Our clean water project in Uganda has given rise to a whole new perspective, one that needs to be shared. The project was inspired from our work with the Namanyoni Cooperative. It is a study in what moves Thanksgiving Coffee Company to be better at what we do, and it is about an evolving theory of change.

The original Interfaith co-operative of Ugandan coffee farmers gathered together with a mission to build harmonious relationships and economic development in a complicated country. When Thanksgiving Coffee became involved, our premise was to improve the standard of living. We began by paying the farmers a higher price for their coffee. We empowered the farmers to improve the quality of their coffees, their farming practices, and supported them to certify their green coffee and this commanded higher prices for their product.

As the relationship grew we went through many twists and turns and in 2020 it became clear that paying a higher price for the green coffee was not enough. What we learned is that the farmers spend up to 60% of their income on healthcare costs. It became clear that the real need is to improve the health of the farmers, and for Uganda this meant clean, safe water.

Not having access to safe water is the number 2 killer of children under five worldwide and over 20 Million people in Uganda are without safe water. This takes a huge toll on families and especially the water barrers – the women who need to hunt and source out available water.

Uganda has 20 Million people without safe water.

We set a new goal to provide clean water for every family of the Namanyoni Coop. To accomplish this we partnered with Spouts of Water who creates sustainable clean water filters out of local materials and hires local employees.

These simple filters allow the farmers and their families to drink and cook water safely without boiling it first.

The Benefits of the Clean Water Filters

• 99.9% Reduction of water-born illnesses, such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea
• Increase in life expectancy
• Decrease in infant mortality
• Lower energy costs due to eliminating the need to boil water for sanitation
• Reduction of medical, pharmacy, and burial costs
• Increase disposable income by up to 60%
• Women and girls spend less time hunting for, gathering, carrying, and transporting wood back to their homes (which is also a financial benefit)
• Raised family and community Happiness quotient

In 2021 we were able to meet our goal through the rebates generated by the sale of each Delicious Peace coffee package.

Our work with the Namanyoni Cooperative in Uganda is helping us develop a replicable model that we can share. When the health of our farmers and impoverished peoples of the world improves, we see a ripple effect and the benefits reach far and wide.

Learn More About the Project:

Delicious Peace Moves Forward: Development Origins

A Trip to Africa: Intro - I'm going to Africa

Delicious Peace Coffee : A New Story

Clean Water For All : Helping Uganda

Impact Report: Giving Back

Uganda: Geography Now (Fun one to share with kids)

Clean water is scarce in Uganda’s coffee-growing regions and 20 million Ugandans are without safe clean water.  

This is our video about how we learned to better restore dignity and justice to our coffee growers, and their communities.

Read about the project here: Evolution of Change

By working together, we can support the health and well-being of each farmer and their families with a simple investment in a clean water filter.

When you buy Delicious Peace Coffee, you support health and happiness for future generations.

This is a call to action for all coffee companies to lift up the dignity of farmers and support health and happiness for future generations.  

Paul Katzeff harvesting our coffee tree full of ripe coffee cherries.

It all started with some seeds that Paul smuggled back to the states from Los Piños Farm in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. You might know this farm if you’ve tried these two coffees: Byron’s Natural and Byron’s Maracaturra light roasts. It may look as though it took minimal effort for this tree to thrive indoors, but it’s quite the contrary. Paul planted the seeds, taking about two months for them to sprout. It grew to about two feet when it started suffering and needed more TLC. The amount of light it was getting downstairs was not sufficient, although the temperature was sublime, but coffee trees need exactly the right balance of light, water, temperature, and soil. Using the process of elimination, Paul discovered it couldn’t be any of those, except maybe light so he brought the tree up to the office of Greg Barrett, our director of operations where it saw new light and slowly came back to life in his care.

It generally takes about 4-5 years for a coffee tree to bear fruit, which is then harvested once a year in standard conditions. This leads to a huge issue for coffee farmers when demand rises for coffee, and they want more crops, they can’t exactly grow more on the spot. An analogy Paul used to explain this is “if you’re a carrot farmer, you just plant more carrots, but if you’re a coffee farmer, you plant and you have to wait four years.”

