Bird Rock Coffee Roasters - La Jolla

Jeff Taylor bought this company in 2017, having started PT's Coffee in Topeka in 1993 and sat on the founding committees of the United States and World Barista Competitions. The company keeps a Q-grader on staff and opens its cuppings to the public every week, which is a lot of daylight to let into the part of the job where flaws turn up.

The manual bar here runs on Kalita 185 ceramic, next to a rotating brewed selection and a seasonal espresso. All fifteen bags in the company's shared web store print varietal and process, from a $23 wet-hulled Sumatra to a $50 anaerobic natural Guatemala Geisha, and the Colombia Pink Bourbon goes further, naming Miraflores Farm and the grower who runs it on his father's behalf, on a page that promises to roast and ship every Tuesday instead of printing a date.

Doors open at six Friday through Sunday and half an hour later Monday through Thursday, closing by four or five in the afternoon. That is a coast town's clock rather than a commuter's: a room set up for the first hours of the day and content to give the evening away.