The Best Coffee Roasters in Austin

Let’s get one thing straight: Austin does not do boring coffee. This is a city that put “Keep Austin Weird” on a bumper sticker and meant it — and the coffee scene took that as a personal challenge. From garage-born micro-roasters to direct-trade veterans who’ve been at it since the ’90s, the people roasting beans in this town are stubborn, a little obsessive, and very good at what they do.

So we did the delicious part of the homework for you. We dug through who’s actually roasting in Austin right now — names, dates, the real stories — and pulled together the ten worth driving across town for. Some you’ve heard of. A couple you haven’t. All of them earn their spot.

Fair warning: once you’ve had coffee roasted last Tuesday by someone who knows the farmer’s name, the grocery-store can is going to taste like sadness. You’ve been warned. Let’s get into it.

First, A Little Homework

Great beans deserve great gear — there’s no sense buying a stunning single-origin and then drowning it in a tragic machine. Before you load up on bags, give these a read:

• Coffee Grinders: The single biggest upgrade to your cup. Non-negotiable. A great bean ground badly is just expensive dust.
• Coffee Makers & Machines: From pour-over to full espresso setups — find the one that fits your morning, not somebody else’s.
• Storage Containers: Fresh beans go stale fast in the wrong jar. Keep all that hard-won flavor where it belongs.
• Coffee Scales: Eyeballing it is a crime against good coffee. Weigh your beans and watch your cup get better overnight.

Right. Now, who’s actually roasting the good stuff in Austin? Read on.

Cuvée Coffee

If Austin’s coffee scene had a founding family, Cuvée would be at the head of the table. Navy veteran Mike McKim started roasting here in 1998, making Cuvée one of the oldest roasteries in all of Texas — and he built his own direct-trade network from scratch, back when most roasters were happy to buy blind.

Here’s their party trick: Cuvée poured Austin’s first nitro cold brew in 2011, then became the first company in the world to put nitro in a can in 2014. So yes, they’re tinkerers. But underneath the innovation is a genuinely excellent, balanced roast, custom-dialed in their Austin lab. If you’re just starting to take Austin coffee seriously, start here. Trust me.

Find them: cuveecoffee.com · @cuveecoffee

Greater Goods Coffee Roasters

Greater Goods roasts coffee that’s good in both senses of the word. Husband-and-wife team Trey Cobb and Khanh Trang founded it in 2015, and in 2021 Roast Magazine named them Micro Roaster of the Year — the industry’s biggest nod for a small roaster. Not bad for six years’ work.

They only bother with true specialty grade (a tiny sliver of the world’s coffee even qualifies), roasting meticulously at their Dripping Springs roastery just outside town. And the heart-winner: they pair their releases with local charities and actually give back. Beautiful coffee, made for the right reasons. Try not to leave with three bags. (You will leave with three bags.)

Find them: greatergoodsroasting.com · @ggroasting

Wild Gift Coffee

Wild Gift was founded in 2014 by Clancy Rose and married couple Rob and Jenée Ovitt — three coffee lifers who’d been behind bars and counters since 2004. That do-it-right obsession defines everything they touch.

About 90% of their coffee comes through direct trade, visiting growing regions in person and routinely paying more than three times the “fair trade” price. Then they hand-roast it, one small batch at a time, in North Austin — no automation, no shortcuts. Their espresso turns up in some of the best shops in town, which tells you exactly how other Austin coffee people feel about them. Get in on it.

Find them: wildgiftcoffee.com · @wildgiftcoffee

Flat Track Coffee

Flat Track is East Austin to the bone — motorcycle soul, zero pretension. Childhood BMX buddies Matt Bolick and Sterling Roberts, who go all the way back to Fort Worth, started it as a mobile coffee cart in 2012 and opened their shop in 2013. That shop, at 1619 E. Cesar Chavez, clocks in at a gloriously tiny ~150 square feet and shares its digs with the Cycleast bike shop.

They roast in small batches every week and have that rare gift of being effortlessly cool without making you feel like you’re not cool enough to be there. This is the Austin coffee you came for — the kind that feels like a neighborhood, not a chain.

