Graffeo Coffee Roasting

Best coffee in the world! I love the dark roast. Very friendly staff and old world vibe. Cool décor inside.
Note: this is not a café, it’s a roaster. You can only buy coffee beans or grounds here.

Nice to have a coffee roaster here in San Rafael. The store feels so empty it feels like it could use some other merchandise to make it more of an experience. How about the ability to be a little taster cup before you commit to a whole pound?

Keep it simple. Make It great. Graffeo is simply the world’s finest. Walking by I smelled a heavenly aroma. I was only looking for a cup of coffee, but ended up buying a profound of fresh still warm Graffeo dark roast. I was then directed to a place to get an espresso at Café Aroma down the street. I had a double espresso. It was incredible. Graffeo has been in San Francisco since 1935 and in San Rafael since 1978. I have been to many coffee stores and most don’t even have the slightest aroma of coffee. Graffeo is a one of a kind business that gives ot customers a top notch product and great service. Walter and Steve are the best.

I have been a grateful customer of Graffeo Coffee since 1979. Found them when I opened a bakery in Marin (Baked Expectations) and used their coffees exclusively — the dark roast for both a drip coffee maker and ground for the first commercial espresso machine in east Corte Madera! Also had a pot of decaf always available. Sold the bakery in the mid-80’s but have been a dark bean buyer, home grind and brew customer since. Consistently high quality at a very reasonably price and the feeling that I’m drinking Bay Area history every morning keeps me walking back through the door of their vintage roastery on 4^th St in San Rafael every couple weeks for my pound & a half of dark beans. This time of the year, half-​pounds go out across the country as Xmas gifts to my favorite relatives & friends who wish they lived closer.

If you want delicious, dark roasted, complex flavored and smooth coffee, you’ve come to the right spot. Graffeo has long been my favorite bean. Mostly because it just tastes so darn good, and I’ll admit partly because it’s a little obscure and OLD SCHOOL.
I’ve noticed some reviews are critical of the customer service. On that, I’ll say this: It seems to me that Graffeo sells much of their beans wholesale and already had this storefront so decided to sell beans to the public. You won’t get gushy customer service, but if you bring cash they will sell you some kick-​ass coffee beans.
Side note: I’ve noticed the beans are so fresh that they actually don’t reach their peak flavor until a couple of days later. The coffee is good if you go right home and brew a batch, but wait a few days and it will blow your mind.

Good coffee but given the choice I’d go to their shop in San Francisco. The staff there seems more knowledgeable and much more interested in customer service.
And the last time I came here, it was 10 minutes before closing and the shop was completely locked up — not sure how regular their posted hours are. No sign closing early, nothing to indicate why they weren’t around during their normal business hours (and I made a trip just to go there…).

This is the best coffee ever! I only shop here.

I first started going to Graffeo in Beverly Hills back in the 90s. Back then I didn’t know much about coffee. I used to get a mix of the dark and light roast, but that was a long time ago. I would never touch a dark roast now, but fortunately Graffeo has a palatable light roast.
If not for the lousy attitude of the guy behind the counter, I would give them a four star review, despite their lack of selection. These days, I expect a good roaster to have many single origin, organic, and often direct trade coffees to choose from. Graffeo only has dark and light roasts of their blend of Latin American beans. I’m not even going to dignify dark roasted coffee, so let me just say that their light roast is very smooth and rich, with a great aroma.
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had their coffee since the LA location closed down. I needed to see the beans before buying, because most people who say light roast don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. I confirmed that the roast was light, but asking to see the beans really put myself on the salesman’s bad side. Normally I don’t have my beans ground, but I was buying them for someone else, so I asked to have them ground for pour-​over. When I asked how fine his ground for hand pour was, he wouldn’t give an answer. I asked that it be ground finer than drip and not as fine as espresso, and he concurred that it would be like that, but I could tell he was annoyed. In the end right before he closed the bag, I asked to see in there to check the grind. It was correct. Good on them, but did he have to get huffy and say, «we don’t do anything wrong.»? I tried to say back to him that I had been going to their other location since the 90s and that I always liked it, but he turned away from me and went on to the next customer while I was mid-​sentence.
Bad attitude, good light roast. Stay away from the dark roast! It’s just wrong.

