Year one
Build the coffee
Source through specialty green importers, roast with a high-end contract partner to our profiles, launch six to ten exceptional coffees online, and test Miami through pop-ups.
Our story
We drink coffee every day and know almost nothing about it.
Hightower Coffee Co. started with a simple realization. Two coffees can come from completely different parts of the world, grown at different elevations, in different soils and climates, from different varieties, processed in completely different ways — and all of that changes what ends up in the cup.
One might be bright, floral and fruit-forward. Another rich, chocolatey, nutty and smooth. Yet for most people coffee is still reduced to three choices: light, medium or dark.
I wanted to build something that went much deeper. Hightower is a global specialty coffee company in Miami centered on origin, discovery and personal taste. Rather than hiding where our coffee comes from behind a generic blend name, we celebrate it.
Over time we want Hightower to learn alongside you. Every coffee you try becomes part of your Coffee Passport — a record of the countries, regions and flavor profiles you've experienced. As you taste and rate more, you develop your own palate.
Maybe you discover you love bright, floral East African coffees. Maybe chocolate-forward Central and South American cups. Maybe you want something completely different every month. There isn't supposed to be one best coffee. There is coffee that's right for you.
The name makes this personal. Hightower is my family name, and I want to build something carrying it that represents quality, curiosity and doing things properly.
What we stand on
Quality before geography
We don't carry a country because it fills a gap on the map. We carry it when we can source exceptional coffee from it.
Real traceability
Every coffee carries a lot number tied to its supplier, producer, arrival, roast profile, cupping scores and packaging run.
Honest wellness
No medical claims. Real ingredients, clean labels, quality milks, house-made syrups. Exceptional coffee, exceptional ingredients, nothing to hide.
Depth without jargon
Beginners and coffee nerds use the same platform — a simple sensory scale on top, the full technical layer underneath.
The bean's journey
Beans don't fall off a tree ready for your machine.
- 01
Farm
Cherry picked ripe, at altitude, by the people who grew it.
- 02
Processing
Washed, natural or honey — the first great flavor decision.
- 03
Drying & milling
Raised beds, patios, moisture targets, then hulled to green.
- 04
Export
Lot-tagged, documented, shipped. Freshness is a clock, not a claim.
- 05
Cupping
Sample roast, taste blind, score. If it isn't exceptional, we pass.
- 06
Roasting
Profiles developed per lot, roasted for Hightower in Miami.
- 07
Resting & packing
Degassed, QC'd, sealed with roast date and lot number.
- 08
Your cup
Scan the bag, open the dossier, taste where it came from.
The order of things
Build the coffee first. The café comes last.
Year two
Build the platform
Grow subscriptions, open the Blend Lab, develop wholesale, and stand up Miami roasting once the volume genuinely justifies it.
Year three
Build the flagship
Café, Origin Bar, retail and tastings — the physical center of a brand that already exists, rather than an expensive guess.
Years four & five
Go direct, go national
Direct producer relationships, hotel and restaurant partnerships, and bags in kitchens in New York, Chicago, Dallas and Seattle. Miami stays home.
Born in Miami. Sourced from the world.
One farm. One harvest. One country. One cup at a time.