Rhetoric Coffee

After ten years of struggle, joy, and grief, I’m both relieved and heartbroken to share that Rhetoric Coffee is closing.
Rhetoric started as a small East Bay roaster built around carefully sourced coffee, small-batch roasting, subscriptions, and a belief that coffee could live at the intersection of craft, art, and community. We commissioned original artwork, paid artists directly, and tried to make every bag feel like a small, thoughtful object — not just a product.
You can still find our coffee over the next couple weeks in bags at Coro Coffee Room in Berkeley and at The Heartwood in Nevada City, where it will also be served as espresso and drip.
I put everything I had into this. I’m deeply grateful to the Hursts for supporting me like family through being unhoused in my twenties, school, and the long work of trying to build something real. Thank you to the Egenes's — especially Ron — for a lifetime of mentorship. And thank you to my mom, may she rest in peace, whose pride and constant encouragement carried me through exhaustion and doubt more times than I can count.
Thank you to every collaborator, coworker, artist, market organizer, pop-up host, and customer who made this possible. This wasn’t the ending I imagined — but Rhetoric was real, it mattered, and I’m proud of what we built.

I am absolutely looking forward to the ps5 release of bg3. Slay.