Counter Culture Coffee

Top notch people with in depth knowledge of the industry. The place is welcoming and well designed... Possibly built for a future coffee shop rather than just a training center, this person says yes. Wish they had futures on these predictions. A lovely experience all around and highly recommend the free tasting on Friday at 10 AM. Always feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @joerazz

This place is amazing. The people, the coffee, the experience, I’ll be back soon! Thank you so much for the coffee tasting experience!!

Full-time traveler, here(@whatrvdoing)! Hands down the tasting at ten absolutely opened up my eyes to the culture. This great experience accompanied with good people and perfect coffee will leave you thirsty for more. If you cannot make it at ten order some online. Cheers!

Nearly every Friday for the past 2 years I’ve been going to the Tasting at Ten and I have to say it’s the perfect way to start my weekend. Daniel is a rockstar when it comes to coffee and he really is one of the most knowledgeable people in the industry here. Not only does he know his stuff but he welcomes you in each week and makes sure he meets and chats with everyone that shows up. I can’t stress enough how awesome of a company Counter Culture is, and I’m so thankful there is a Training Center in Charleston!

Excellent coffee tasting. Daniel does a great job explaining “coffee culture” from fruit on the tree to extraction. Well worth your time.

If you are around on a Friday at 10am definitely swing by for a great place to learn about and sip on some excellent cups of coffee. Highly recommend.

They were very generous and inviting. Highly recommended coming here.

Such a fabulous local experience!! These guys rock coffee!!

Came here for a tasting at 10:00 on Friday. They have plenty of stools you're able to sit on in the back while they give you a cup of their seasonal coffee. They tell you about their company, including the sustainable focus, and about the notes in the coffee you're tasting. I was expecting to be able to compare it to other coffees of theirs, but you're just able to taste their current one made from drip and espresso. Considering that it's free, it is a nice experience The space is minimal, and open. They have charts with different aspects of the tasting notes. Lots of wood and ground coffee for you to smell You can purchase some of their coffees there. They offer the one you taste for sale, and three of their other ones.

Detailed education in tasting, like name those fruit aromas, every Friday morning 10am and it's free! This visit Daniel taught us about cupping, sampling three different freshly brewed coffees just like a buyer would to find the good and the bad. Brew ratio in the cups of 1 gram of grounds to 13.3g water at 205 deg F. Single-origin beans freshly roasted to about 70-80 on the Agtron color scale, that means medium-light. Fun and yet so difficult to try to put names to flavors, takes much practice. If you're a coffee geek you will love, Love LOVE this. Rehabbed concrete and wood space, music playing from vinyl, so completely hipster lol. No sales tho, must visit a local shop to buy beans.

Counter Culture, a leader in the coffee sourcing industry, is based out of Raleigh, NC. They have strategically placed regional training centers throughout the United States to aid in the development and ongoing training of their coffee professionals and business partners. These training centers do not serve as coffeehouses, but they do open their doors to the public at specific times for training events, competitions, and tastings. Charleston is one of the current US cities lucky enough to host a Counter Culture Training Center. I recently had the pleasure of joining one of their "Tastings at Ten" sessions. They host these almost every Friday, at 10AM of course. During these tastings, they practice an art known as cupping, and allow guests to sample several coffees in their various brew stages. The instructors teach guests how to distinguish the differences in the notes of the coffees, and how to narrow them down. What does that mean? Think of it this way. You've heard about notes of cherry, citrus, or chocolate in your coffee, to name a few. Perhaps you've even tasted them yourself. Go ahead, admit it. It doesn't make you a coffee snob. I promise. CC teaches you about these notes, and more. They explain the origin of each coffee, and why it might taste one way vs. another. Digging deeper, they teach you how to taste for specifics. Are you tasting dark chocolate, cocoa, milk chocolate, etc.? Are you tasting mango? Is it earthy? If you're new to this, it can be a bit overwhelming. They offer a "flavor wheel" chart to help you hon in on what it is that you are tasting. The cuppings/tastings are interactive and the CC employees are insightful. I certainly left feeling like I knew more than I did going in, but there's still a world of coffee knowledge out there. These guys aren't coffee snobs, they are coffee enthusiasts. They love what they do, they are good at what they do, and they love teaching others about what they do. If you cannot make it to the Charleston training center, I'd encourage you to hit their website to checkout what other locations they may have near you. If nothing else, buy their coffee! The best coffeeshops boast counter culture coffee placards when they serve their beens. You can also find their products in grocers such as Earth Fare.

Always have been the people working here--from Daniel and Diego to now Chloe and Audre running things. They have always made everyone feel so welcome and have made a potentially pretentious environment far far from that. Everyone is on the same playing field and there are never wrong answers when you are cupping coffee. I've been attending the tastings now nearly every Friday for about 4 years and they continue to educate us about some of the best coffees in the world. Every week is different but every week I learn something new. Counter Culture is also the only coffee I care to make at home. I've literally never had anything better.

This is strictly a training center for most of the Charleston coffee shops that use Counter Culture as their wholesale distributor for coffee. What's great is how in-depth the training is for getting baristas properly ready to provide quality service. I'm fairly new to the barista game only about 2-3 months in, but feel like I was given the right tools in providing quality service for my customers. Counter Culture also provides free courses that you can attend at this center as long as you're employed with whichever coffee shop you're associated with. Those courses help you build towards being knowledgeable in not only coffee brewing but techniques to understand differences between superior quality and what's considered subpar. I understand on early morning's every Friday they do coffee testing free for the public so if you're ever in the area, this is the place to find great coffee and how/where to purchase their products throughout the Charleston area.