Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs
What does Atelier de Fer mean?
Great question! The literal translation is “iron workshop”—which is a nod to the two things that inspired our business most—Pittsburgh’s long and storied history of manufacturing top quality goods, and French cafe culture. “Fer” means iron, from the Latin word ferrum (ever wonder why the periodic table abbreviates iron as “Fe”?) We’re happy to go by ‘de Fer’ or whatever you want to call us. We also get a lot of questions on how it’s pronounced, and while we really don’t care how you say it, most accurate would be to pronounce it as ‘deh fair’. Honestly though, we’re just happy to be part of the conversation. :)
How fresh will coffee be if I order online?
VERY fresh. We roast all week and ship orders on Tuesdays and Fridays. Order cutoff is 12pm the day PRIOR to the ship day. We do our best to ship your coffee within two days of roasting it. If you ever feel your coffee is not fresh enough, just let us know and we’ll replace it. Most of our coffees seem to improve as they age and are at their best between 3 and 20 days after their roast date.
How do you source your coffee & tea?
We work with a very small, select group of importers and directly with farms, whom we feel are best-in-class in terms of offering a quality product at a reasonable price–and who go above and beyond acting as a broker by helping farmers and the communities that grow and process coffee to constantly work towards improving their coffee quality and economic conditions as a whole. We look for partners who have built long term partnerships with their farmers and cooperatives and have enough scale to actually make a difference. We select importers who can help growers to improve economic conditions for the long term.
How long will the coffee stay fresh for?
If left in the original bag, unopened–we don’t notice any substantial degradation in quality for several weeks–though it depends somewhat on how that bag was stored, and on the coffee itself. Your coffee is always packed fresh, the same day it was roasted–into high quality five-layer bags, which are then heat-sealed. The one-way valve allows the coffee to release it’s CO2, which effectively flushes most of the oxygen from the bag, creating a relatively stable environment for the coffee to stay great for weeks or even months. Though any time oxygen is present, the coffee will very slowly degrade. So fresher is always better. Once you open your bag, the coffee is exposed to fresh oxygen so the clock is ticking. The coffee will degrade slowly, but surely–so as long as you still store it well (dark/dry/cool/airtight) it will stay great for a week or two, then begin to gradually lose its magic. That being said it will be a LONG time, months even, until it’s not worth drinking.
Do you sell your products wholesale?
For sure! We sell all of the products on our site in 5lb bags, long as we have that much left–and if you are looking for substantial volume, we offer discounted pricing and are very willing to consider custom blends and/or single origins. Long story short, if we don’t have exactly what you need, we can find it for you and even work with you to develop the perfect roast profile.
How should I store my coffee?
Unopened bags should be stored somewhere dark, cool, and of average humidity. Not in the fridge, unless you live somewhere SUPER hot and humid and have no AC. Once opened, you can store your beans in the bag it came in (that’s why we pay for the resealable versions) again as long as you make sure it’s sealed well and in a cool place.
What is your roasting style?
We roast coffee people will like. People’s taste varies, so our roasting style does too. For any particular coffee, we will roast it to the level where we believe it tastes best–that is where we believe a lot of people will love it. Generally, that is where we are optimizing the balance between acidity, body and sweetness. Some coffees taste great very light, so we’ll roast those very light for those of us who want to taste lots of bright acidity, floral notes, fruit, etc.
Other coffees taste wonderful roasted a little longer to bring out flavors of chocolate, caramel, and deeper, riper fruits. So we strive to find the tastiest roast for each particular coffee, and by doing so–we should always have an option most people will love. The only way we will NOT roast, unless specifically requested, will be very dark. Think shiny/oily beans. Not because we think there is anything wrong with dark coffee — rather we don’t want you paying top dollar for high-quality beans that have been roasted to the point where they taste the same as much cheaper coffee. That being said, if a wholesale customer wants us to roast our beans darkly and is willing to pay for it, let’s do it. let’s get weird.