Find them: flattrackcoffee.com · @flattrackcoffee

Desnudo Coffee

Desnudo is the great Austin underdog story. Colombian brothers Juan and Sergio Trujillo moved here in 2021, drove DoorDash to pay the bills, and launched Desnudo in 2022 — starting with beans Juan carried over from Colombia in his backpack and a fold-out table at the farmers market. In just a few years they’ve grown to three trailers around town.

“Desnudo” means “naked” — the whole philosophy in one word: great coffee needs nothing to hide behind. They work directly with around 15 small, family-run farms in Colombia, cutting out the middlemen entirely. It’s coffee with receipts, and we love receipts. Order something single-origin and let it show off.

Find them: desnudocoffee.com · @desnudocoffee

Texas Coffee Traders

Some roasters are trendy. Texas Coffee Traders is an institution. They’ve been roasting in East Austin since the mid-’90s — long enough to earn the title “the original East Austin coffee roasters” — out of their home at 1400 East 4th Street, with a full espresso bar and over 100 coffees from around the world.

Don’t let the longevity and wholesale muscle fool you into thinking they’re impersonal. They quietly supply many of the cafes you already love, and they’re still hands-on, still proudly local. A deep-rooted workhorse roaster — exactly what every great coffee city needs.

Find them: texascoffeetraders.com · @texascoffeetraders

Third Coast Coffee Roasting Co.

Third Coast has been flying the organic, fair-trade flag since Joe Lozano fired up his roaster in January 1994 — that’s 30-plus years, back before “ethically sourced” was a sticker on every bag. They mean it, with USDA Certified Organic and Fair Trade beans imported directly from small farmer co-ops through Cooperative Coffees.

If your conscience and your taste buds want to agree for once, this is your roaster. You’ll find their roastery on Old Manchaca Road in South Austin. Earthy, dependable, and grown-up in all the best ways — the kind of bag you keep coming back to.

Find them: thirdcoastcoffee.com · @thirdcoastcoffee

Civil Goat Coffee

Civil Goat has the best mascot in Austin coffee: Butters, an actual pygmy goat, courtesy of founder Chris O’Brien. Chris started self-roasting in 2010, sold beans and cold brew from farmers-market stands, then opened his own shop and roastery in late 2016 in the eclectic, artsy Cuernavaca neighborhood out west.

He’s since added spots near campus and in Cherrywood, but the up-and-comer energy never left — all new ideas, creativity, and proof that you don’t need decades of history to roast something exciting. Get on board now so you can do the insufferable “I knew them before they were huge” routine later. You’ve earned it.

Find them: civilgoat.com · @civilgoatcoffee

Merit Coffee

Merit is the polished, grown-up end of the Texas coffee spectrum. It started in San Antonio in 2009 as “Local Coffee,” rebranded to Merit in 2018, and has since grown into roughly 13 shops across Texas — including three here in Austin — with Houston on the way. That’s a lot of beautiful lattes.

Their motto is literally “source, roast, brew”: they sustainably source from growers across Central and South America and Africa, roast locally, and turn out a consistently excellent cup. Clean spaces, gorgeous drinks, pastries worth the calories. Pull up a chair and stay a while.

Find them: meritcoffee.com · @meritcoffee

Casa Brasil Coffees

Casa Brasil is a love letter to Brazilian coffee, and it has the credentials to back it up. Founder Joel Shuler started it in 2005 as a Brazilian cultural center in Hyde Park, then spent years on the ground in Brazil — interning at co-ops, visiting hundreds of farms, even earning a master’s in Agricultural Engineering from Universidade Federal de Lavras, one of the world’s top coffee-research universities.

Today he and his small team buy best-of-harvest beans directly from Brazilian growers and roast them fresh to order, in small batches, right here in Austin. If you want coffee with a real sense of place and a genuine expert behind it, this is the one. Warm, knowledgeable, and proudly Austin.

Find them: casabrasilcoffees.com · @casabrasil

So, Where Do You Start?

Here’s my honest advice: don’t overthink it. Pick two from this list that sound like your kind of thing, grab a bag of each, and brew them side by side at home. (Need to dial in the cup? Our guide on adjusting coffee strength will sort you out, and if you’re chasing espresso, start with our at-home espresso guide.)

That’s the whole joy of a city like Austin — there’s no single “best.” There’s just the one that’s best for you, and the very good fun of finding it. So go support a local roaster, brew yourself something fresh, and tell them Ten Coffees sent you. Now go pour one. ☕