If you’re serious about coffee, you need to visit San Francisco.

Why, you ask? Aren’t there great coffee companies dotted around most cities? What’s so great about San Francisco?

We’re always on the path to enlightenment when it comes to our brew. Because we know that you are, too, we get super excited when we can share few and far between meccas of coffee that are so well-known in their area, they are the mainstays. This is one of them.

Ritual knows that you’re a child of this generation – not the one just gone. This means that you’re not just interested in coffee being a vehicle for your daily intake of caffeine.

You care about how it tastes, where it comes from and how it’s going to change the way you think about coffee.

Ritual saw into the crystal ball and brought out the Holy Grail. They noticed that attitudes around coffee were beginning to change, and people like yourself were starting to care about your coffee’s life beyond the cup.

Let me guess: your dream cup of coffee is one where the beans have been preserved perfectly, and nothing is bastardized? Ritual’s lifeblood is turning your dream into a reality.

Along with a few other people scattered around the country, Ritual began to realize that your cup of coffee can taste amazing when you start to source the beans directly from farmers that you know.

This means brewing the beans in such a way as to honour and preserve the flavor while executing each step in the process with down-to-the-second precision.

They first pushed their doors open on Valencia street circa 2005, when this wave of conscious coffee drinkers first created such a demand.

Ritual isn’t afraid to say that they believe they played a big part in what some would describe as a coffee revolution in San Francisco at the time.

Their goal way back when and their goal now is the exact same. This goal is to craft, for you, the best cup of coffee you will ever experience.

While Ritual has learned a lot over the years in terms of coffee brewing, sourcing and processing, they remain unchanged in the care and attention they pour over everything that they do.

This includes taste testing every coffee numerous times before it goes into their coffee bars. They’re some caffeinated folk.

Now, they don’t portend to be greater than thou. They know your needs are simple – all you want is an excellent cup of coffee you won’t forget.

This is why they don’t do all of this to make anything complicated. They’re, quite simply, a group of like-minded individuals whose lives have been irrevocably changed – and it’s all thanks to coffee.

Ritual Coffee Brews

Cold Brew: if you haven’t tried cold brew yet, you should. If you’re already kind of serious about your coffee and want to take it to a new level, cold brew is where it’s at.

To make cold brew, you’ll need Ritual coffee, filtered water, a spoon and a scale. The ratio of coffee to water is 115g to 1000g. You’ll need to let your coffee brew for 18 hours.

Ritual cold brew coffee is sweet and rich. Enjoyed cold and over ice, it’s a great caffeinated beverage to sip on a sweltering summer’s day.

Kalita Coffee: the next ritual coffee is also going to require a spoon, scale and water – and the coffee, of course. On top of this, you’ll need some coffee filters and a timer – you brew Kalita for a much shorter period of time, and you need to be precise.

The ratio of coffee to water with Kalita is 32g to 500g. The balance and sweetness of Kalita even out the coffee experience. Because you use a flat-bottomed brewer for this coffee, you get an even extraction with restricted flow.

This results in a rounded, sweet cup of coffee. A very coarse grind is recommended here that is agitated. This slows the brew right down and time is up when the coffee is thoroughly extracted.

French Press: I already know you love your French Press. It’s how I started out in coffee, and I can’t help but still be loyal to it, all these years later. While I venture out now and then, I always come back to the tried and true.

You may love your French Press because it’s the socialite’s way of serving coffee. You can brew coffee for several people at once, resulting in a heavy-bodied coffee with an enriched sweetness.

With a brew time of only 4 minutes, the French Press doesn’t muck around. Take 22g of Ritual coffee with 340g of water to make 3 cups.
In-Store with Ritual
Hario V60: if you frequent your local coffee bar – which is now Ritual – enough, you’ll notice that they use a large, cone-shaped thing to create your perfect brew.

This is called a Hario V60. It’s the reason you pay a handsome sum for such an exquisite taste.

The ergonomic design of the Hario V6 means that Ritual can quickly extract coffee for their customers without compromising on quality.

This fired up coffee machine creates a complex, yet delicate acidity paired with fruited, ripe sweetness.
Make a Habit Out of Ritual
Now you have every reason to visit San Francisco and no reason to leave it ever again. Cutting the cord on such a coffee mecca would be nothing short of blasphemy, anyway.

If you do have to go and can’t bear the thought of not having another Ritual coffee for a while, take them with you.

Whether you stick to your French Press or branch out into Kalita territory, you’re now one step closer to complete coffee enlightenment.