Today, we’re harvesting a four-year-old coffee tree right here in our TCC office. We are making sure to pull the cherries but not completely pull the nodes off. The reason for this is that next year’s cherries will grow back from the same node where it was pulled before. The coffee you buy from us is picked by hand by each farmer we partner with, and de-pulping is done by machine. All of the pulp discarded from coffee cherries can be used to make flour, wine, jam, and pie and it can even be eaten raw. Once the coffee beans are de-pulped, we’re letting them dry for a couple of days before we roast them. We’re doing this all by hand in-office to show you the process and that it can be done at home!

Stay tuned to hear about the roasting process.

Find out more about growing coffee trees at home:

 All You Need To Know About Growing Coffee Trees in Your Home.

Impact is measured in many ways, both direct and indirect, seen and unseen. Over the course of Thanksgiving's 50 years, the company’s impact has spanned across both the coffee growing regions of the world, and the local community of Mendocino County. Now in these years of the post Covidian era, many new challenges have arisen. Whether it is the loss of loved ones, big changes to the supply chain, personnel shifts, or the flux of coffee plants in our changing climate, yet still our company remains constant.

This 2021 report shares how Thanksgiving Coffee continues to pull together and provide the best coffee in the world, while supporting health and happiness for our community. This is the ethos of Thanksgiving’s origins. This small coastal community of Mendocino posts signs of "How to Build Community" on walls of stores and gathering places, a reminder to all citizens and tourists alike, the importance of staying truly connected. The most commonly posted sticker that travels upon the bumpers of local cars reads "Think Global, Act Local".

Thanksgiving takes its lead from the people who shop in the local grocery stores and care about where and how their coffee is grown. The people who share how their family is fairing, who’s children have grown and who is now gone, the people who care about farmers and the global food system. The news from neighbors who come by for a great cup of coffee, and the organizations who invite us to support their efforts to do good in the world. This is who Thanksgiving Coffee Company is, and this is our impact, as part of a global community imagining the best possible future there can be, for all beings, and for the whole living planet of Earth.

Part I. The Art

Thanksgiving Coffee has seen many changes over the past 50 years. The invention of the internet has been a big change that opened an entirely new territory where images are key to communicating with our customers, like you.

Since the first image was posted to the internet, approximately 54,400 images are now uploaded per second, or 4.7 billion per day. Thirty years later 91% of the world’s population has instantaneous access to approximately 750 billion images through their cell phones.

The “Upside-down Man” came just before the digital expansion. In the early ’90s, the North Bay artist Chris Blum was asked to make a new poster for our business. Long before the internet, Chris Blum developed his unique artistic style by devouring images from hundreds of magazines and newspapers. Chris believes “pop culture to be one of the best decoders of the cultural values of the times”.

As art director for the project Chris Blum brought in one of America’s most recognized illustrators and graphic artist Michael Schwab. Schwab’s art focuses on the interplay of positive and negative space to create strong and simple, yet always contemporary images. The resulting collaboration between Blum and Schwab is our iconic Upside - down Man, a timeless image with a message of who our company is.

Part II – The Meaning

The truth is our company is about service. We serve our customers the best coffee possible on every level of taste, and integrity. We serve coffee full of social, economic, and environmental justice for our global community. We serve coffee to support the health and happiness of our coffee farmers in their home countries. We serve coffee for the well-being of future generations through our conduct in the world and our local community. As long as Thanksgiving Coffee is in business, service will be integrated into the DNA of who we are. 

Thanksgiving Coffee's Sales and Delivery Crew are full of knowledge handed down by our founders, (Joan and Paul Katzeff), and the valuable team their son, Jonah Katzeff CEO, has assembled to serve our community. The coffee they deliver and the coffee support they give you are built on the unique relationship with the family farms and small co-operatives that Thanksgiving has cultivated with generations of coffee farmers. This kind of connection is earned through hard work and dedication, and that is exactly what our sales and delivery team are full of. Let me introduce them to you. See if you can notice a theme. (Hint, positive co-workers).

Coffee is our medium, community resilience is our passion, and the health and happiness of our farmers is our goal.

Thanksgiving Coffee Company turns 50 this year. We created a video to celebrate the highlights and history of our company, which was established using our business as a force for good, with coffee as our medium. The video below offers a glimpse into the social and environmental justice built into the heart our the company and how we are working to bring health and well-being to our farmers.

