Tinker Coffee Co. Roastery

Tinker Coffee's roastery on West 16th Street in Indianapolis is the production facility, not a cafe, and the staff will tell you that directly if you walk in expecting to sit down with a drink. There is no seating. There is no regular coffee service. If you came to drink a latte, the cafes are where you go. This shop is where the beans get roasted and where the bags get sold.

The operation is small-batch and on-site. The monthly home-delivery subscription is the customer-facing program that most regulars sign up for once and stay with.

The single-origin Ethiopian Hamasho and Chelbasa beans are the headline pours for the home brewer, and the Chelbasa works especially well via Aeropress if that is your setup. Espresso-grade beans are available for anyone pulling shots at home.

The staff make the place. They make on-the-spot espresso samples, they recommend blends based on what you brew with, and they know what they are talking about. That conversation is the reason to walk into a production facility rather than ordering online and waiting for the box.

For home brewers, Aeropress and pour-over customers, and gift-shoppers buying single-origin beans, this is the right stop in Indianapolis. For anyone else, the customers at the counter will redirect you to a Tinker cafe before you finish asking.

The roastery exists for the bean side of the business, which is the side that matters to the customers who come here. Sign up for the subscription on the way out. Take the Chelbasa for the Aeropress, take the Hamasho if you want the more straight-ahead Ethiopian profile, and ask the staff which espresso sample to try while you decide.