After Covid knocked me down and broke my cookies, I stood up and decided to get my stuff together and do something nice for people I know and love. I decided to learn to roast coffee beans. Where to start? Sweet Maria's! I ordered the roaster, the beans, the bags, the book, all the things. I watched videos on their website (also, YouTube, I will not lie and pretend YouTube does not teach me all the things, it does, and so does the SM website, use both, but this review is for SM so I digress). I use the SR800 Fresh Roast air roaster. I love it. I upgraded to a Behmor AB2000 drum roaster and I was SOOO disappointed. No good way to watch temperature, no good way to stop it from coast roasting, just spent more money on a thing that was not (to ME) an improvement. I returned to my Fresh Roast 800 and I have gotten really good at roasting beans. I love the green beans selections from Sweet Maria's. The descriptions are great and they really know which beans roast up darker or lighter - I always press on that envelope and then I say to myself, "Why did I not just do what they tell me to do?" So do pay attention to the roast profiles on the beans - if you like yours dark, make sure Sweet Maria's thinks you should roast them up to Full City Plus. OK, other great things: They ship fast, and they have a nice flat rate UPS option that shows up on your doorstep quickly. They also have pick up service for when you drop your roasting chamber and break it on the day you planned on roasting. Yes, get a spare and yes, go pick that thing up instead of waiting on UPS! It's a cute little location and the folks are friendly. Beans beans - they source them from everywhere and the prices are right. Even Kona beans are available once in a while, which makes my heart sing songs about my coffee addiction. I am currently totally crushing on these: Honduras Dry Process Edwin Ever Parainema Kona Darnall Estate Typica Yemen Mokha Matari Guatamala Antigua Pulcal Inteligente Mexico (Organic!) Chiapas El Desvio Zambia Kateshi Estate AA I love Sumatra but I have not yet quite mastered that art yet, now that I have been at this game for about 5 years. Pro Tip: Order 1/2 lb tin-tie paper bags with ties so you can give some bean love to your friends. Other pro tips: Do get the Ecotact green coffee storage bags if you don't plan to roast your beans right away. Keep them fresh! Definitely store in good one-way valve containers, and don't roast too much all at once - just to have it get oxidized too quickly. Fresh! Fresh I tell you! They have an Atmos vacuum container. I use Airscape, works well. read more

Sweet Maria's Coffee - Here's my latest Kona Darnell Estate roast batch. Mmmmm. - Kitchen Supplies Near Me - Oakland, California

I've been ordering green beans from Sweet Maria's for home roasting for about 8 years now and don't imagine ever stopping. They have a wide variety of beans that vary throughout the year (and years) for all palates. I love their flavor descriptions and details for each bean. It's been a lot of fun roasting through and trying beans from all over the world. And it helps that the prices are on point and shipping process is always smooth. read more

Great experience stopping in to pick up some roasted beans. Mike was in the shop and was super helpful with recommendations, and he even pulled out some specialty-roasted beans. Would definitely recommend checking them out! read more

Great coffee, flawless, quick delivery. Been with them for many years, since my roasting days began in my toaster oven.

If you like to roast at home there is NO better place to order fresh green beans. Customer service is excellent and there's always a great variety which is great as beans vary year to year. read more

We made the trek up to Oakland to go here because my boyfriend has been ordering unroasted beans from here online from LA! The staff was really helpful, they had a lot of options for beans, merch, roasters, other fun gifts. Street parking was easy on a Friday 11a! We drove to the warehouse and they told us where to enter the shop. read more

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Great people, and wonderful advice on roasting coffee. I wouldn't go anywhere else for the advice, and for the green coffee beans

It's been well over 5 years and I still get all my beans from Sweet Maria's. They have very specific information on each bean's page about the flavor profile, and that's extremely important to me. I am literally using the same frankensteined coffee roaster I made 6 years ago...just added a new "air fryer" top for the heat and have no complaints about how the beans roast up. Pandemic does make me sad that I can't pick up at the warehouse any more, but I will say that their website notes that if you're local and need your beans quickly (cuz you know...the world may end if you don't get your coffee on), let them know and they may be able to work something out. I can attest that they can. But mostly I suck it up and pay the shipping charges, since it's more important to try to keep a local business IN BUSINESS than grumble about the extra $8. But I am looking forward to 2021 and hopefully going back to the warehouse on a regular basis! read more

