Augie's Coffee

Augie's Coffee is a specialty roaster and café based in Redlands, California. The founder and founding date are not publicly documented, but the shop built a regional reputation as a small-batch operation—Life and Thyme described it as a roaster that 'values quality and community above everything else'—before a series of upheavals reshaped its story into something far more complicated.

Augie's earned enough early attention to land in Sprudge's 'Build-Outs of Summer' series, which profiled the opening of a new location at 300 E State St Suite 100, Redlands—a benchmark in specialty-coffee coverage reserved for notable new builds. Life and Thyme later ran a feature titled 'The Odyssey of Augie's Coffee,' a title that would prove understated. Barista Magazine reported that the Redlands location was forced to relocate after the landlord issued a three-week vacate notice with no stated explanation. The disruption didn't stop there: workers organized under Augie's Union, affiliating with UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America). Management responded by laying off its workers—an action the workers characterized as illegal—effectively ending Augie's in its original form.

Out of that labor dispute emerged Slow Bloom Coffee Cooperative, founded by former Augie's workers at 420 W Colton Ave in Redlands. The co-op's current menu offers traceable, producer-named single-origins—a Honduras José Mancia Washed Typica, a Costa Rica El Manzanal White Honey Catuai, an Ethiopia Solomon Hamiso Natural Landrace, and a Honduras Victoria Aguirre Washed Bourbon, each in the $22–$22.50 range—suggesting continuity with the sourcing philosophy the original shop was known for.