Having read all the raving reviews here and elsewhere, I bought a pound of dark roast from Graffeo in San Rafael. The beans are black, oily, sticky and smell like fireplace ash. The coffee is undrinkable.
Was the roaster just having a bad day?

Hands-​down, the *best* coffee I’ve ever been able to find! I’ve been drinking Graffeo coffee since my boss first introduced me to it in 1978, buying my beans first from the SF location and now from the San Rafael location. Service at both locations is always first rate. I’ve tried Peet’s (and other coffees) on a number of occasions but I always return to Graffeo. I introduced it to a friend of mine in Minnesota. He now has his shipped to him in Minneapolis.

The San Rafael store has seriously deteriorated recently, compared to how great it was in the past. No coffee in the morning because of «late delivery» or «supplier problem». No coffee in the afternoon because the next batch won’t be roasted for several hours. E-​mailed complaint to Graffeo and received no response. Tried buying at a Molly Stone and every bag of Italian had a different blend in it. No one seems to be supervising this branch.

The dark roast is an Italian roast, so not a hint of burnt taste. The coffee is full bodied yet smooth with a hint of nuttiness.
The gentleman working behind the counter was very knowledgeable about coffee and obviously took pride in his roasting.
There is no coffee for sell in the store and no tastings, so its a bit of a leap in faith and these reviews to take some home, but it was worth it to me.
We buy most of our coffee from Graffeo and occasionally Peets when we are not in the area.

Amazing coffee with some great people to assist you in your coffee investments. Rex has always been a huge help. Thank you Graffeo Coffee!

As an espresso junkie, I love their roast. It’s Italian but not too smokey or bitter. They can micro-​adjust their grinders to your machine. My machine is fussy and likes it fine, and they don’t mind custom grinding. Their roast would get 5 stars.
The main guy I see when purchasing (a wonderful Latino gentleman) is most pleasant and helpful. The other counter guy has no customer service skills — an older rotund white guy. Once when I called to see if they were still open, he told me get here 15 minutes before closing or it’s too late. Wow — with money in hand he wouldn’t even keep the store open until their own posted hours! Their customer service would get 1 to 5 stars depending on who’s working that day.
Another recent complaint — they’ve been roasting too little dark roast (their espresso roast). This is the third consecutive day they are out, and it’s only 2:30pm. Hello? — roast more beans next time!
But hey — I’m still going back. Gotta get my fix, and their roast is great.

I need a bag of coffee beans for my next day medicine.
Walking on 4^th Street, there is a Starbucks at the corner… Nah!
At the end of the block, there is a Royal Coffee Company… independent chain, maybe!
Continue to walk down on 4^th St., there is a Graffeo Coffee Company. I’ve always enjoyed going to San Francisco’s North Beach location to buy wholesale beans to brew my coffee at home. I didn’t know this location is the second oldest of the three locations (Beverly Hills is the thrid location), which has been around since 1977. Looking at this place, it looks new to me.
The San Francisco location does not have any organic coffee. But the San Rafael location have the Organic Dark Roast. For $ 14.95 per lb, the coffee bean has just came out of their signatured roaster and the beans were still warm. You just can’t beat that for freshness.
I rushed home and immediately ground the beans and brewed that cup of coffee with that organic blend. That coffee was bold & aromatic. Quite possibly one of the best cup of coffee I’ve had in a while. And it’s in my kitchen too.
You just can’t beat Graffeo Coffee Company.