"THE WAY"

The way to great coffee flavor is not direct. The path must be traveled with great care and attention. The way becomes a path, the path a road, and then, magically, the road becomes a highway that leads to people who cultivate the land from which the coffee derives its special flavor. How does one find the path? Through caring. One does not search so much for the road that leads to the tree, as for the road that leads to the heart. This is the secret.

-PAUL KATZEFF, CO-FOUNDER

Now the new generation is here to steward the regenerative business forward. Jonah Katzeff is the new CEO, while his parents Joan and Paul remain active members of the Board to guide their son for many years to come.

Our motto, and it is true as ever... Not Just A Cup, But A Just Cup.

Thanksgiving Coffee Company turns 50 this year and we would like to celebrate our co-Founders, Joan and Paul Katzeff. They set the example for us to use our business as a force for good, with coffee as our medium. They instilled social and environmental justice as our passion and the health and well-being of our farmers as our goal.

Joan and Paul have led the specialty coffee industry toward equality and justice. For five decades they have spearheaded ethical sourcing directly from small-scale farmer cooperatives, building the first independent farmer-owned cupping labs and inspiring the first Fair Trade model.

Working shoulder to shoulder with the farmers, Thanksgiving Coffee has developed one of the most valuable supply chains in coffee today. At the core, our company is built on the interconnectedness of coffee farmers, the coffee they produce, and the health and well-being of our shared environment.

“A coffee farmer will love their trees when they provide food, shelter, education, and health care for their family. When a farmer loves their trees, they will care for them in a way that produces fine quality and flavor. Great coffee derives from the welfare of the farmer and their family. It is true for all farmers who work the land, including our local farmers.”

– Paul Katzeff, Co-Founder

Now Thanksgiving Coffee is being led by Joan and Paul's son, Jonah Katzeff, who has literally been part of this company his entire life. With a solid foundation to build upon, we now look to the next 50 years with a sense of excitement and purpose. Our motto, and it is true as ever... Not Just A Cup, But A Just Cup.

Thank you, Joan and Paul!

The arms and legs of the company are found in our Production Team as they move smoothly between the freshly roasted beans, to the final customer packages. This zone is buzzing with movement from the fresh batch of beans rushing down the gravity feed shoot to a new coffee barrel. The Production crew mixes the different roasts and portions carefully to produce the great flavorful blends. When needed, they take the whole beans and grind them to the right specifications to be brewed to their highest potential. The crew then takes all this tasty roasted coffee, box it up, and ship it out to you, our customers. Here they are.

Here are the coffees our production crew like, want to try one?

The Mendocino Film Festival (MFF) began in 2006, and Thanksgiving Coffee Company has been a steady supporter since the beginning. This 2022 season an innovative program called "Native Cinema: Vision the Future" was lanched. This was created and produced by the Bee Bold Alliance (a project from Thanksgiving Coffee) to help tell the story of Mendocino’s regenerative renaissance.

The overwhelming positive response of the Native Cinema program demonstrated an earnest interest in the Native experience. It was screened to a sold out audience at Crown Hall in Mendocino, CA. and featured many wonderful Native Filmmakers and several remarkable local Native Leaders.

The tone of the evening was set by local coastal Pomo activist and cultural revitalizer Bernadette Smith. With her moving ancestral songs for the land, Smith gave respect and honor to her heritage and for those in the audience, the cultural experince of the original peoples of Mendocino, CA. Priscilla Hunter from the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo joined Smith in this acknowledgment with her prayers and helped amplify the intention for the evening of Native Films to come. (image: Bernadette Smith on left, Priscilla Hunter on right)

Strengthen our connection through Indigenous Storytelling

Part I

The Cinema portion began with the film Chasing Voices (a “Pat’s Pick”) documentary about Ethnographer John Peabody Harrington who spent 50 years recording and documenting over 150 different, dying Native American languages. This film has been included in Rhode Island International FF, Montana Int FF, Mother Tongues FF, and the Smithsonian Institution in Feb 2022.   (image: Pat Ferrero left, Daniel Golding right)           

Director/Producer Daniel Golding is an award-winning Native filmmaker with a degree in Cinema and American Indian Studies from SF State University. He has been making award-winning documentaries for the past twenty years and teaches digital filmmaking workshops to at-risk tribal youth through his Hokan Media Digital Filmmaking Academy.  

