Sourcing & roasting

From the cherry
to your cup.

Great espresso starts years before it hits the portafilter. Here's exactly where our coffee comes from, who we trust to find it, and how we roast it five miles from where you drink it.

Quick answer

Espresso a Mano sources excellent and sustainable green coffee from across the coffee-growing world through three specialist importers — Keffa Coffee, Red Fox Coffee Merchants, and Bean Belt Coffees — and has roasted every coffee in-house in Pittsburgh since 2021. Everything else on the bar is sourced from local Pittsburgh purveyors.

Why sourcing matters

Quality is found
before it's roasted

Coffee is an agricultural product. The variety, the altitude, the soil, the picking, the processing — by the time a bean reaches Pittsburgh, most of its potential is already decided. That's why we put our energy into what we buy and who we buy it from.

We partner with importers who work season after season with the same farms and washing stations, pay for quality, and put sustainability ahead of volume. Then our job is simple: don't ruin it.

Seasonal lots Sustainable buying Long-term relationships Cup quality first
Burlap sacks of unroasted green coffee beans with a scoop
Our importing partners

The people who walk the farms

We buy green coffee through three importers we trust — specialists who build long-term relationships at origin and bring us lots we couldn't find alone.

Keffa Coffee

Green coffee importer

Red Fox Coffee Merchants

Green coffee importer

Bean Belt Coffees

Green coffee importer

Small-batch coffee roaster with freshly roasted beans in the cooling tray
Roasted in-house · since 2021

Small batches,
five miles fresh

In 2021 we brought roasting in-house. Every coffee on our bars — espresso, drip, and the beans on the retail shelf — is now roasted by us, in Pittsburgh, in small batches.

Roasting our own coffee closes the loop: we choose the lot, develop the profile, taste it daily on the bar, and adjust. You drink coffee at its peak — days off the roast, not months.

Beans & merch — coming soon
Beyond the bean

Local, on purpose

Coffee crosses an ocean to reach us; everything else shouldn't have to. The rest of the bar is sourced from Pittsburgh-area purveyors we're proud to name.

Breads & pastryPane e' Pronto · Mediterra Bakehouse · Five Points Artisan Bakeshop (Squirrel Hill)
DairyTurner Dairy Farms — Pittsburgh's hometown dairy, steamed into every latte
TeaGryphon's Tea
SyrupsHandmade in-house — including our acclaimed black sesame and maple cinnamon lattes
Green coffeeKeffa Coffee · Red Fox Coffee Merchants · Bean Belt Coffees
RoastingIn-house, Pittsburgh, PA — since 2021

Taste what careful sourcing means

Order a single-origin espresso or this week's drip at any of our three bars — or grab a gift card for the coffee lover in your life.