I've never visited their store, only ever ordered online. First tried them over 10 years ago, life changed, just started roasting coffee again and first order was from Sweet Maria's. Have had nothing but great coffee and excellent interactions with them, not that really need to contact as there's all this great information on their website. I have no reservations recommending this company to anyone, and even sent my nephew a gift card for his wedding for things from Sweet Maria's. read more

What's not to love about Sweet Maria's? They are a source for quality education on all coffee-related matters. I've roasted coffee for about 5 years and SM was my go-to place for learning how to roast and the characteristics of different beans. read more

Great customer service! Highly recommended for anyone to shop at the place! These fellow store clerks are willing to ship replacement parts to you as long as you needed if either you accidentally broken it yourself for one year warranty! read more

Good prices, good coffee. I often can't discriminate flavors to the extent this and other companies describe differences in beans, but their green beans are always good and service is as expected. read more

Our visit was back in March. My brother went through a home roasting phase and recommended them. Cool place! We were so thrilled to find filters for the Chemex 3 cup! read more

Sweet Maria's Coffee - Chemex 3 cup filters - Kitchen Supplies Near Me - Oakland, California

Oakland has a lot of gems in its local business community, but I couldn't be more happy to spill the beans about one named Sweet Maria's. You either have to have a lot of free time on your hands, or have a strong love for a good home-brewed cup of coffee, to roast your own coffee beans. Fortunately I have both, as well as an SR500 roaster gifted from a wonderful friend. And when it was time to shop for unroasted beans, my first and only choice was Sweet Maria's. I have been ordering from their website for months. Their site is easy to navigate; their descriptions of the coffee beans' sources and characteristics are clear and fun to read; and buying for shipment is a snap. However, with a recent visit to Oakland, I had to take advantage of visiting them on site. Aside from an array of unroasted beans beans, the Sweet Marias store displays a host of coffee-related items including cups, pots, and even several roasters. A great place for getting a gift for java-fueled friends and family. So whether you live in the East Bay, or all the way as far as Florida, Sweet Marias can bring the world of coffee to your doorstep. read more

I am still getting my green beans from Sweet Maria's and I am still a huge fan. Everything from my initial review still holds true. I love the above fair traded direct sourced Farm Gate beans that SM's sells. The tasting charts are great to figure out what characteristics certain beans will have at differing roast levels. They have updated their website so that it's even more user friendly. You are able to search with greater ease and specifications. Where I used to open nearly all the beans (from countries where I enjoy coffee from) to see which were Farm Gate, I can now set that as a search parameter. If you haven't been to their site in a while, you should go. My wife has upgraded our roaster from a programmable HotTop roaster to an Aillio Bullet roaster. (Far, far cry from the cast iron skillet I was roasting in in my first review of Sweet Maria's.) Oh and SM is the only US supplier of this roaster. There was a lot of waiting to get it but, it's an amazing home roasting tool. So if this is a roaster you are considering, get on their waiting list if they aren't in stock. Saves you in the import fees that can be incurred in getting this roaster. read more

Sweet Maria's imports green coffee primarily for home Roasters. (Their sister company Coffee Shrub is for professionals) You can walk in or order online. They have 1 lb., 5, 10, or 20 lb bags of green unroasted coffee beans for sell from dozens of different countries. The inventory is current and fresh crop, I've never gotten a bad lot here. They also carry home roasting machines- a great gift for the coffee obsessed enthusiast in your life. Or you can buy that great coffee pourover set-up you've been meaning to get. If you aren't a coffee fanatic -you probably know one and if you show them this cool place, they won't forget it. Even more fun than the store, is their web site! In addition to all the stuff they sell, (beans, Roasters, brewing equipment, books) they are known throughout the coffee industry for the massive information library they offer online. This is THEE place that coffee roasting begins. And if you aren't interested in roasting you could still learn volumes about Coffee origins, farmers, processing and so forth. So maybe you didn't know that coffee beans are the seed of a coffee cherry that grows on a Coffee Shrub in countries around the equator- but you can! Definitely check it out and you'll be that much more interesting at the next brew pub trivia night. read more

