Paradise Roasters

This is a rating of the online portion of Paradise Roaster’s business:
Coffee is an amazing agricultural product. The logistics of getting a tropically grown green bean across the world without it being left in the sun on a shipping dock, or allowed to sit too long in a cargo hold and develop mold or rancidity, or a myriad other factors, requires getting it right by many people along the supply chain. Paradise Roasters seems to always get it right. I think Paradise Roasters may be the best, most consistent roaster in the country, and that says a lot, since they are in league with many amazing, third wave companies. They produce perfect roasts – never a scorched taste, never a hint of bagginess, or sourness that some roasters might suggest is the characteristic of a particular lot they are trying to unload.
I was drawn to Paradise Roasters after reading a Coffee Review of one of their offerings. Assured by that rating – an excellent recommendation on its own – I have tried one micro-​lot after another, several of their blends, and a few regularly roasted «regulars». None are a disappointment – in fact all are a delight, and all are fairly priced.
I recently made an error in shipping coffee as holiday gifts to friends. I sent 2 bags to one person when one of the bags was meant to go elsewhere, so when I called up to correct the error, Paradise gave me free shipping. They didn’t need to do that. It wasn’t their fault. Their customer service seems terrific to me. Their coffee seems unparalleled in quality.

Been ordering beans from them for a year or so, love their coffee and normally the order is placed quickly and I get the beans 3 days later. A month ago my order took over a week to arrive with no explanation from Paradise. I sent an email and they said I would get a $ 25 credit on my next order. Next order did not get the $ 25 credit. Tried 3 times today to place another order and keep getting error messages. Tiime to shop for some different beans.

I DID Love their coffee, but I really don’t like their customer service. After buying exclusively off them for OVER 5 years… when I had 1 issue with my product, they refused to take care of me and didn’t even offer a consolation of ANY sort. No replacement of product, nothing but an insincere «apology». My situation is after ordering the SAME coffee beans from them for many years, I had 1 batch that was over-​roasted and tasted bitter and burnt. It was clearly obvious to my wife and I. And when we spend $ 50 for a batch of coffee, it is not fair to have us have to take that hit. We have a clear benchmark of many previous purchases over years, and storing the coffee the same way for all those years, and drinking the same coffee everyday.
The cost of doing business is that some times you mess up and need to fix it… or worse yet, sometimes you DONT mess up, but you still need to take care of the customer. But making a customer not feel appreciated unfortunately is the fall of many businesses.
I know what it is like to own a small business, I have personally for many years, and even though what you do is very personal and you take pride in it, you have to separate your ego from a situation for the sake of keeping long term clients. A customer’s perception of any issue is their reality, like it or not. Thinking that a «sorry for your experience» email is going to fix the situation is not the answer. And following it up with a blurb from your website with silly irrelevant disclaimers means nothing to a real customer. Right or wrong, you have to do the right thing for the customer to do the right thing for your business.
The COST of acquiring a new customer (that is proven to buy all their coffee from you for years, and probably recommends your coffee to family/​friends) is significantly higher than the cost or replacing 1 batch of coffee. Big misstep.
I also want to point out that I emailed them back a few times to prompt them to do something other than just an apology and they just dove deeper into showing they did not care, by their responses. And it is also worth noting that Even if they had offered ANYTHING at that point, even something smaller than my purchase, it would have shown a lot more customer service than what they did.
I am really taken back. I really liked this coffee, and now I may have to find a new coffee to get and of course no longer recommend my friends/​family because I don’t know how they will get treated.
–Frustrated Coffee Drinker.

I gave my husband a «Coffee of the month» subscription from Paradise Roasters and he loves it — the coffee is really special but what motivated me to search the internet and place this review was the really excellent customer service I always get. They let me hold delivery for 3 months, specify the kind of roast and always respond in a fast and friendly way.

WOW.
What a gem we have in our state. We have some good roasters, But Miguel at Paradise brings in such small micro lots of coffee. I hope more coffeehouses bring in some Paradise coffee. You can find it on a Clover coffeebrewer at Kopplins, and served delightfulyl strong at Black Sheep Coffee in St. Paul. Coffee
scored their espresso the highest score ever. Proud to have this roaster in MN! You can order online… and I highly recommend it.