Agaseke, Rwanda

Eileen Hassi Rinaldi and Jeremy Tooker founded Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco in May 2005, helping pioneer the West Coast style of light to medium roasting that would go on to shape specialty coffee across the country. Hassi Rinaldi became sole owner in 2007 and has led the company as a woman owned, fully independent operation ever since. Ritual purchases approximately 95 percent of its beans directly from producer partners, a practice it has maintained since launching its direct trade program that same year. All coffee is roasted in small batches on a retrofitted 1950s Probat UG 22 and tasted at every stage. The roastery holds CCOF Organic certification and routinely pays well above fair trade minimums, backing long term commitments to the farms it works with. Twenty years in, the approach remains the same: small batch, origin focused, and uncompromising on quality.