. One key move on the road to coffee street cred: convince Eve, beloved Ann Arbor chef and restaurant, to sell his coffee. At the staff cupping, one server kept saying, “It tastes like butter.” Riding his bike home, John turned the words over until they became a chant, then a rhythm, then the only possible name: butter, butter, butter, lobster butter, Lobster Butter Love. It sounded rich and inevitable, like the coffee had always already been waiting for the words to catch up. The familiar red lobster art came later, via a Barbados bathroom wall, BlackBerry photo, car sales desk sketch, and linoleum block.
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Tastes like
Smooth, buttery, sublime -
The Story Behind the Beans
Here’s what we know for sure: in the early 2000s, John was roasting, bagging, printing, and hustling coffee one bag at a time, trying to will coffee entrepreneurship into existence. One key move on the road to coffee street cred: convince Eve, beloved Ann Arbor chef and restaurant, to sell his coffee. At the staff cupping, one server kept saying, “It tastes like butter.” Riding his bike home, John turned the words over until they became a chant, then a rhythm, then the only possible name: butter, butter, butter, lobster butter, Lobster Butter Love. It sounded rich and inevitable, like the coffee had always already been waiting for the words to catch up. The familiar red lobster art came later, via a Barbados bathroom wall, BlackBerry photo, car sales desk sketch, and linoleum block. -
About the beans
Smooth and strong when you need a win right out of bed. Your future self is already awake. It’s a super drinkable performance enhancer and, by far, our most popular coffee. If you’re new to RoosRoast, start here.
Badass women blend
Tastes like
fruity, adventurous, nuanced
About the beans
Juicy, fruit forward medium roast. An easy intro to natural process coffee, beautifully balanced & multitask friendly.
The Story Behind the Beans
This blend was born when the bad ass women of Bona Sera Supper Club in Ypsilanti asked John for a special coffee to match their new restaurant energy. Obviously, he said yes. The art comes from John’s Wyoming-era painting series, “Girls With Guns”: big sky, skeet shooting, steady aim, serious presence. The guns got edited out, the attitude stayed. Bold, juicy, balanced, and quietly ready to run the whole operation.
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Tastes like
fruity, adventurous, nuanced -
The Story Behind the Beans
This blend was born when the bad ass women of Bona Sera Supper Club in Ypsilanti asked John for a special coffee to match their new restaurant energy. Obviously, he said yes. The art comes from John’s Wyoming-era painting series, “Girls With Guns”: big sky, skeet shooting, steady aim, serious presence. The guns got edited out, the attitude stayed. Bold, juicy, balanced, and quietly ready to run the whole operation. -
About the beans
Juicy, fruit forward medium roast. An easy intro to natural process coffee, beautifully balanced & multitask friendly.
Rich French Neighbor
Tastes like
snobby, well developed
About the beans
This coffee is cooler than your neighbors. If you lean French, this is your second crack masterpiece.
The Story Behind the Beans
Before coffee took over, John chef-ed his way around the world: Miami, Hawaii, Hong Kong, New York, San Diego, and, for a while, a creperie in the south of France. One weekend, he and his girlfriend Vanessa escaped to the mountains near Saint-Cézaire, to her tiny rustic cabin with dirt floors and goats. (Yes, France can make even dirt floors sound romantic.) Morning came cold, clear, perfect. The coffee was hitting, John was pleased. Vanessa agreed, then looked up toward the mansion tucked into the hillside before delivering an essential French correction: “Notre café est bon, mais celui du voisin est sûrement meilleur.” Our coffee is good, but the neighbor’s is probably better. And thus: Rich French Neighbor. Chocolatey, full-bodied, aspirationally snobby. The good stuff. THAT guy’s coffee.
