Before buying, I had a chance to meet and speak at some length to the founder: Michael Johnson. To boil down the conversation: Michael Johnson is truly a "micro" roaster, who literally deals one-on-one with the farms, has the bags shipped directly to his commercial location (no middleman) and then sifts the product for the top beans, managing the cut through the roasting process as a science using state of the art computer software next to good old fashioned roasting hardware. The end product is packaged on site.
That said, I took all of that with a grain of salt until I tried one of the finished products: the Ethiopian Sidamo Fair Trade.
Wow. Blew my socks off. The Ethiopian Sidamo Fair Trade may very well be the best coffee I have ever had. Unbelievably complex bouquet and flavor: I detected floral and cinnamon notes followed by a crisp, refreshing finish. On that alone, I ended up buying another four different types from JBC (have yet to try, but cannot wait to do so).
As a good blend will run you $18-$24 a pound in the Bay Area, I consider JBC's prices down right competitive. I can only hope my finished brew tastes the way Michael's preparation did. %&* great coffee. Period.