Nothing beats a good “cup a joe,” but with so many specialty coffees on the market, it can be hard to determine which are merely good, and which ones take it to the next level. Here’s the rundown of some of our favorite specialty coffees, all produced right here in Northern California.

• Temple Coffee Roasters (Sacramento, CA): A retail and wholesale roaster based in Sacramento, Temple Coffee believes in “farm-to-cup” sourcing, emphasizing their three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental and economical. Temple often pays well above fair-trade prices for their beans in their quest for sustainability, and they partner with the people who handle their coffee throughout the supply chain (the growers, packagers, transporters, exporters, importers, roasters, etc.) to ensure that their high standards for quality and fair practices are being met.
• Old Soul Co. (Sacramento, CA): This Sacramento coffee company is a partnership between Tim Jordan and Jason Griest, who founded their business in a warehouse in an alley off of L Street in Midtown Sacramento nearly 10 years ago. In addition to making great coffee, the guys at Old Soul make it their mission to support the community — through their Sacramento Has Soul program, the company works with Reading Partners to support early childhood education, including hooking their employees and patrons up with volunteer tutoring positions to help children in need.
• Taylor Maid Farms (Sonoma County, CA): Founder Chris Martin started roasting coffee beans in the barn on his family farm in 1993, where his small organic operation at first produced just four types coffee. Today, the operation has grown significantly, but the company is still committed to organic practices and sustainability — among their environmentally friendly innovations, they package their coffee in 10 oz. steel cans and have a coffee can refill program (saving thousands of paper bags from entering landfills each year), and they print directly on their coffee cans (saving approximately 20,000 paper labels each year).
• Philz Coffee (San Francisco, CA): Philz founder Phil Jarber likes to say that Frank Sinatra was born to sing, and Phil Jarber was born to make coffee. With an official company mission to “better people’s day” through their coffees, Philz specializes in custom blends of the highest quality beans from around the world. Phil crafts these blends himself, with more than 25 years of experience creating smooth and delicious combinations of up to seven different kinds of beans. And for those who prefer single-origin coffees, they make those too, sourced from Colombia, Africa, Yemen, and other points across the globe.
• Equator Coffees & Teas (San Rafael, CA): Like so many of the best Bay Area companies, Equator Coffee was literally started in a garage, founded in Marin County by Brooke McDonnell and Helen Russell in 1995. Back then, not many companies knew what farms their coffee beans came from, but Brooke thought it was important to personally visit Guatemala to forge lasting relationships with Equator’s producers. Today, Equator focuses on sustainable practices and has implemented a number of programs to benefit their growers, including participating in Micro Loans for Farmers and Tierra Madre: Land Rights Advocacy for Women in Nicaragua.