From the moment I entered, the dude on the other side of the counter did exactly everything wrong. I’m really disappointed because I might have found what could have been a really good local source for beans.
I’m not at all a coffee connoisseur but I do like the smell of properly roasted coffee beans. I was walking past this storefront when I was pulled back by the really great aroma coming out into the sidewalk. I doubled back and came into the store, glanced at the price list and noticed that there were four kinds of beans (dark, light, organic and decaf). There were prices next to them but no indication of quantity. Underneath the prices, however, was a note about how they only sell in half pound increments.
When someone finally came outside (invest in an automatic door chime, guys), he essentially greeted me with a scornful look. He gruffly asked me if I wanted to buy something – not if I needed some help nor if I had a question. I asked him if the prices were by the half pound or pound. He was very annoyed to answer my question. He disappeared into the back and came back again to ask me if I wanted to buy something or not.
Before I buy anything pricey, I tend to like to sample the goods. I don’t think that’s too much to ask especially in a local place. When I asked here, however, I was told that I couldn’t get a few beans in my cupped hands (because my dirty fingers would get into the batch) nor could I get closer to the shovel of beans he was holding about 4 feet away from me. Seriously? I am standing essentially 20 feet away from a roaster that’s running and am near several containers of open beans. There’s no way I’m going to be able to make an even slightly informed decision on whether or not I’ll like these beans or not.
Finally as I became completely exasperated with the whole situation, I was told that he didn’t have time for me and he walked away. He didn’t give me a chance to get his name.
Terrible customer service in a span of 5 minutes. I guess they don’t need the new business.

Unlike many places around, Graffeo only has dark roast, light roast, organic (which is sort of between the two) and decaf. (They will blend them for you as well.)
Coffee is a matter of taste and this particular one tastes best to me. (Well, not just me, since my guests rave about it and it is served in some of the best restaurants in the Bay Area.)
The beans are roasted fresh on a regular basis, so you aren’t getting coffee that has been aging in a warehouse in Seattle for months before you get it home.
The manager of the store is very knowledgeable and patient — even when dealing with pretentious Marin County coffee drinkers who have to try and prove they know more than anyone else in the store…
Our household favorites are the organic and the house blend of ¾ dark and ¼ light.

A store that only does one thing — roasts great coffee and sells it for a competitive price. No junk for sale, no fluff. Just fresh beans.
What else do you want?
I use the dark roast with my espresso maker and it is wonderful.
This is as good as it gets unless you roast your own coffee at home…

They roast their own beans and don’t let them sit around in a warehouse for a month before selling them? What?
When you walk in all you see is a chalkboard with the roasting dates, the roaster, a scale and the wonderful person who will help you. The man who works here (owner?) is very friendly and totally knowledgeable about coffee, the roasting process and water-​decaf processing. He will grind the beans if you want him to, but seems really pleased when you have a grinder at home. All the coffee is the same price, and they will do special roasts for you if you want.
I prefer the darker roast to the light roast from them, it is not burnt tasting like many «dark roast coffees» you can buy. This is the main reason I do not like French roast coffee, it is almost always burnt in the roasting process.
They use the Swiss water decaf beans, which is a non chemical way of extracting the caffeine from coffee. The beans are not totally «caffeine free» but are almost and very, very good. Most other processes use chemical solvents, like methylene chloride, to decaffeinate coffee beans. The beans are soaked in Coffee flavored water to remove the caffeine, not the flavor. Sorry to go off on decaf, it is for Alex C.
If you want good coffee and even to learn about coffee go here. Or if you want to just sit in the front and smell the coffee, I am sure that would be fine too.

8÷12÷05 The Decaf… I love great coffee, but am not a daily drinker. I will shell out the big bucks for Kona, but like to have around some good stuff that is not quite so dear. So I thought to try this local roaster. My issue is that most beans are over roasted and, unfortunately, this is true with their decaf beans. The light roast regular looked nice, but alas sleep is ultimately a greater pleasure. I would, however, love to read a review of the non-​decaf beans, if anyone out there has one to offer. Two stars…
¾/​06 I bought a half-​pound of their dark roast and had it this morning black with a little sugar. It was excellent! I had to stop myself after two cups; it was so good. They charge $ 12.75 per pound with a half pound minimum, which is a fair price in my book for such good coffee. They, as I learned, use only Arabica beans, which big roasters, like Starbucks cannot do, because of their volume. Five stars…