After viewing this unique and intriguing film, the audience engaged in a Q&A led by Pat Ferrero with director Daniel Golding. Listen to more behind the making of Chasing Voices at Forthright Radio here.

Part II

Nathaniel Golding hopes audiences will take away how a positive outlet will lead to positive things.

Part II of the Native Cinema program featured AWAKEN, a short film about the issues young people face on the Fort Yuma Reservation in Southern California. The first-time filmmaker Nathaniel Golding (an enrolled member of the Quechan tribe) tells the story of cousins Orlando and Kieran whose love for metal music has not deterred them from learning their traditional songs and dances. Nathaniel was the youngest film crew member. He is learning the Quechan language and songs and was inspired to make this film by his father, producer Daniel Golding.

(Image: Awaken filmmaker Nathaniel Golding) 

The second film Forest Grandmothers explores the activism of Priscilla Hunter (Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians) and Polly Girvin (Indigenous Rights Lawyer). For the past 40 years, they have tirelessly worked to preserve the forests and educate others about the cultural significance of biodiversity for Native People and the wellbeing of the planet.

(Image: Forest Grandmothers filmmaker Henry Thomas, center)

This unique film project was directed by first-time filmmaker Henry Thomas who led the Bee RYL Production Crew, a multicultural and multi-generational mentorship for youth to sustain local art and culture through film. Henry Thomas is a young aspiring filmmaker combining digital video with analog photography.

The Bee RYL Crew for 2021-22: Ronan Williams, Keiran Miller, Kyla Marchello, Josephine Steinbeck, and camera support from Amy Heckeroth.

*Bee RYL Productions is a pilot project of the Bee Bold Alliance led by Lavender Grace Cinnamon and sponsored by Thanksgiving Coffee Company in partnership with Hope4Natives, Mendocino Film Festival, and MHS Media Lab.

The fourth and final film of the evening was Pomo Land Back: A Prayer from the Forest by filmmakers Evan-Marie Petit & Louis Fox. Hailing from the red earth of her ancestors, visual storyteller Petite is from the Eastern Cherokee.

This film aims to honor the vital movement towards indigenous-led stewardship and rematriation of California forest lands. Created in collaboration with the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Pomo Land Back is a visceral poetic document of an alliance-building, inter-tribal gathering that took place in February 2022. The Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians calls for protection and co-management of the 48,652-acre Jackson Demonstration State Forest.

(Image:Pomo Land Back filmmaker Evan-Marie Petite)

The evening closed with two honored local Tribal Leaders Chairmen Michael Hunter and Tribal Chairwoman Priscilla Hunter. Together they addressed the audience with a unique depth and humor all their own. They shared their vision to preserve the local forests and create a clean safe environment for future generations to come. Dynamic in vision and in action, the inspiring Chairman and Chairwoman Hunter actively work for the well-being of the planet and fortunate Mendocino is their home.

Thanksgiving Coffee Company is a proud sponsor of the Native Cinema event. It felt like a step in the right direction to strengthen our communities resilience. The evening created an opportunity to learn and gather some tools to use during these turbulent times. With positive outlets, we can be community-minded and learn how to grow through our shared experiences. Ultimately we are all in this together, let's tell a good story.

(Image: Tribal Chairman Michael Hunter left, Tribal Chairwoman Priscilla Hunter right)

This event was a collaboration with The Bee Bold Alliance, in partnership with Hope4natives and The Mendocino Film Festival and made possible by the sponsorship of Thanksgiving Coffee Company.

Resources:

Sinkyone Intertribal Wilderness Council 

Hope4Natives

Visit California Tribes

Pomo Land Back

Bee Bold Alliance   

*Bee RYL Productions Pilot Project appreciates the generous donations from Sweetwater Inn and Spa, Fortunate Farms, Cafe Beaujolais, Corners of the Mouth, Princess Seafood, and Simone’s Kitchen

Our Bee Bold Coffee supports biodiversity and Earth renewal with your daily cup of coffee. The Bee Bold Campaign offers a steady funding source for Conservation Works, training youth to support native bees and pollinators with the restoration and preservation of habitats to sustain a resilient ecosystem.

Milk becomes naturally-sweet when heated to the ideal, not-too-hot, temperature. (Ever get warm milk before bed as a child... or even as an adult?). It quickly becomes scalded-tasting at too high a temperature. For this reason, it is imperative that the milk steamed for espresso drinks not be over-heated.

