Torque Coffee

Twenty percent of a bag's retail price is paid to its producer up front, set by what the coffee sells for rather than by the green market, and each coffee's page prints the arithmetic down to the FOB dollars per pound. Plenty of roasters talk about their origin relationships; this one publishes the receipt.

A matte black Primo Ranger roasts every coffee the bar pours, in small batches to order, with the Maillard phase pushed longer than most because that is where the sweetness lives. On the filter side an xBloom robot pours single origins named to their producers: the Ethiopia Worka Chelbessa lists Negusse Debela, Gedeb in Gedeo, 1974-1975 JARC selections and local landraces, and 1,900 to 2,200 meters.

The cafe took over the 1930s Rock Palace building, which held Circle Sound Studios in the seventies and underground ska and punk shows in the eighties before it went quiet. Inside is one elongated room with Art Deco bones, fifteen-foot ceilings and north-facing front windows over plenty of seating, and the roaster at the back works in full view, the closest thing to decor in a place that spends its cash on experimenting.