The Best Dallas-Fort Worth Specialty Coffee Roasters 2022
In Dallas-Fort Worth, you’ll find some of the best coffee beans in the whole of Texas. With an abundance of roasters in the city, it’s difficult to know just who the best coffee roasters are.
In no particular order, we’ve put together a list of our seven favorite coffee roasters roasting the best coffee beans in Dallas and Fort Worth. We provide you with a little background on each roaster along with what they have to offer this year.
Tweed
Tweed Coffee Roasters is a specialty coffee roasters, wholesaler, and retailer in Dallas. The company was founded in 2013 by native Texan Sean Henry.
Sean has a lot of experience in the coffee industry, being also the founder of Austin-based cafe chain Houndstooth Coffee (which by now has three branches in Dallas, too). Overseeing roasting is US Brewer Cup contender Jonathan Aldrich.
In its first two years, Tweed’s roasting facility changed locations a few times before finally settling down in a large warehouse in Dallas’ Design District.
Tweed sells their coffee online, or through a number of wholesale partners in Dallas, as well as further afield. Tweed coffee is also served in a number of Dallas restaurants and cafes, including Oak Loan Coffee, Gemma, and Henry’s own Houndstooth cafes.
Ascension
Ascension Coffee is a cafe chain and coffee roasters based out of Dallas. Ascension was founded by Russell Hayward (originally from Sydney, Australia) in 2012.
Before founding Ascension, Hayward has had careers in advertising, design, and music, after which he spent ten years developing and managing bars, restaurants, and clubs.
The idea to open a cafe was a response to what Hayward saw as a lack of good coffee in Dallas at the time. A lifelong coffee lover, Hayward took this new goal very seriously, and he’s since become a licensed coffee Q-Grader (i.e. quality grader, a prestigious certification given by the Coffee Quality Institute, a subsidiary of the Specialty Coffee Association of America).
Today Ascension runs several branches in Dallas and elsewhere in Texas, and they also operate their own roastery. Ascension is dedicated not only to trade fairly and directly with their farmers, but also to promote development in their communities.
For this end they support a number of education, medical, and infrastructure development programs, thus giving back to their coffee producers.
Noble Coyote
In the coffee trade, a ‘coyote’ is a middleman between coffee producers and sellers. While many of these ‘coyotes’ often try to exploit producers to increase their own profits, a ‘noble coyote’ supports farmers and invest in them – and that’s just what Noble Coyote Coffee Roasters tries to do.
Founded in 2011 by husband and wife team Kevin and Marta Sprague, Noble Coyote is committed to sourcing their coffee only from socially responsible importers.
They also practice environmental sustainability in their day-to-day operations, which includes using 100% wind power, and recycling/reusing their by-products.
Noble Coyote’s coffee is not only green and sustainable, it’s also critically acclaimed. In 2016, the company won the national Good Food Award – the second Dallas-based roasters to ever do so.
Their coffee is available for purchase on their website, at their roastery and cafe (at 819 Exposition Ave), or from any of their numerous wholesale partners.
Oak Cliff
Founded in 2008, Oak Cliff is one of the first specialty coffee roasters in the Dallas area. Founder Shannon Neffendorf – a lifelong coffee lover and entrepreneur – was inspired to start roasting coffee after a business visit to Milan, where he was impressed with the intense yet fun coffee scene.
Initially roasting on his stove top at home, Neffendorf’s roasts quickly grew in quantity as well as in quality, and he soon secured the company’s first wholesale account (Crooked Tree Coffeehouse, which still serves Oak Cliff coffee).
Oak Cliff, a family business, has been growing and expanding ever since. Today they are one of the leading roasters in Dallas area, with more than 70 wholesale clients.
They’re also among the highest acclaimed, being the first Dallas-based roasters to win the Good Food Award. They’re not only successful but also socially responsible. Oak Cliff sources their coffee only through direct trade, fostering personal relationships with their farmers.
Cultivar
Cultivar Coffee is another Dallas-based specialty coffee pioneer, having opened in 2009. Founded by expert baristas Jonathan Meadows and Nathan Shelton, Cultivar has since become one of Dallas’ most prominent roasters.
It’s also among the city’s best-reviewed roasters, hailed by D Magazine and the Dallas Observer as “the best coffee in the city”.
Besides roasting, Cultivar also operates two cafes, in East Dallas at 1155 Peavy Road, and in Oak Cliff, at 313 W Jefferson Road.
Their coffee can be bought on their website, at their two cafes, or in many coffee shops, restaurants, and specialty grocers in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.
Full City Rooster
Full City Rooster is a Dallas-based, family-run coffee roasters and coffee shop. Co-owned by founders Michael and Chris Wyatt, Full City opened – initially as a roasting studio only – back in 2013.
Michael, who oversees the roasting side of the business, is passionate about coffee, and very particular about his roasts. Every batch is configured by hand – foregoing the onboard automation system on the company’s state of the art Loring roaster – to ensure that each roast meets Michael’s high standards.
Soon after opening, their coffee gained popularity and increased in demand, and so they began opening the roastery to visitors one day a week.
Soon enough this increased to two, and now the on-site cafe, located at 1810 S Akard Street, is open six days a week (currently serving to-go only). Besides selling and serving their roasts, Full City Rooster also provides coffee consultation, education, training, and support programs.
Avoca
Avoca Coffee Roasters is a specialty coffee roasters, retailer, and wholesaler based in Fort Worth. The company was founded in 2011 by Garold LaRue and Jimmy Story.
LaRue comes from a family of coffee producers, and he also has a long, personal history with coffee, having worked as a barista in several cafes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, among others.
Since its opening, the original roastery and flagship store (at 1311 W Magnolia Ave) was joined by a second location, at 835 Fochs Street.
Both locations serve and sell Avoca coffee, which can also be bought on their website, as well as in a vast number of cafes, restaurants, bars, retailers, and other businesses in Dallas, Fort Worth, and elsewhere in Texas.
