The souvenir shop problem
Mountain on the bag, nothing in it.
How to spot one
No farm name, no roast date, no altitude, and a price that is either suspiciously low or absurdly high. The design is doing all the work.
Ask where the beans came from. A shop that cannot name a farm is selling packaging.
A mountain is not an origin. A farm is.
The exception
A few souvenir shops are run by the farming family and are genuinely the farm gate with better shelving. Those will answer every question and often pour you a cup.
The test is the same everywhere: ask, and listen to whether the answer has a name in it.
Disclosure: this article contains no affiliate links. Prices and dates checked in October 2026. Our methodology.