Corvus Coffee Roasters

Corvus Coffee Roasters began in Phil Goodlaxson's garage in 2010, two years after he'd taken a job managing a Denver Starbucks and started teaching himself roasting on the side. What began as a small home operation has grown into a roastery that, by its own account, holds more Cup of Excellence coffees and microlots than any other roaster in the Denver area, built on direct-trade relationships with producers, some running more than a decade.

The roastery now operates multiple retail locations across the Denver metro and roasts well over 100,000 pounds of coffee a year, a scale that hasn't diluted its sourcing focus: current and recent offerings include named microlots like Margaritas Gesha, Echo Gesha and Odo Shakiso alongside its Reserve and Core Single Origin lines. Corvus also runs hands-on coffee classes and cupping events aimed at teaching the sourcing and brewing knowledge behind those lots, not just selling the finished bag.

The trajectory — Starbucks manager to garage roaster to Denver's most Cup of Excellence-heavy roastery in fifteen years — has earned recognition beyond the city: Corvus is a 2026 Roast Magazine Roaster of the Year finalist in the Macro Roaster category and has been recognized by USA Today's 10Best. For visitors, the draw is the chance to taste microlots that a much smaller number of roasters nationally are positioned to source at all.