Third Wave Coffee Tours

A must do if you“re visiting Portland. Make sure its one of the first things you do. Not only is Lora full of great places to go and knowledge, you can see just how passionate she is about coffee, Portland and the food. Im ready to do another tour. I dont think you could get anywhere near the same education or experience without her. Thank you, thank you, tgank you!!!

I am so glad I booked this tour. It was everything I hoped for. Super well organized and Ethan our tour guide was so well informed, super accommodating and nice!
I would recommend this tour a million times over!
Even my husband who does not drink coffee enjoyed it!
We took the east side coffee tour. Great job!

Allow me to start by saying that this is HANDS DOWN the best tour I’ve ever been on. I’ll go as far as to say that it’ll be the best tour you’ll ever go on, too.
Perhaps the most important detail of this review is that I am not a coffee drinker. In fact, I detest coffee. Well, until now. I purchased this tour as a surprise gift and went along for the streetcar ride around Portland. But wait. A three hour tour?! A three hour touuuurrr… Oh no. What was I possibly going to do for three whole hours while everyone else was enjoying coffee? Little did I know, I’d never want the tour to end!
Lora, our amazing and knowledgeable tour guide made our adventure fun and engaging from the first moment we all sat down at Case Study Café. She is truly a wealth of knowledge! By the time she had finished explaining different types of beans, I was curious enough to try a sip. I’m so glad I did! Ethan, our first barista, taught us about different brewing methods using the same coffee. We tried samples from each brew and the tastes were drastically different, albeit all delicious! No bitterness. No burnt taste. Just perfect, amazing coffee! So, it’s safe to say that by stop #1, I was a coffee convert. Hooray!
The next four stops were equally as amazing as our first. Each of the stops were completely unique and Lora offered a very well rounded experience for all of us. Our tour group members tried coffee beverages that we’ve never had before. No coffee was left behind. I think that’s a pretty great testimony!
Luckily, my tour group was amazing in itself. Everyone was friendly, funny and open to good times. What a perfect tour with perfect people! Can’t wait to experience another tour with Third Wave! Hope to see people from my group again. Maybe I’ll see you, my fellow Unilocaler, next time! :)

I was surprised with the tour by my fiancé and I could not have had a better time! Lora was a such a fantastic guide. She knows everything about coffee. I highly recommend it. My fiancé did not like coffee and now she is a fan!

If you love coffee then this is the tour for you. Not only will you get to some great coffee shops around town, but you will get so much information on coffee. Which if you are a coffee connoisseur you will really enjoy the education on these trips as well. We discovered coffee shops we didn’t even know existed and learned about different brewing methods and were able to sample all of it. There were snacks along the way to help with the caffeine buzz too.
Now if all that isn’t enough, they have just launched a new tour that includes Donuts. You will get to drink coffee that has been carefully paired to select donuts from different shops. I have done both tours and I highly recommend the donut addition if you are a donut lover.
So if you have guests coming in from out of town, this is a great way to show them around or if you just want to be a tourist in your own city, pick a tour and enjoy!

My husband is a coffee addict and I knew that we needed to do this coffee tour on our recent trip to Portland. We did the East Side tour with stops at some of the best third wave coffee roasters.
At first I thought that the $ 40/​each was a bit pricey, but this tour is worth the money. You get coffee at every stop, plus snacks to keep the caffeine high in check. Lora (owner & tour guide) was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. I especially liked that we got to participate in a cupping at Portland Roasting Company.
On this tour you’ll learn about:
— the coffee plant
— how coffee is produced and sold
— how coffee is roasted to produce different flavors
— how coffee is graded and priced
The tour is informative and fun and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Besides coffee, Lora knows a lot about the food scene in Portland and we took her advice on lots of yummy restaurants and food carts to visit.

If you’re into coffee, you should go on this tour. Laura is extremely knowledgeable and the baristas tend to the group with a ton of attention, so not only do you hear their spiel but you can also ask questions and get into the gritty details about all aspects of coffee.

This streetcar coffee tour was excellent! Lora did a fantastic job in organizing the tour with respect to choosing the coffee places and getting the group to each location. Each place was unique, 5 stops in total, with the last place offering a «cupping» experience. Lora/​the employees/​owners were all knowledgeable about their coffee and addressed each question with enthusiasm. Lora also did a great job orienting the group to Portland and offered many recommendations to eat and drink. Highly recommended!

Had friends from out of town suggest a coffee tour (I didn’t even know such a thing existed). We took the Saturday tour with Lora. She is fantastic. It was fun and educational. We tried several different blends of coffee and several different methods. The people at the different coffee stops were friendly and informative. I was a great way to spend the afternoon and gain some knowledge about coffee and Portland.

We took the Sunday morning, Streetcar Coffee Roaster Tour. We learned a lot about coffee and enjoyed the opportunity to experience different preparations, beans types and roasting styles. Lora was very informative, personable, and kept us engaged from beginning to end. I will encourage my friends and acquaintances, as well as those who want to discover great coffee in Portland, to sign up for a tour!

Decided to post another review on Unilocal because it would reach out to more people than the tour booking website. Anyway, if you love coffee, and would like to be educated on coffee-​making/​drinking, go for the tour!
We booked this tour because we have recently come to take our coffee drinking a little more seriously. It was a great tour! Lora is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and we were throughly educated on this tour. Lora even threw in tips on where to eat and drink! We tried out several of her food recommendations, and it did not disappoint. Definitely recommending this tour to coffee lovers, and people who want to try out as many cafes as they could possibly squeeze in a short amount of time.

Sent my mom and a friend on the tour as a gift and they can’t stop talking about it. They loved Lora, the guide and enjoyed learning more about the coffee scene in Portland. They were also lucky enough to join when a film crew was tagging along for the day.
Highly recommended.

We really loved our tour. We also enjoyed the ride on the Portland Street Car. Lora is an excellent host and tour guide. All of the baristas were charming and informative. I recommend this tour for anyone who enjoys coffee.

I love coffee. But I never appreciated the art and craft of it, till this GREAT tour! Lora — you are a wealth of knowledge and fun to hang with! Thanks for exposing us to the local gems of artisanal coffee in the Portland area and enabling us to discover what truly fine brewed coffee SHOULD taste like!

Really fun tour and Lora is AWESOME! She’s knowledgable and informative of the coffee culture world wide and the local scene and brewers! Not to be missed!

What a fun and educational tour through Portland’s Pearl District. Not only do you taste and experience the world’s best coffee in the quaint and unique parts of Portland, but, as you walk, you experience the sites of the finest restaurants, shops and historical sites of the city. Third Wave Coffee tours offer it all!

I went on the Street Car Coffee Tour and it was fantastic! Loved the different coffee shops she introduced us to and now my husband and I love exploring new coffee shops that we haven’t been to. Thanks Lora!