Excellent steamed milk vs. sloppy

Integrating your milk with your espresso:

• Pour your desired amount of milk into the pitcher, and leave on the counter while you...
• ...follow Steps to Pull an Excellent Espresso
• As soon as you have pressed the button to start your espresso shot, begin steaming the milk. Milk should take about 20 seconds, espresso about 23-30.
• Follow all steps to velvety, naturally-sweet milk.
• As soon as your espresso is done, begin pouring milk into it. This should be done by tipping the cup so that the milk can pour slowly down the side, again making a convection-like current in the cup. When you have about 1” of room left, bring the pitcher tip close to the drink surface (which may require tilting the cup) while continuing to pour and tip the pitcher at a steep angle toward it, jiggling your wrist so that the foam piles onto the drink. No scooping with a spoon should be necessary.

Persistently bold in their visionary approach to coffee, the founders of Thanksgiving Coffee, Joan and Paul Katzeff, led an industry toward equality and justice. Their leadership established ethical sourcing directly from small-scale farmer cooperatives which in turn inspired the first Fair Trade model. The company is built on the interconnectedness of coffee farmers, the coffee they produce, and the health and wellbeing of our shared environment.

For 50 years, Thanksgiving Coffee Company has chosen to actively use coffee as our force for good for the planet. Our leadership inspires this goodness to ripple out to all the people we work with. Our relationship with coffee is what gives the company the perseverance and fortitude to stay in business through all of life’s challenges, and it is literally what gets us up in the morning, no really!

The next generation of Thanksgiving Coffee Company’s leaders are here. Stepping into the role of CEO, the founders’ son, Jonah Katzeff, helps guide us with his lifetime of coffee knowledge.

Together we continue to work with coffee as our medium, community resilience as our passion, and the health and happiness of our farmers as our goal. “Not Just A Cup, But A Just Cup” is our motto, and it is as true as ever. A new generation with a regenerative vision, I invite you to meet our leadership team.

Coffee as our medium, community resilience as our passion, and the health and happiness of our farmers as our goal.

It may seem like a contradiction in terms… Eating salmon to support Salmon Restoration, but the Salmon Trollers Association has been doing great work with this event for years. I’ve had the good fortune of participating in several different ways to support this event since I moved up here more than 20 years ago, but this year I think was the most fun, and I’ll tell you why.

Generous people, voting with their dollars to support a cause that has delicious implications.

This event is one of the largest events in Fort Bragg every year, often with a total of attendance of 3000 guests or more. Most of the folks who attend are tourists and most of the locals who attend are actually working on the periphery to make sure all these guests have a memorable experience. From the ticket takers, to the corn shuckers, to the salad spinners, to the garlic bread team with their bread mops soaked with that delicious stinking rose butter, and finally to the dignitaries wearing their best bright yellow rain gear, grilling up salmon to the delight of the masses.

(Image: Paul Katzeff on left, Joe Seta on Right)

So at the end of that buffet line you find musical entertainment, the ice cream from our local legendary Cowlicks ice cream parlor, fine craft beer from North Coast Brewing Company (also a certified B Corp.) and Thanksgiving Coffee. We had cold brew, three different hot brews and the ability for the first time to sell bags of coffee.

(Image: Crowed at the Worlds Largest Salmon BBQ, Fort bragg, CA)

The morning starts with coffee for the volunteers, who are all extremely appreciative. Then, at about 11 AM… The line forms. That line doesn’t stop until 6 PM. For the next seven hours, Paul and I look like a pair of octopus pals, each with eight arms going in every direction, telling stories while serving and explaining the difference between light roasts, dark roasts and cold brew. We live for that kind of connection to our audience.

Luckily, in the early afternoon, Jonah and Joan Katzeff arrived to give us a break, and allow us to feast like all the other salmon supporters. Wading out into the sea of picnic tables, all made by aspiring craftsman from Parlin Forks Conservation Camp, it’s inspiring to see the instant community that gets established, just by sitting next to someone from another place, from another experience, and all gathered together for the support of the salmon.