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Tastes like
snobby, well developed -
The Story Behind the Beans
Before coffee took over, John chef-ed his way around the world: Miami, Hawaii, Hong Kong, New York, San Diego, and, for a while, a creperie in the south of France. One weekend, he and his girlfriend Vanessa escaped to the mountains near Saint-Cézaire, to her tiny rustic cabin with dirt floors and goats. (Yes, France can make even dirt floors sound romantic.) Morning came cold, clear, perfect. The coffee was hitting, John was pleased. Vanessa agreed, then looked up toward the mansion tucked into the hillside before delivering an essential French correction: “Notre café est bon, mais celui du voisin est sûrement meilleur.” Our coffee is good, but the neighbor’s is probably better. And thus: Rich French Neighbor. Chocolatey, full-bodied, aspirationally snobby. The good stuff. THAT guy’s coffee. -
About the beans
This coffee is cooler than your neighbors. If you lean French, this is your second crack masterpiece.
A-A Cowboy
Tastes like
brisk, creamy, caramel
About the beans
Creamy light roast born on a Wyoming ranch. Rope & ride, no compromise.
The Story Behind the Beans
People think the A-A stands for Ann Arbor, which is flattering but wildly optimistic about Ann Arbor’s cowboy density. This blend traces back to Wyoming, where John cooked at A-Bar-A, a high-end dude ranch full of actual horses, actual cowboys, and probably fewer bike lanes. When he first started roasting, John developed this coffee for the ranch as a clean, creamy light roast with enough backbone to wake up before sunrise and rustle up enough grit to pass briefly as a ranch hand.
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Tastes like
brisk, creamy, caramel -
The Story Behind the Beans
People think the A-A stands for Ann Arbor, which is flattering but wildly optimistic about Ann Arbor’s cowboy density. This blend traces back to Wyoming, where John cooked at A-Bar-A, a high-end dude ranch full of actual horses, actual cowboys, and probably fewer bike lanes. When he first started roasting, John developed this coffee for the ranch as a clean, creamy light roast with enough backbone to wake up before sunrise and rustle up enough grit to pass briefly as a ranch hand. -
About the beans
Creamy light roast born on a Wyoming ranch. Rope & ride, no compromise.
Portland in the 90s
Tastes like
toasty, intense, time travel
About the beans
Retro dark for all the mouth feels and a super smooth finish.
The Story Behind the Beans
Portland in the late 1980s was where John saw coffee level up: darker, stronger, open late, smelling like rain, espresso, and long-shot plans. France gave him the long pull; Portland showed him coffee as something you could live inside, not just drink, and made him think: I can do this. Years later, at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, Roos crew legend Mike Blanke handed John a freshly brewed dark roast, and one sip launched him straight back through the space-time coffee portal. “Wow,” he said. “This tastes just like Portland in the 90s.” Retro dark, super smooth, and deeply committed to making you feel alive.
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Tastes like
toasty, intense, time travel -
The Story Behind the Beans
Portland in the late 1980s was where John saw coffee level up: darker, stronger, open late, smelling like rain, espresso, and long-shot plans. France gave him the long pull; Portland showed him coffee as something you could live inside, not just drink, and made him think: I can do this. Years later, at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, Roos crew legend Mike Blanke handed John a freshly brewed dark roast, and one sip launched him straight back through the space-time coffee portal. “Wow,” he said. “This tastes just like Portland in the 90s.” Retro dark, super smooth, and deeply committed to making you feel alive. -
About the beans
Retro dark for all the mouth feels and a super smooth finish.
Roos Machine
Tastes like
poetic, complex, bright
About the beans
Secret weapon energy to crush your deadlines & tricky projects. Built for espresso, solid in any prep.
The Story Behind the Beans
Every coffee company has an espresso blend. Fine. But ours had to come from somewhere more specific: the RoosRoast brain, where old machines clank, poems happen, and practical ideas keep swerving into art projects. John wanted to put tiny typewriter letters on individual beans, which was not compatible with sanity or production schedules. What survived was the spirit of the thing. Roos Machine is dependable like an old school typewriter that never jams when you’re under a deadline, layered like a great sentence that keeps revealing itself.
