HoneyCo Coffee Roasters: the Central Coast coffee roaster in Morro Bay
HoneyCo Coffee Roasters is a specialty coffee roaster at 390 Morro Bay Blvd in Morro Bay, California, on the Central Coast. HoneyCo has roasted on the Central Coast since 2015 and roasts every coffee served at Scout Coffee. The roaster, a Loring Kestrel 35, runs behind glass inside the Scout Morro Bay cafe, so anyone with a cup in hand can watch a batch from green to drop.
This page covers who HoneyCo is, what the roastery does, how to visit, and where to find the coffee across San Luis Obispo County.
HoneyCo is Scout Coffee's own roastery
Scout Coffee and HoneyCo Coffee Roasters are 1 company with 2 names. Scout runs the cafes. HoneyCo runs the roastery. Every coffee served at a Scout cafe is roasted by HoneyCo in Morro Bay, and every bag on a Scout shelf came off the same Loring.
Put simply: Scout's coffee is roasted in-house. The roastery happens to have its own name and its own website, honeycocoffee.com, where the same coffees ship to homes across the country.
HoneyCo began in a small warehouse in San Luis Obispo in 2015, roasting on a 25 lb San Franciscan. In 2024 it moved into the remodeled former Bank of America building in downtown Morro Bay, which it shares with the Scout cafe and the Scout bakery.
The building at 390 Morro Bay Blvd
The Morro Bay building is a few blocks up from the Embarcadero. It is about 6,000 square feet across 2 stories, and it holds 3 things under 1 roof:
- The Scout Coffee cafe, open 6:30am to 6:30pm every day
- The Scout bakery, which makes everything in the pastry case for all 3 cafes from scratch, every day
- The HoneyCo roastery, behind glass in full view of the cafe
The roastery was built to be watched. Most roasteries sit in industrial parks. This one sits where you can order a coffee and a croissant, take a seat, and watch the coffee you are drinking get made.
The roaster: a Loring Kestrel 35
HoneyCo roasts on a Loring Kestrel 35, a 35 kilo roaster built in the USA. Most roasters hold an open flame against a spinning drum. The Loring works differently. A single burner heats clean air, that air recirculates through the drum, and the same burner incinerates the smoke the roast gives off. The stack runs around 1,500 degrees, which makes the Loring one of the cleanest and most efficient production roasters built.
For the people roasting on it, the Loring is responsive, easy to adjust in small increments, and repeatable batch after batch. Most batches run 50 to 65 lb depending on the coffee and the profile.
Every batch is logged
Every batch is recorded as it runs, with temperature readings every 4 seconds from several probes. HoneyCo has tens of thousands of saved batches and roasts against them. That record is how a coffee roasted in September lands on the same profile as the same coffee roasted in February, on a different lot, in different weather, with different moisture in the green.
The full walkthrough, with photos of the drum, the sight glass and the drop, is in Behind the Scenes in the Roastery.
The coffee
HoneyCo buys from the top 1 percent of fresh crop specialty coffee, through direct relationships with producers wherever possible, and pays well above Fair Trade prices for every coffee.
The labels on the bags stay familiar. The coffees underneath rotate with each harvest, blends included. Each new lot is roasted to match the profile of the one before it, so Classic Espresso tastes like Classic Espresso in any month. Product pages list the current lot under each coffee.
The lineup includes Classic Espresso, Heirloom Blend and Cuesta Decaf, plus single origins from Colombia, Ethiopia and Guatemala. More on how the buying works in How We Buy Coffee.
How to visit the roastery
Address: 390 Morro Bay Blvd, Morro Bay, CA 93442 Hours: 6:30am to 6:30pm, every day Cost: a coffee. There is no tour to book and no ticket. Order at the counter, sit by the glass and watch.
We roast most days of the week.
A visit pairs well with the rest of downtown Morro Bay. The Embarcadero and the waterfront are a short walk downhill.
Where to find HoneyCo coffee
In the cafes. Every Scout cafe serves HoneyCo coffee and sells it by the bag:
- Scout Morro Bay, 390 Morro Bay Blvd, Morro Bay
- Scout Garden Street, 1130 Garden Street, downtown San Luis Obispo
- Scout Foothill, 880 Foothill Blvd, University Square, just outside Cal Poly
- Scout at Cal Poly, on campus at yak'ityutyu next to the Welcome Center, run by Cal Poly Campus Dining
The 3 cafes are open 6:30am to 6:30pm every day. The Cal Poly location keeps campus hours.
Online. The same coffees are on honeycocoffee.com and on the Scout site, with pickup at any Scout shop or shipping by USPS Priority. Orders ship Monday to Friday and typically arrive in 2 to 4 days anywhere in the US, 1 to 2 days inside California. Subscriptions run weekly to every 6 weeks and save 10 percent.
Wholesale. HoneyCo roasts for a small group of restaurant and office partners on the Central Coast. Orders start at 25 lb. Details on the wholesale page.
What people have said
Alton Brown called the coffee "scientifically perfect." Daily Coffee News and Barista Magazine have both written about the roastery, and Scout has been written about by The New York Times, Sunset, The Guardian, Eater LA and The Infatuation, among others. Scout has been voted Best Coffee Shop in SLO County 11 years in a row, most recently in 2026, and in 2025 HoneyCo was voted Best Coffee Roaster.
Frequently asked questions
Who roasts Scout Coffee's coffee?
HoneyCo Coffee Roasters, Scout Coffee's own roastery, roasts every coffee Scout serves. The roaster is a Loring Kestrel 35 behind glass at 390 Morro Bay Blvd in Morro Bay, California.
Is there a coffee roaster in Morro Bay?
Yes. HoneyCo Coffee Roasters roasts in downtown Morro Bay at 390 Morro Bay Blvd, inside the Scout Coffee cafe, a few blocks up from the Embarcadero. The roaster runs behind glass in full view of the cafe, open 6:30am to 6:30pm every day.
Can you watch coffee being roasted at HoneyCo?
Yes. The HoneyCo roastery is behind glass inside Scout Coffee Morro Bay. Order a coffee, sit where you can see the roaster and watch a batch run. There is nothing to book.
Where can I buy HoneyCo coffee beans?
HoneyCo coffee is sold by the bag at every Scout Coffee cafe in San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay, and online at honeycocoffee.com with pickup at any Scout shop or shipping across the US.
How long has HoneyCo been roasting coffee?
HoneyCo Coffee Roasters has roasted specialty coffee on the Central Coast since 2015. It moved from a warehouse in San Luis Obispo to the Morro Bay roastery in 2024.