Sweet Maria's Coffee - The front of Sweet Maria's. There's a tiny label on the garage door. - Kitchen Supplies Near Me - Oakland, California

I shipped their coffee for them. I'm with ABF FREIGHT system Teamster with Local 70 and today. I just tried to order about 6 pounds of raw coffee in in the field of filling out the information the address of delivery go to a different address than the billing address on your ZIP Code they would not allow me to ship it to a different ZIP Code then only to the one that is billed on the credit card. Can you imagine that that I can't even call them they won't even pick up the phone Monday through Friday because they're so busy and they don't even give the option for you to deliver to a different address other than what is on the billing address for the ZIP Code people steal my coffee steal my Amazon. I want to ship two different address and they won't let me what's the point . read more

Nice coffee place! The employees are awesome too!.. especially ms Caren J. She was super helpful and an excellent addition to the team

I've been buying coffee from Sweet Mara's for many years now. The service used to be good. Now it's almost impossible to get a call back and the website is very confusing. There is lots of very interesting information on the website but trying to place an order is a waste of time. I spent two mornings trying to place an order (30 minutes and 40 minutes the next time) both times, I thought the order was confirmed. Later I learned that they never received the order. I'm sorry I wasted my time trying to buy coffee from Sweet Maria's read more

TL:DR - An amazing resource for all of your home roasting needs. When I wanted to get into home roasting 7+ years ago, I banged around a little before discovering Sweet Marias. I could have saved time if I started here first. In the last 6 years, I have bought two roasters (and am getting ready for my 3rd) and countless pounds of beans. They are also my first stop resource for general roasting and coffee knowledge. I have sampled nearly everything here, from buy equipment, to ordering their fully roasted coffees, just to see how they do it themselves. Everything has been top-notch. A great local company. read more

I have ordered green coffee beans from Sweet Maria for MANY years and they are the BEST beans!!! and the BEST folks to work with, always answering my questions, giving advice!! read more

I think what separates this place is Tom the owner just really likes what he does and he's always thinking. About 12 years ago I remember I placed an order for a number of small 1 pound bags and a popcorn maker. I still remember it was like 5am when I had the coffee, it was from El Salvador, San Diego something or another, it literally blew my mind, i laughed it was good it was amazing. Since then i've tried a lot of coffee. Another standout for me was always the first Ethiopian dry process that smelled like jasmine flowers. Every region is different and you kind of never know exactly what you'll find. It's fun to explore and try different things, there's nothing like crossing paths with something magical early in the morning. This is a fantastic business, it's like a temple to coffee. read more

Ordering online is a snap but just remember you can only pick up Tuesday to Thursday. I also dropped by once and it took 5-10 minutes as you still ordered online and then the sales staff took the order number and brought the beans to you soon. read more

"Once you roast you dont go bACK!" Couple years ago i use to go to Wholefoods (since they display their roast dates) or Peets coffee shop to buy some coffee, until i got I a Fresh Roaster SR500. Roasting quality coffee beans(i.e. primarily Ethiopian and sometimes Kenyan) is such a unique experience since you have the power to dictate what roast level suits you. The detail description(s) and selection in coffee beans are pretty comprehensive and their honesty is above par. I have no qualms or issues with Sweet Marias, they do take the time to test and taste all their coffee before selling it to consumers. What made me trust this company even more is Toms' vlogs (https://www.youtube.com/user/sweetmarias) and facebook updates on his recent coffee farm visits. He shows the good and bad behind coffee farming and always presents an unbiased attitude when visiting or testing a new coffee crop. For almost 1.5-yrs, Sweet Marias has been my green coffee e-store by default and they are quiet responsive if you have any issue with your purchase. Shipping is quick and customer rep (i.e. emailing) is second to none. If you enjoy the following: drinking black coffee, espresso, and roast your beans give Sweet Marias (www.sweetmarias.com) a shot (pun intended--like an espresso shot hAHHAH..ha.....). On a unrelated note, THROW AWAY THOSE KEURIGS people and try the real thing!!!!!! Sometimes you have to slow down, like roast, get a notepad out or book as you roast, time it, weigh it, get a temperature right, store 24-48hourse(degassing), grind, and enjoy! Yeah you are right thats, a lot of da$! steps but everything takes time like farming, food, degree, and love (well thats debatable). read more

