Author: FFP Ai Bot

FINDLAY — 7 Brew’s drive-thru in Tiffin draws a steady line, and a second Northwest Ohio stand is on the way on Findlay’s Tiffin Avenue. But if you want to know where the chain’s coffee beans come from, who roasts them or what grade of coffee it buys, the company’s public materials don’t say.

A post on The Fostoria Free Press Facebook page this week asked why that doesn’t seem to matter to 7 Brew’s customers. One answer offered in the comments: many of today’s coffee drinkers are really buying milk, sugar and caffeine more than the taste of the coffee itself. “To each their own,” the comment said.

The Free Press looked at what 7 Brew discloses, how coffee quality is actually graded and what the chain’s own nutrition guide shows about its drinks.

Where 7 Brew is in the area

• Tiffin: 876 W. Market St., in front of the Westgate Village Shopping Center. The Advertiser-Tribune covered the stand’s grand opening. Reviews posted on 7 Brew’s own location page average 4.8 out of 5 stars across more than 500 reviews.
• Findlay: 1950 Tiffin Ave., on an outparcel in front of the Hobby Lobby plaza. The Findlay City Planning Commission approved the site plan on March 13, 2025, with conditions, and The Courier reported this month that the company plans to open later this year. As of Thursday, Oct. 22, the Findlay stand was not yet listed among 7 Brew’s open Ohio locations, and no opening date had been announced.

What 7 Brew says, and doesn’t say, about its coffee

7 Brew’s website, menu, FAQ and “About” page talk about speed, friendly service and more than 20,000 flavor combinations. The Free Press found no page that names the company’s roaster, the farms or countries its beans come from, a green coffee grade or a cupping score.

The few public details the Free Press found:

• In a 2017 interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, co-founder Ron Crume said the coffee was roasted specifically for the brand from a mix of beans from Ethiopia, Colombia and Brazil, a medium blend meant to appeal to a wide range of tastes. That was before an investor group bought the chain in 2020, and the company has not publicly said whether that blend is still used.
• 7 Brew’s canned drinks sold at Walmart are described as made with “100% Arabica coffee.” The company does not make the same statement about the espresso served at its stands.
• 7 Brew’s 2026 franchise disclosure document says franchisees must buy product ingredients, “including coffee,” only from suppliers the company approves or according to its specifications. It does not name the coffee supplier, and it says the company does “not make our supplier approval criteria available to franchisees.” It also says suppliers can be judged on taste, quality and third-party lab testing, among other things.

Keeping a supplier private is common in the restaurant business and is not evidence of low quality. It does mean a customer has no way to check the origin, grade, roast date or roaster of the coffee in a 7 Brew cup.

7 Brew’s press releases list a media contact through the public relations firm ICR. The Free Press will update this story if the company shares details about its roaster, bean origins or coffee grades.

How coffee quality is graded

Green, or unroasted, coffee is graded long before it reaches a roaster. The best-known quality benchmark comes from the Specialty Coffee Association.

• Specialty grade: Under the association’s long-standing green grading standard, a 350-gram sample must have zero “Category 1” defects, such as fully black or sour beans, and no more than five full “Category 2” defects, such as broken or chipped beans.
• The 80-point line: For years, coffee that scored 80 or more points out of 100 on the association’s cupping form was considered specialty, and coffee below 80 was treated as commercial grade. The association has since moved to a newer Coffee Value Assessment that does not rely on a single score.
• Exchange grade: Most of the world’s arabica is priced off the ICE Coffee “C” futures contract, the global benchmark. Coffee delivered against it is graded by licensed graders and cup-tested. It must be free of “unwashed and aged flavors” and can’t exceed a set number of imperfections. Beans judged better trade at a premium and beans judged inferior trade at a discount. Brazilian coffee, for example, is deliverable at a 6-cent-per-pound discount, while Colombian is deliverable at a 10-cent premium.

Supply is not the issue. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s July 2026 coffee report forecasts record world production of 189.7 million 60-kilogram bags for 2026-27, led by a record crop in Brazil.

What’s in the cup

7 Brew’s FAQ says it does not have a nutrition document online, but a 7 Brew Nutrition Guide dated Oct. 1, 2026, is posted at 7brew.com/nutrition. Figures below are total sugars, which include natural sugar from milk, not only added sugar:

• Blondie Breve (the chain’s signature caramel-vanilla drink with half-and-half), medium iced: 480 calories, 38 grams of sugar.
• Smooth 7 Breve, medium iced: 520 calories, 51 grams of sugar.
• Brunette Mocha, large iced: 500 calories, 79 grams of sugar. As a large frozen “chiller,” it is listed at 910 calories and 133 grams of sugar.
• Sugar-free Blondie Breve, medium iced: 400 calories, 6 grams of sugar.
• Americano and plain cold brew: 0 grams of sugar in every size listed.

For comparison, the FDA’s Daily Value for added sugars is 50 grams a day on a 2,000-calorie diet.

Why customers may not ask

National survey data suggests many coffee drinkers are buying flavor and convenience as much as the bean.

• The National Coffee Association’s 2026 specialty coffee report found that 59% of specialty coffee drinkers add sweeteners or syrups, 60% add milk or cream, and half use both in the same cup, according to a FoodNavigator-USA summary of the report.
• The most popular flavors among coffee drinkers are chocolate, caramel and brown sugar, and vanilla, and 35% of past-day specialty coffee drinkers say flavor is part of what makes coffee “specialty,” the Specialty Coffee Association reported.
• In the NCA’s June 2026 survey, 55% of people who bought coffee away from home in the past week ordered at a drive-thru, and a record 48% of American adults had a specialty coffee drink the day before. Cold coffee has also grown: 21% of past-day coffee drinkers had it in June, up from 16% in 2022.

The NCA counts lattes, frozen blended drinks and cold brew as “specialty coffee” in its surveys whatever beans they are made with. That is a broader definition than the Specialty Coffee Association’s grading standard.

When a drink has caramel sauce, vanilla syrup, half-and-half and whipped cream, the coffee is one ingredient among several. Whether that explains why 7 Brew’s customers don’t ask about the beans is a question only they can answer.

Do you know where your coffee comes from, and does it matter to you? Let us know on The Fostoria Free Press Facebook page.

Sources

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/jun/25/rogers-family-s-business-brewing-201706/
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https://7brew.com/nutrition
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