Subtext operates out of an industrial area in Toronto, Canada. The roastery was founded with a focus on making the people and places behind coffee visible, pushing against the anonymization that has characterized commodity coffee throughout history. They don't blend coffees, rename them, or roast dark, believing these practices have historically kept producers and their treatment hidden while serving only the consuming world.
Their roasting philosophy centers on maximizing flavor complexity and balance while bringing out as much origin character as possible. They avoid any roast flavor in their profiling, instead developing the coffee just enough to highlight the intrinsic qualities already present in high-grade green coffee. For consistency, they measure hundreds of color readings per batch using a ColorTrack system and regularly test extraction with refractometers. They also analyze green coffee moisture and density, use multiple thermocouples during roasting, and cup extensively throughout the process.
The team employs advanced quality control tools not just for measurement's sake, but because they believe nothing they do as roasters can create quality that doesn't already exist in the green coffee. Their role is to preserve and reveal what producers have already built through their work in the fields and at the mill.
