New Company Sae Brings Uber-Rare, Luxury Coffee to San Francisco | Eater SF
"In San Francisco I encountered an ultra-lux coffee operation run by Luis “Luchi” Pincay and Christina Minju that bills itself as “the Dom Perignon of coffee.” Named Sāe Coffee Studio (sae means bird in Korean), the former techies and best friends import, roast, and sell only the finest, rare micro-lots via delivery and intimate events, mining coffees from auctions such as the Cup of Excellence. After selling their first coffee in June 2023 they’ve focused on seasonal, high-end roasts—coffees that score 88 points or above on the Specialty Coffee Association scale—positioning their offerings like uber-fancy spirits: rare, often group-bought by wealthy coffee nerds, and meant for special occasions (“This isn’t your everyday table wine,” Minju says; “This is your special occasion.”). For example, they sell a high-acidity, honey-processed, syrupy-bodied El Salvadoran coffee for $47 per 150 grams (a price that insiders still consider cheap). At pop-ups (including an August 2023 team-up with Deluxe Queer) they present these coffees in pourover and cocktail form, have popped up at cycle shops, and aspire to host coffee-paired sound baths—always aiming to create conversation and community and to give unexpecting drinkers a gateway sip: “We’re trying to let people rediscover coffee,” Pincay says, “and the cocktails get them there.” The founders are Q Graders (certified January 2022), have deep personal and professional coffee roots (Pincay’s Ecuadorian background and hospitality/Airbnb experience; Minju’s grandfather, Sang Hong Park, a noted coffee scholar), have worked with coffee experts like Willem Boot and Mokhtar Alkhanshali, and currently sell product and book private events, pop-ups, and courses through the Sāe Coffee Studio website." - Paolo Bicchieri