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Tastes like
poetic, complex, bright -
The Story Behind the Beans
Every coffee company has an espresso blend. Fine. But ours had to come from somewhere more specific: the RoosRoast brain, where old machines clank, poems happen, and practical ideas keep swerving into art projects. John wanted to put tiny typewriter letters on individual beans, which was not compatible with sanity or production schedules. What survived was the spirit of the thing. Roos Machine is dependable like an old school typewriter that never jams when you’re under a deadline, layered like a great sentence that keeps revealing itself. -
About the beans
Secret weapon energy to crush your deadlines & tricky projects. Built for espresso, solid in any prep.
Mother Pheasant Plucker
Tastes like
graham cracker, nutty, secret
About the beans
Don’t be shy, Mother Pluckers! Your medium roast sweet spot. A lowkey legend: nutty, elusive, ready to shine.
The Story Behind the Beans
This blend was created by former RoosRoast roaster Brian Barch: tracker, birder, naturalist, and world-class coffee snob in the best possible way. Brian was always hunting for the perfect cup, so naturally he made one: a medium-roast sweet spot with buttermilk biscuit comfort, apricot jam brightness, and caramel depth. It has a small-but-mighty following inside and outside the RoosCrew, the kind of blend people get weirdly loyal about. We’re just saying: now would be a great time to bag one before it migrates.
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Tastes like
graham cracker, nutty, secret -
The Story Behind the Beans
This blend was created by former RoosRoast roaster Brian Barch: tracker, birder, naturalist, and world-class coffee snob in the best possible way. Brian was always hunting for the perfect cup, so naturally he made one: a medium-roast sweet spot with buttermilk biscuit comfort, apricot jam brightness, and caramel depth. It has a small-but-mighty following inside and outside the RoosCrew, the kind of blend people get weirdly loyal about. We’re just saying: now would be a great time to bag one before it migrates. -
About the beans
Don’t be shy, Mother Pluckers! Your medium roast sweet spot. A lowkey legend: nutty, elusive, ready to shine.
Decaf Lovers Decaf
Tastes like
brown sugar, enjoy the ride
About the beans
Best decaf period. Your chance to throttle back to half speed. Organic, water processed, pacemaker friendly!
The Story Behind the Beans
All great origin stories need a garage, so when John moved back to Ann Arbor that’s where he started: roasting on homemade equipment, and the delicate art of not burning the place down. Elise, John’s girlfriend and owner of said garage, was a teacher at Angell Elementary. Her teacher friends loved coffee deeply but still had to function around children, lesson plans, and their own nervous systems. Caffeine-chasing John had no personal interest in decaf, but from day one he roasted organic, water-processed decaf with care. The turning point came at a teacher dinner party: homemade apple pie, melting vanilla ice cream, and John’s freshly roasted decaf. OK yes, suddenly the beauty of quality decaf was clear. Ann Arbor teachers get credit for the decaf respect. Honestly, pay them more.
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Tastes like
brown sugar, enjoy the ride -
The Story Behind the Beans
All great origin stories need a garage, so when John moved back to Ann Arbor that’s where he started: roasting on homemade equipment, and the delicate art of not burning the place down. Elise, John’s girlfriend and owner of said garage, was a teacher at Angell Elementary. Her teacher friends loved coffee deeply but still had to function around children, lesson plans, and their own nervous systems. Caffeine-chasing John had no personal interest in decaf, but from day one he roasted organic, water-processed decaf with care. The turning point came at a teacher dinner party: homemade apple pie, melting vanilla ice cream, and John’s freshly roasted decaf. OK yes, suddenly the beauty of quality decaf was clear. Ann Arbor teachers get credit for the decaf respect. Honestly, pay them more. -
About the beans
Best decaf period. Your chance to throttle back to half speed. Organic, water processed, pacemaker friendly!