Renee Colon lifts coffee beans from the cooling tray of a roasting machine at Fuego Coffee Roasters' roasting facility in Rochester, N.Y., Friday, March 21, 2025. Credit: AP/Max Conway By The ...

I’m here to be of help—or perhaps, be an annoyance—in browning a batch of Brazilian Cerrado coffee beans with the shop’s coffee-roaster-in-chief, Nigel Gardener.

Inside a rented warehouse corner, Reneé Colón, her purple-and-pink hair swaying, carefully pours Brazilian coffee beans into her aging roaster.

Premium coffee roasters in the U.S. are reeling from the sharp price increases of coffee beans, ... breaking the record set in 1977 when severe frost wiped out 70% of Brazil’s coffee plants.

With her purple-and-pink hair swaying, Reneé Colón stands on a stepladder in the rented corner of a warehouse, pouring Brazilian coffee beans into her groaning old roasting machine. The beans ...