Mad Priest Coffee Roasters
Chattanooga, TN
Curator's Notes
Stay tuned!
From the Roaster
NEW ROASTER ALERT. Meet Mad Priest, founded in 2015 by Michael Rice in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The mission is three lines and they live every one: craft excellent coffee, educate the curious, champion the displaced. In practice that means intentionally hiring refugees and other folks rebuilding lives in Chattanooga, running on a triple-bottom-line of people, planet, and profit, and recycling everything from coffee bags to roasted chaff. They're SCA-certified roasters and green buyers, Alliance for Coffee Excellence members, and Greenlight environmentally certified, with a 2022 Good Food Award and 2023 Roast Magazine Roaster of the Year finalist nod to show for it. Their brand voice is irreverent in the best way (the tagline is "Get Mad. Stay Blessed.") but the craft is dead serious. That combination is rare and I'm here for it. In the cup, expect emerging-origin coffees from South America, Africa, and Asia, including a standout Axis Mundi Yemen sub-line that's worth the splurge. Start Here: Forbidden Fruit, a 90+ scored Ethiopia Oromia natural anaerobic from the Wush Wush varietal. Wild fruit, syrupy, full of personality. The kind of coffee that doesn't just announce itself -- it kicks the door in.