Sweet Maria's Coffee - Kitchen Supplies Near Me - Oakland, California

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Nirvana. The holy land. Coffee paradise. Okay. Hold on. You're not actually buying coffee drinks here. This is for those fanatical coffee geeks for whom boutique barristas are so, well, 2009. We'll take the reins of control over our own coffee, thank you very much. Home roasting one's own coffee beans is at once charmingly simple and an art from unto itself. If you want real control and choice in your coffee, roast your own beans. But where do you buy unroasted (green) coffee beans? How would I know what kinds of beans to buy? What kind of apparatus does it require to roast my own beans? How? When? Why? How much? All of these questions and more are found in the copious notes and instructions found on SM's website. The site is a cornucopia of self-roasting instruction, tips, reference material, tutorials and more. SM will teach you how to roast your own beans, select the best of the best, render your own brew that outstrips anything the overpriced boutiques serve in your own kitchen. And let's be honest, some of us still end up getting an espresso at Peet's or wherever when we're away from home. Well, your experience with SM and Tom's cupping notes (he's an international recognized coffee cupper (judge)) provide you a little insight to begin critically assessing that cup of joe that fetching server just plunked in front of you. I've been home-roasting for about 5 years now. I've bought greens from coffee cooperatives, other vendors, all sorts of places. Sweet Maria's green coffee beans are the only ones I really trust to provide consistently stellar results in the roaster. Do you take your coffee seriously? Cream and milk a dilution that never enters your cup? Espresso an art form for you? Take the leap and become a Sweet Maria's customer. 'Nuff said. read more

I have been buying green coffee from Sweet Maria's ever since I bought a Behmor 1600+ in 2014. Through my little roasting journey I ended up upgrading to a Quest M3s thanks to the extensive work Sweet Maria's has done to give information about it. Throughout the years I have dropped in to the store a couple times and have made countless online orders. Each and every single transaction was on time and accurate. However, this review is about the person who has been helping me with online support. I had some questions about availability of some products and they were so prompt in answering all of my questions and e-mails. This company has been full of helpful people from the storefront to the online contact form. Thank you for valuing your customers! read more

Have bought a lot of green coffee from them. Also bought my Hot Top Automatic Roaster -- ALL good experiences. Only disappointment today was they have that they would open up sales of the new limited quantity Aillio Roaster at 11am 1/3 - time came and went and they never went live on this - Would have been nice if they at least put a message out on what was going on . read more

Home roasting, I am. Beans, they have. I've taken it upon myself to start home roasting my own coffee--one for economic purposes. I've purchased waaay too many cups of coffee for waaay more than what I should be paying for said cup of coffee. Two-why waste my money on a cup of joe that I can't fully say I know how it was prepared nor packaged OR where it came from? So I let my curiosity get the best of me and googled home roasting. Whadya know, Sweet Maria's was at the top of the list. I checked out their reviews and read their blog, did some miscellaneous research for other roasting resources. Sweet Maria's was the way to go. I ordered a 4lb sampler bag which gives you 4 types of coffee beans to try out. I chose to pick them up cause I wanted to check out their home in W Oakland. (It really just gave me an excuse to visit the town which has a special place in my heart.) Hello cool warehouse setting! Metal stable doors with a bell welcomes roasters as you can hear clinking and clanging of people at work inside. You walk in and there's something covered up (old skool truck or car?) and coffee bean sacks piled high on top of each other. I saw a rack straight ahead that said pick up orders and headed that way. Brown bags with last names were lined up neatly on each shelf. I saw mine and snabbed it, while gawking at the shady shapes all around me--machinery, coffee bean sacks...people hanging out and chatting about coffee. Super cazsh. Oh and don't kid yourself--you don't buy already made coffee here. My experience home roasting has been nothing but a waiting game so far. I like that, because my first time around was not so pleasant as I roasted way beyond the roasting time I should have. Trial and error is my middle name that past week and today's cup was actually not bad. To end: 5 reasons you should try Sweet Maria's for your home roasting adventures: 1. Easy purchasing and pickup/delivery 2. Very easy to follow instructions on how to hone roast (complete with vids) on their website. 3. If you own an old skool popcorn popper (which I did have at home) you can start right away. Otherwise you can score on online for cheap cheap. 4. The beans are legit: they come from different countries, all having kosher relationships with Sweet Maria. 5. You slowly start becoming a bit snotty when it comes to coffee flavors and brewing. You use words like "city" or "full city" or phrases like "roasting potential". Hey, for a grammar person, this was a plus in my book. Happy home roasting ya'll. read more

