North Pole Coffee Roasting Co

The smell takes your breath away on the way in. That is how customers describe walking into North Pole Coffee Roasting Co, a Fairbanks operation tucked into a shopping plaza on Marika Road that ships orders as far as Scotland. The current building is a newer space that longtime customers contrast favorably with the older location, and there is seating to drink in if you want.

The flavored lineup is what people buy. The St. Nickerdoodle is the seasonal anchor and the bag people stock up on around the holidays. The Arctic Blueberry and the standalone blueberry coffee are the ones Alaskans recommend to friends in the Lower 48 as a piece of Alaska to take home. The oat milk latte is the in-cafe order for people drinking on site rather than buying for later.

The Coffee of the Month club ships with handwritten notes tucked into the box, which is the kind of small-roaster move that converts a one-time buyer into a recurring shipment. A handwritten note from a Fairbanks roaster is a thing people remember and tell friends about.

The coffee is also stocked at Fairbanks airport, which makes it easy to grab a bag on the way out of town without making a separate stop. The shop carries designer clothing as a side retail mix, which is a strange and Alaskan thing to mention but accurate to the actual setup.

Who it suits: Fairbanks locals and visitors picking up flavored coffees for the kitchen, mail-order customers who want a recurring shipment with a personal note tucked in the box, and anyone passing through the airport who wants a bag for the trip home.

Less ideal for laptop workers, since the conversation about this place focuses on the smell and the ordering experience more than the work-in-the-space side of the operation. Come for the flavored coffee. Stay long enough to smell the room.