Back to it after the break, the audience primarily switched from hot brew to cold brew as the sun starts to reclaim its rightful position overhead instead of the often-present marine layer of clouds. Did I tell you that we were giving all this coffee away? Well, the coffee was ‘free’ in exchange for a donation, in any amount, to Salmon Restoration. When we took an average at the end of the day people were donating about six bucks per cup of coffee… Generous people, voting with their dollars to support a cause that has delicious implications. (Image: Momma Grows Funk Band with crowd at Worlds Largest Salmon BBQ, Fort Bragg, CA)

Below are the coffees that were served at the Salmon BBQ for you to enjoy at home.

We’ve been in the coffee biz for a long time now and it’s time to pay homage to those who have been with us since the very beginning of it all. As you may or may not know, Thanksgiving Coffee was founded in 1972 by Paul and Joan Katzeff – you can read our full story here (it’s really quite interesting) and Down Home Foods has been around for quite awhile as well! Here’s to Down Home Foods! Thank you for offering Thanksgiving Coffee to your customers for over 45 years!

Down Home Foods is a small family-owned market in Fort Bragg offering fresh meals from sandwiches to samosas to baked goods, a juice bar - you'll want to try the Down Home Blend for sure - locally-sourced breads, deli-sliced meats and cheeses, handmade merchandise, organic beauty and hygeine products, bulk pantry items, snacks and so much more. Honestly, I could spend hours in Down Home Foods. AND, if they don't have something you're looking for, they can often order what you need to arrive at the shop. We're so lucky to have Down Home Foods here on the Mendocino Coast.

Try one of our June featured coffees!

20% off this month only.

Roast color determines 80% of a coffee's flavor.

Like a piece of bread, raw coffee is mostly carbohydrates like starches and oils, although there are over 1600 chemical compounds in a single coffee bean. When a slice of bread is toasted, it browns until it burns. Toasted light, you can taste the wheat. Toasted until burnt or very dark, you taste only the charred remains. So it is with our coffee bean (seed). The flavor changes with the degree of roast. A light roast Colombian tastes more like a light roast Nicaraguan than like a medium roast Colombian coffee.

Roast color is a function of temperature and time. Relatively speaking, artisan roasters use variations of these controllable factors to create flavor. Roasting is a craft much like pottery is. Two potters using the same clay, the same glazes, and the same shapes will have different outcomes. Temperature + time in the kiln will determine what the craftsman’s effort will produce. So it is with coffee. Generally, the coffee begins to roast at 405°F when the starches can get no hotter and they break down into simple sugars that carmelize at about 420°F. That is when the light roast is pulled or dumped. It can take from 8-14 minutes to get to a light roast color.

 Between 420° and 475°F the color darkens until nothing is left to taste except burned plant matter!

Light Roast - nuanced, bright, lively

In the lighter roasts (both light and medium), you can taste the nuance and impact of terroir. If you’re a single origin lover, these coffees are your go-to. With a light roast especially, the specific qualities unique to the coffee’s origin stand out. If you’re sticking with Vienna and French roasts (the darker beans), you have to work harder to tell the differences between origins. With light, it’s all there in the first sip.

For those of you that cup your coffee and take the time to taste every flavor, the lights and mediums are probably the roasts for you. When purchasing a single origin coffee, the great ones are best at this roast color.

Medium Roast - nutty, spicy, balanced, fruity

Roasted about 20 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the light, the color on a medium roast coffee bean shifts into a chocolate brown. As you move from the light roast to the medium, the bright and lively acidity morphs into a smoother, deeper, and more balanced mouth feel. In every sip of a medium roast, you’ll find that a certain mellowness and maturity prevails.

Dark Roast - bold, spicy, chocolaty

The coffee bean color on our dark roast (sometimes called the Vienna roast) is still more brown than black. You could compare it to the color of baker’s chocolate. When this coffee is freshly roasted, the beans will have a shiny coat of coffee oils on their surface. The greatest dark roast coffees will have hints of carbonization, but shouldn’t be described as smoky or toasty — we’ll leave those descriptors to the very dark roast.

Very Dark Roast - toasty, smoky, carmelized sugars

Ah, the “French Roast.” This is the coffee that goes great with a splash of milk. The coffee bean color on our very dark roast is more black than brown, with rich and copious levels of surface oil. Roasted long and hot to produce deep carbony, smoky flavor notes. A well-made French roast will have caramelized sugar notes, licorice and roasted chestnut flavors, and a long wet (not ashy) finish.