Sweet Maria's Coffee - home coffee roastin'! - Kitchen Supplies Near Me - Oakland, California

I have roasted my coffee for about five years and buy all my coffee from SM. They have a great assortment, fair prices and are great to work with. Roasting turns out to be quite easy - I use a Gene's Cafe. But most importantly, I have never had better espresso and cappucino than the coffee I roast myself and make using a La Marzocco G3 machine. I use SM's Classic blend that is simply the best if you like low acidity and a rich taste. Ordering is easy and they have very fair shipping charges. read more

Great store! We recently took more interest in our coffee at home and have been experimenting with different coffees, brewing methods and roasting. I am only allowed to drink decaf though and finding unroasted decaf beans is so difficult. When I stumbled across the company webpage I was really excited to see they had numerous decaf options and they were within driving distance! So we made the day trip from Folsom over to Oakland to check out their warehouse. So glad it did not disappoint! If you live in Northern California and are looking for a place to buy green beans I think you'd be very hard pressed to find a place that even comes close to this. The store is big and open, well organized and clean. They had a ton of brewing accessories we've had difficult finding in Sacramento and the prices were very good. They don't try to upsell you on big expensive equipment. They really do cater to their local home roasters. The woman working the counter was extremely patient and helpful with us. We tend to be scatter brained but She didn't seem to mind a bit and took her time with us. She gave us lots of recommendations and good information and was able to answer all of our questions. Needless to say we walked out of there with more than we planned on buying and will absolutely be going back despite the long drive. We can order online but really... the store is so neat we want to go back. Every time I turned around I saw something new I "need." Lol Only advice I have is call ahead. Parking is on the street and slim but they were able to give is a heads up on where to park. read more

Best place to buy green coffee, period! Not only is the selection of green beans unmatched, but the prices on accessories is excellent and you can always count on SM to have vetted everything, with great written reviews and instruction. read more

Sweet Maria's maintains a nicely curated selection of beans at great prices and a wide variety of coffee roasting and brewing paraphernalia. For those new to the hobby they also provide a vast treasure trove of coffee roasting information. Regardless of whether your budget is small or your garage contains a fleet of Lambos, they seem to have something for everyone. read more

nice store. easy to find what you want. in other words it i very tidy and not cluttered.

I get all of my green beans here, and am always super excited to make a trip over! I love how much effort they put into writing descriptions about their beans, and also love talking to their staff about what they recommend. I found some of my favorite beans by just talking to the staff about what flavors I really like. The other thing that I really appreciate about sweet maria's is that they have so many resources online to teach people how to roast at home. Also, if you go to their store, they somtimes have a "bargin bin" where they have bags of green beans at discounted rates. read more

They have twice shipped my coffee to the wrong address and refuse to accept responsibility. They don't answer their phone. I've had to contest their charge. Oh, and their shipping fees are very high. There's plenty other places to buy green beans read more

