Spokane has a strong coffee culture with lots of coffee shops, stands, and roasters.

You can’t drive a quarter mile without finding a coffee spot.

Some are chains, some are independent shops, and some are drive thrus. 

And many of them serve old-school, medium-to-dark roasted beans.

Which makes sense, we’re a country that has grown up on bold, dark roasted coffee.

But there’s a different world of coffee out there.

A brighter, more flavorful, and balanced approach to coffee.

Which is what we’re trying to embody in Spokane and the Pacific Northwest.

What is Nordic-style Specialty Coffee?

Nordic-style Specialty Coffee is very light roasted coffee using the highest quality beans.

These 2 things together produce a vibrant, flavorful cup of coffee unlike anything most Americans have experienced.

Quality is King

If you don’t have the highest quality beans, light roasts are terrible.

They taste sour, astringent, grassy, and generally unpleasant.

Which is why I think a lot of people in the US are skeptical of light roasted coffee.

They’ve had one of these poor excuses for specialty coffee and (rightfully) decided to stay away from it. 

But that’s because most roasters in the United States are not using the highest quality beans.

If the beans are mediocre, they lack the flavor compounds present to make a light roast shine.

And if you have the highest quality beans, you would never erase those delicious flavors by over-roasting them.

Coffee has more flavor compounds than wine.

And when it’s properly cared for, it can taste amazing.

Your coffee can pop with flavors of blueberries (no joke, I’ve had coffee that tasted like someone dipped a blueberry muffin in it), cherries, and plums.

Or lavender, bergamot, and jasmine.

And more classic flavors like roasted hazelnuts and milk chocolate.

But these flavors will only be present if it’s very high quality and properly roasted.

Light Roast is Queen

Roasting coffee breaks down the sugars and develops those flavors, much like sautéing onions on the stove.

And good coffee doesn’t need very much roasting.

Once you pass First Crack (when the pressure in the beans builds up and causes them to audibly crack), you start to brown the coffee, introducing bitter flavors, and eventually erasing those lighter flavors.

You want a little browning, but if you go too far, you will break down all of the wonderful flavors in coffee and be left with a traditional “coffee” flavor, which is in reality just burnt.

However, if it’s poor or mediocre quality coffee, like 99% of the coffee we get in the United States, it won’t have any of those flavors, and a light roast will taste terrible - like lemon flavored cardboard.

So most roasters go darker. And that’s what we’ve grown up on in Spokane, and the United States at large, so that’s what people expect.

But here at Revel 77, we want to offer a different take on coffee.

If you want that old school style, great, there are a lot of options out there for you.

But if you want to try something different, something, dare I say magical, then check us out.

We try very hard to source the highest quality beans and roast them just enough to bring out their distinct and wonderful flavors.

And these flavors pop.

You may think, “I don’t have a palate like that, I won’t taste it,” I challenge you to come by.

We have people in the shop all the time say the same thing, and their eyes light up when they taste our specialty beans.

Until then, happy sipping

Sean Edwards

Owner/Head Roaster