OODesigns concept Meridian Coffee Roasters is a fictional business created to demonstrate design work Back to gallery

Dana Ruiz roasts here on Tuesday mornings

What did the farmer get paid for this bag?

For the Cerro Azul, $4.10 a pound. We roast on South Commerce Street in downtown Wichita, and every bag carries its farm, its elevation, its process and that price, the way a used car carries its sticker.

Freshly roasted coffee beans turning in a roaster's cooling tray, a steel stirring arm sweeping through them

Roast ticket No. 0412

Coffee
Cerro Azul, Huila
Dropped
Tue 29 Sep, 9:40 am
Charge to drop
200°C to 211°C
In and out
12.0 kg to 10.2 kg

How old is the coffee on this shelf?

Think of roasted coffee like bread: best a few days out of the oven, tired by two weeks. We roast Tuesday, ship Wednesday and pull a bag at 14 days. Where bread stops working: coffee needs those first days to rest.

MERIDIAN Cerro Azul HUILA, COLOMBIA WASHED1,850 M $4.10/LB PAID12 OZ

Huila, Colombia

Cerro Azul

Washed. Red apple, cane sugar, almond.

From
Cerro Azul co-op
Roasted
Tue 29 Sep
Pour-over
15 g, 240 g water, 3:00
$1912 oz
YIRGACHEFFE NATURAL PROCESS Kochere MERIDIAN 12 OZ WHOLE BEAN

Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia

Kochere

Natural. Blueberry, bergamot, cocoa nib.

From
Chelelektu station
Roasted
Tue 29 Sep
Pour-over
15 g, 250 g water, 3:15
$2312 oz
MERIDIAN GICHATHAINI NYERI, KENYA AA

Nyeri, Kenya

Gichathaini

Washed. Blackcurrant, tomato leaf, syrup.

From
Othaya co-op
Roasted
Tue 22 Sep
Pour-over
15 g, 240 g water, 3:00
$2412 oz
29.09 No.1 MERIDIAN HOUSE BLEND HOUSE BLEND FOR MILK 12 oz

House blend

Meridian No. 1

For milk. Cocoa, brown sugar, walnut.

From
Huila and Minas Gerais
Roasted
Tue 29 Sep
Espresso
18 g in, 36 g out, 28 s
$1712 oz

Can you taste it before you buy a bag?

Yes, at 118 S Commerce: ten seats along one counter. On Tuesdays the roaster runs behind the glass, so you can watch the batch that ships on Wednesday.

Street map of downtown Wichita between Douglas Avenue and Kellogg, with the Arkansas River on the left and the coffee bar marked on Commerce Street Douglas Ave Kellogg Broadway Meridian
Directions to 118 S Commerce St© OpenStreetMap contributors

Hours

Monday to Friday7 am to 3 pm
Saturday8 am to 3 pm
Sunday9 am to 1 pm

Pickup and parking

Order-ahead cups wait on the shelf left of the door for 30 minutes. Street parking on Commerce is free for two hours, and the bike rack is by the door.

Holidays

Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Online orders placed after 3 pm Monday roast the following Tuesday.

Where does the money on the label go?

A cluster of unripe green coffee cherries on a branch, leaves soft in the background

Green

Picked ripe, dried on raised beds. “Ethically sourced” is like “fresh” on a menu: free to print. A price per pound is harder to fake.

Paid to the farm
$4.10 a lb
Elevation
1,850 m
A black measuring scoop heaped with dark roasted coffee beans

Roasted

Twelve kilos on Tuesday mornings, rested overnight, shipped next day. A dark roast hides a bad bean the way gravy hides a dry turkey. We leave the gravy off.

Batch size
12 kg
Ships
Wednesday
A hand pouring hot water from a gooseneck kettle into a paper filter on a glass brewer, set on a scale

Brewed

Every bag carries the recipe we dialled in that week. Read it like the oven setting on a recipe card: start there, then trust your tongue.

Ratio
1 to 16
Water
94°C

How much coffee does your kitchen go through in two weeks?

Most people guess, and run out on a Sunday morning. Tell us how you brew and how much you drink. We pick the coffee, roast it on a Tuesday and time it to land before the last scoop. The price updates as you choose.

  • The bag, sealed the day it was roasted
  • A printed roast ticket like the one above
  • This week's brew recipe card
Roast
Grind
Bag
Every
12 oz, whole bean, every 2 weeks$17.10

10% off the shelf price, free shipping over $40. Skip, pause or cancel from any email.

Wholesale for cafés and offices

Eleven cafés and offices between Wichita and Andover get the same Tuesday roast date as the shelf. Addie Lin sets up their bar and comes back every quarter to recalibrate, a bit like a piano tuner with a scale.

Minimum
10 lb a week for cafés, 5 lb for offices
Price
From $11.40 a pound, delivered free inside Sedgwick and Butler counties
Equipment
Grinder and brewer on loan at 20 lb a week and up
Training
Two sessions on bar at opening, then quarterly calibration visits

Ask about wholesale

The three people behind the bag

Dana RuizOwner and head roaster

SCA Roasting Professional. Twelve years on a drum roaster. Signs every roast ticket and reads yours back if you ask.

Theo OgundeGreen buyer

Q Arabica Grader. Cups every lot before we buy it and visits two origins a year. Most lots he tastes never reach the shelf.

Addie LinBar manager and wholesale

SCA Barista Skills, Professional. Runs the counter and trains our wholesale cafés.

  1. You order by 3 pm MondayOnline, by phone, or at the counter.
  2. We roast TuesdayYour bag is filled and sealed the same afternoon.
  3. It ships WednesdayUSPS Priority with tracking, or pick up at the bar from noon.
  4. It lands by FridayAnywhere in Kansas. Two to four days everywhere else.

Asked across the counter

How fresh is a bag when it arrives?

Two to four days past roast, which is about when it starts tasting like itself. The roast date is printed on it, and at 14 days we pull it off the shelf.

Should I buy whole bean or ground?

Whole bean, if you can. Ground coffee is like a cut apple: it browns fast. No grinder? Tell us how you brew and we grind for it that morning.

How do I pause or cancel a subscription?

Every shipping email has pause, skip and cancel links. No login and no phone call.

Do you have decaf?

Yes, a Colombian sugarcane-process decaf, roasted every other Tuesday. It is $19 and tastes like coffee.

How much is shipping?

$5 flat in the US, free over $40. Local pickup at the bar is always free.