Roast Spotlight: Crack of Dawn

July 24, 2025

One of our favorites, and the lightest roast in our lineup, Crack of Dawn is a high-quality blond roast that cuffs your morning with a clip of serious zest and spirit. If you’ve ever encountered Crack of Dawn, the first thing you’ll likely notice is the lighter, almost burnished malt color of the beans, whether ground or whole bean. Once ground, however, the aroma that arises is meltingly robust, buttery with tender hints of caramel — at once both slightly citrusy and crisply tart — reminiscent of a bursting apple orchard, one filled with ripened apples still attached to the trees, each fruit splitting juicily from the heat of the sun on a languid September day. This same characteristic colors the taste profile as well. If this coffee were a rancher, Crack of Dawn’s character could be described as spirited, bright, and straightforward, to say the very least.

Possessing only mild acidic properties (learn more about acidity in coffee), this means less bothersome stomach trouble later for those with easily-agitated GI systems. This also ensures you’re left with all the pleasant flavor, without any dull aftertaste in your mouth, with plenty of verve to go round.

As a friend of ours once told us after knocking back a cup, they were surprised at how much of a ‘kick’ that Crack of Dawn gave them: a kick they described as having carried on throughout the whole of their morning and well into their afternoon. We think this translates to: if you work hard and need an enduring boost, you can be sure to have met your match in this Midwestern blond roast coffee.

Like directing wayward cattle on a meandering drive, the surest thing Crack of Dawn can impart to you is energy that surprises. We recommend that you don’t wait until the leaves turn, or your cows to run off, to imbibe.

No matter how early you must start, a cup of Crack of Dawn will keep you going long into the day.