Qualia Coffee is a full-service coffee shop that also serves as the home of Fresh Off the Roast, a small-batch coffee roasting company dedicated to sourcing recently harvested beans from around the world. We strive to provide as much information as possible about where the beans come from and what you can expect them to taste like. Our coffee is also available through select farmers markets. We sell all our beans directly to customers so that we can ensure you get them at the peak of freshness.
At Qualia, we adhere to the philosophy that coffee should be treated like fresh produce. When roasted properly, coffee peaks in flavor between three and five days after being roasted. After nine or ten days, the coffee’s natural flavors begin to rapidly dissipate. Due to these factors, we sell all our coffee directly to the end-user to ensure they get it within this short freshness window. Unlike other coffee roasters, we are not forced to compromise the roasting process to extend the shelf life or impose artificial consistency on our coffee. We seek only to bring out the natural complexity and richness of each of our carefully sourced single-origin coffees.
We are currently seeking roasting interns to train under our owner and roastmaster. This is an unpaid internship, but not free labor. You will receive a comprehensive coffee education, including lectures and tasting sessions in addition to an hour or two of roaster training. The coffee you roast will not be sold to customers. You will also have access to a copious amount of free coffee. The purpose of the internship is to both educate participants as well as to serve as a talent search. At the end of the internship, which will last approximately eight hours spread over several sessions, one or two interns will be offered paid part-time roasting positions to start.
Because interns will be eligible for a paid position, applicants should:
Have a deep and abiding interest in coffee as a natural product.
Be available to work at least 3 days a week. including some weekends.
Be willing to commit at least one year to working for the company (PT or FT)
Be diligent, patient, focused and have an eye for detail.
Please email us at QualiaCoffee@gmail.com to arrange an interview. In your message, let us know how you meet the above criteria.
Join Qualia Coffee and Whisked Bakery for a one-day, Twin Peaks themed event featuring “The Best Coffee&Pie in Washington.”
Maybe, maybe not. We think it is fair to argue we have the best coffee in DC, but that does not necessarily make us the best coffee shop. People look for many different things in a coffee shop, some don’t even come for the coffee. We are happy to be consistently counted among our friends in the coffee community moving the ball forward on quality and helping to improve the lives of the coffee growers we all support. It seems unlikely that Qualia will ever win a readers poll. Our location counts against us as does the fact that we have one storefront. In the grand scheme of things, few people have experienced Qualia. That said, it is immensely gratifying that in 2012 and 2013, The Washington City Paper recognized us in their Best of DC issues for the excellence we strive everyday to achieve.
Just moments after birth, this baby carafe can already keep coffee hot for hours.
Can’t make it to one of our twice monthly free tastings, now you can make your own tasting, any time. We offer personalized tasting flights for one to three people. You pick three of our coffees and we’ll brew them up in these miniature versions of our house carafes so that you can compare, contrast and savor them at you leisure. We are currently offering the tasting flights at an introductory price of $8. Please be aware that during high-traffic times of day, flights may take up to 15 minutes.
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