Sweet Maria's -- aaahh, coffee goodness! This place has totally enabled our coffee geekness. Years ago a friend of ours bought us a coffee roaster. We laughed smugly, thinking "geez, that is so over the top." Today we would simply die if you took away our roaster, burr grinder, Gaggia Classic espresso machine, and Sweet Maria's amazing green coffee beans. Tom and Maria taught us all about what good coffee is, and how to coax the best flavor from those tiny little berries. They've taught us about quality roasting, grinding, and brewing equipment, and assured us that the roaster we received as a gift is top-notch. They regretfully informed us that the roaster is no longer in production, so we know to baby it and treat it like fine china. Every other month we order 10 pounds of green coffee beans. Five pounds of Espresso Monkey blend, and five pounds of Liquid Amber Espresso. We used to be adventurous and try new and different beans, but these blends are just so good, we kept going back. Now we don't even bother with anything else. Mmmmm, coffee..... read more

Hello. My name is Melissa and I am a completely unrepentant coffee addict. I grew up on Peets, and then moved into the local craft roasters a la Bluebottle and Ritual. Good stuff, but very few cups ever really sent me over the edge into true bliss. Finally, thanks to a homeroasting class offered by The Institute For Urban Homesteading, I'm ready for the big leagues: roasting my own beans *exactly* the way I like them and Tom and his crew at Sweet Maria's have made this a glorious reality. Thus far, i gotta go with Sumatra Onan Ganjang at a Full City+ This is the kind of coffee that stops you in your tracks and makes you utter completely innappropriate noises in public, Plus, my house smells frakkin' *amazing*. All you need is a Popcorn popper, a flat bottom colander and a good fan, and Sweet Maria's will walk you through the entire process. You might smoke yourself out the first couple of times, but once you get the hang of it, get ready to shiver with mouthgasms of caffeinated bliss. And the extra added bonus? $7.00 a lb for top quality beans that would cost me 3 times as much if I bought them already roasted. read more

SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS JOINTS! I heart sweet maria's. For 5 seconds...I thought it was my little secret..but I guess not. It's the home roasting vendor! Where else can you get a pound of coffee from El Salvador for 8 or 9 bucks. Wanna know the catch? The beans come nice and green and needing to be roasted! What a great cup of coffee, and I love how any one, even an educated connoisseur, can truly enjoy the experience. Think Barefoot but to go. Great quality...and if your really want an orgasmic experience...try the cup of excellence YUM! More pricey, but splurge, why not? What I super duper like...is that you can buy roasting machines depending on your preference. I love it. I was in the mood for a cup recently, and yeah...it tasted that good. When drinking this kinda coffee, you don't need cream and sugar. Black please, that's how I like it. No bitter aftertaste at all! So good! read more

God I love Sweet Maria's. They've got the most amazing assortment of green coffees (and roasted coffees) on the planet. I went to tour their facility, and the people there were super-nice. It's just a warehouse that has the most amazing roasted coffee and green coffee smell. I've had their coffee on quite a few occasions, as someone close to me roasted his own coffee from here. read more

A tale of two coffees. I like to drink coffee. I have too many machines, and I try too many coffees, but it tastes great and keeps me rolling. Over the weekend I had two very different experiences. The first was at Starbucks, which I hardly ever go into, as I like Peets. But there I was, and I ordered a latte, which was really not great. So I asked for a replacement, which I do like once in ten years, max. I asked for a cup of coffee, not a latte, so I wouldn't waste time and energy. Usually I just toss it, and move on, but I wanted a coffee before a long drive. And, behold, I was not hassled, not lectured, not frowned upon, just given a new a drink, and....drumroll.....a coupon for another drink. Holy Mocca, batperson! So regardless of how you feel about the big borg box, that is class. Next up, some coffee beans ordered from Sweet Marias. These were undrinkable. Something seriously off. So, I thought, OK, I'll just send them a note, in case they have a problem, they might like to know about it. I figured, this is just a fluke, they should know about it. Didn't ask for a refund, didn't ask for a replacement. Just a note. And guess what, they wrote me back to tell me it was my fault. I didn't understand chemistry (ummm except for my degree....) my milk must have expired (gosh, how could I have missed that, especially since I opened a new one just in case). No thank you for telling us, just a scoop of rude and topping of BTW you are ignorant of chemistry. Verdict: distinct lack of class (plus the undrinkable coffee). read more