The Story
Verve Coffee Roasters was established in 2007 when Ryan O’Donovan and Colby Barr started a small local venture along the rugged California coast.
The two founders met at Chico State University, bonded over their shared passion for music, design, and pursuit of an amazing cup of coffee, and saw the need to create a company that reflected their vision for third wave coffee.
Colby had a background in agriculture, having grown up farming pears and wine grapes with his family in Northern California, while Ryan explored the coffee scene in Seattle and Portland before opening Verve.
The company opened its first café in November 2007 on 41st Avenue in Santa Cruz’s Pleasure Point neighborhood.
The founders designed and built the interiors by hand, taking inspiration from old house magazines and aiming for a residential, living room aesthetic that set them apart and helped define the brand.
Founded in 2007, the well-known Santa Cruz company has grown to become a major brand in artisanal coffee, now operating 19 cafés across California and as far as Tokyo.
Verve was selected as Roaster of the Year 2024 by Roast Magazine in recognition of their commitment to innovating the coffee industry while uplifting all the people who touch the coffee lifecycle.
The company has earned numerous accolades including the highest score in the coffee category at the Good Food Awards in 2013, recognition as one of the top coffee roasters in the United States by Thrillist, Complex Magazine, and Food Republic, and Best Espresso at the Coffee Spot Awards in 2018.
Sourcing & Relationships
Verve’s sourcing approach centers on what they call The Farmlevel Initiative, a direct-trade buying model that includes paying premiums for quality and investing in coffee communities and their environments.
The company pays above-market premiums to farmers that exceed Fair Trade minimums, every time, no exception.
The three key points of their Farmlevel Initiative are to improve the lives of smallholder farmers, help combat the impacts of climate change on the coffee industry, and to preserve heirloom coffee varieties.
Since the beginning, Verve has focused on working directly with producers whenever possible, with the founders learning early that “direct trade meant you just travel around the world a lot and go meet people.”
The company’s sourcing model typically involves having a key partner in each country, usually a producer who also exports coffee, serving as an ambassador.
Verve created a global Farmlevel Summit where they bring key partners from Latin America to Los Angeles to share knowledge and experience, with the first summit held in 2019 and the second in 2022.
The pinnacle of their sourcing philosophy is demonstrated through innovative projects like the Farmlevel Nursery Project. This initiative involved planting 60,000 coffee seedlings in Urrao, Colombia, of a variety called Caturra Chiroso which promises excellent cup quality and substantial yields.
The farmers received the seedlings at no cost, with the understanding that Verve would be given first opportunity to purchase any resulting yields, and many farmers used them to help their children develop their own farms.
Verve currently sells the inaugural Farmlevel Nursery Project coffee for $38.50 per 8-ounce bag, with 10% of proceeds supporting future nursery projects.
Roasting Philosophy
Verve roasts on vintage Probat roasters upgraded with modern technology with an emphasis on traditional roasting methods, roasting daily in small batches with stringent quality control practices to ensure that every batch is just right.
At their Bronson Street facility in Santa Cruz’s Seabright neighborhood, Verve’s roasting team operates a fleet of vintage, German-built Probat roasters that spend most of their days at a mild 400°F.
They describe their roasting style as more of a light Nordic approach with low charge temperatures.
While single-origin offerings are roasted to highlight the unique and seasonal characteristics that make them individually special, their blends promise balance and consistency year-in, year-out, with the roasting team adapting to agricultural variability using temperature and time to uphold this promise.
Before buying green beans, they run sample roasts through several cupping sessions, then begin roast profile refinement using their 1965 German-made Probat UG 15 roaster at the Seabright roastery, keeping the roasting close to the café to monitor how coffees perform for baristas.
Their regular customers know the café is also a lab, and they line up for the experiment, with customer feedback keeping them open to exploring where a coffee can go.
The company roasts by hand and meticulously records everything they do, so they can reproduce what works and learn from what doesn’t.
Verve has been using Cropster roasting software since 2011, making it the number one tool they use daily for consistency and production monitoring.
What to Try
Streetlevel Blend anchors Verve’s core offerings with Guatemalan, Colombian and Honduran coffees that impart a complex sweetness, with notes of clementine, red apple, and honeycomb.
Named after their flagship espresso blend, Streetlevel is designed to be approachable, chocolatey, and super sweet in espresso drinks.
The blend is built for balance and approachability and is delicious with any brew method, including espresso.
The Seabright House Blend receives extra attention in development, featuring direct trade coffees from El Salvador and Guatemala with flavor notes of apricot and honeydew, offering a balanced mouthfeel and aromatics of toasted hazelnuts.
Seabright starts with a mild tartness of bing cherry with sweetness like warm marzipan and yields a dark chocolate savor with caramelized sweetness.
The Buena Vista blend is sourced from Latin America and delivers a full-bodied dark roast with dark chocolate flavors and caramelized sweetness.
Verve’s signature blend rotation includes Sermon, The 1950, Buena Vista, Streetlevel, Seabright, Bronson, and seasonal blends.
The 1950 Blend features seasonally rotating components selected for their dense, candy-like sweetness of stone fruit and complex spice profile, while their Vancouver Swiss Water Decaf highlights candied almonds in a chocolaty background. For those seeking to explore Verve’s range, their craft instant coffee variety pack contains seven single-serving sachets representing their key offerings, small batch-brewed and preserved for convenience.