Artis offers a full-coffee experience, including custom bean roasting

I’ve roasted lots of my own coffee, and I’ve obviously picked up plenty of fresh beans from roasters. But Artis, in Berkeley California, has taken things to the next logical level: custom-roasted beans for customers.

Here’s how it works. You pick one of seven varieties of green beans and then choose from two suggested roast profiles, roughly lighter or darker. In about the time it takes sip your pour over (say, six minutes), a roastista “cooks” your pound of take-home beans in one of three hot-air poppers. These are vented, without the usual acrid aroma, up long tubes of sheet metal.

Beans roasted to order

Artis is also a nice, spacious place to savour an in-house coffee, with a high ceiling, concrete floors, table bouquets and a good selection of the latest in brewing equipment for purchase. The only reason to leave is to test out those fresh beans at home.

Artis
1717B 4 Street
Weekdays 7 am-7 pm, weekends 8 am-7 pm