Meet: Dark Ritual Coffee Roasters
Ready to talk coffee with one of our newest roasters?! Dark Ritual Coffee Roasters, our newest roaster, is located out of Seattle, WA! In this article we’ll talk DRCR history, how Michael Gute the owner of Dark Ritual started roasting, and how Dripbox came to partner with them. Let’s dive in!
Like most of the people we’ve had the chance to sit down and talk with, Michael wasn’t always a coffee roaster. The coffee industry is full of people who left a previous career in pursuit of their favorite drink – coffee, and Michael is one of those people. Prior to Covid, Michael was a chef and spent most of his career working in the restaurant industry. When Covid hit, Michael had to pivot. As someone who had been interested in coffee for some time, Michael jumped into the world of coffee to work full time on Dark Ritual Coffee Roasters. His background in the restaurant industry has helped give him a leg up on things like, flavor notes, unique recipes, and appealing to his customer base.
Seattle is a major coffee hub which has helped Michael be able to work with one of the largest coffee bean brokers in the area. For roasteries such as Michael’s that are just getting started, this can be a huge help since they are still working towards a direct farm relationship. Roasteries can either utilize a broker to source green coffee beans for them or create relationships with the farmers directly. Either way, we are happy to have Michael roasting up some delicious coffees for us all!
We were especially thrilled to work with Dark Ritual because they are a small independent roastery that’s doing something very unique with their brand while roasting really exceptional coffees. One of the most unique things about their roastery is that Michael roasts super small batches of coffee using his tabletop Aillio roaster! Another thing we loved about Dark Ritual was their branding. During our podcast we talked about how it would be easy for a brand like Dark Ritual to do everything very moody and black since they love the macabre and list the metal music they roast to on the back of their bags. When you see their branding, you do get part of that, but it’s still very inviting and fun. Most noticeably, are the labels for each roast name. The colors used behind the names of the roasts are pulled from the hex codes of old 80’s VHS tapes!
If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the podcast (ep. 5) where Michael talks about his coffees – you should go give it a listen! Michael explains that when he started drinking coffee, he mainly drank the same store-bought dark roast coffee every day. Eventually he began to experiment with different coffees, regions, and roast levels. Ultimately, it was when he bought a $10 cup of coffee from a local coffee shop that he realized specialty coffee had way more to offer than the stuff he was drinking daily. While Michael prefers to drink his coffee using the Hario V60 method, he does make sure to brew his coffees with a drip machine so he can best understand what his customers are tasting when they enjoy his coffees.
If you find yourself in the Seattle area and want to stop by Dark Ritual you’re going to have to wait! Michael hopes to be able to open up his own coffee shop very soon, but has no solid date set yet.
Dripbox originally found Dark Ritual through an ad on Instagram. Being heavy metal fans and loving the overall feel of the brand we knew we had to reach out and bring Dark Ritual on board. One thing we love about working and featuring different roasters is not only their own personal stories of how they got into coffee, but also their approach to roasting and their brand. Dark Ritual Coffee is all about making coffee approachable for all people. Whether you’re an avid specialty coffee drinker or trying it for the first time, Michael’s coffees are sure to leave you wanting more.
So, if you’re wanting to give his coffees a try, you can summon his HellraiseR and Mind Collapse blends available in our shop for 12oz subscriptions or one-time buys and Dark Ritual coffees are also featured in our Sample Box subscription! Not sure where to start? His Mind Collapse blend was created for those who aren’t used to drinking specialty coffees – especially light roasts. Consisting of 25% dark, 25% medium, and 50% light roast beans, this blend is great for everyone.
Learn more about Michael and Dark Ritual Coffee Roasters by visiting the ‘our roasters’ tab on our site and be sure to check out our podcast: Sip the Drip with Dripbox!
If you’ve listened to the podcast episode with Michael, purchased some of his coffees, or liked this blog post - let us know in the comments!