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COFFEE ROASTING
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 If
you are curious about coffee roasting I will be happy to
give some insight on the subject. Coffee roasting like any
job can become a bit routine at times, so for sake of
keeping you interested I will use flying an airplane as an
analogy. |
To roast a great tasting coffee you must start off with great coffee. It's like the old saying, you can't make chicken soup out of chicken scratch…you get the idea. At Christopher Bean Coffee We don't waste time over one coffee bean to the next; we
simply buy only the best coffee available. We have learned that if you buy quality you're typically never disappointed. The next step in roasting a great coffee is the person flying the plane. Trust me, when it comes to coffee roasting you don't want a rookie at the helm. Michael Flanagan is our certified master coffee roaster and like a seasoned pilot he knows when to increase airflow decrease altitude, when to increase heat, how to make the plane go faster and most importantly when to end or land the roast. The result is a smooth consistent landing every time.
Roasting Detail |
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 Step One. Get the plane ready and review your flight plan. Checking out all of the settings like airflow and temperature will ensure a smooth roast. Much like a pilot checking the weather and his flight log.
Step Two. Make sure you know who is aboard. If we are hauling a group of sumo wrestlers we may need some extra fuel to get things going. You may consider this a full roast. However if you are carrying a group of featherweight boxers you wont need as much fuel. The latter would be a great example of roasting a small batch of a specialty coffee.
Step Three. Now that we have checked all the settings, made sure we know what we are roasting and have accounted for our weights we are now ready for step three, loading the plane.
Step Four. Once everyone is loaded and the flight attendants give us the thumbs up we will be headed down the runway ready to start our coffee roasting flight.
Step Five. Now that the plane is loaded and moving down the runway it's time to add fuel the same as adding heat. We will use full throttle to get the plane moving fast enough to get off the ground. In contrast coffee is absolutely the same. We must add enough heat to the raw coffee beans to get them moving in a forward direction. As the plane is seeking an altitude we as coffee roaster are seeking a temperature. Once the desired temperature is achieved we can back off on the throttle. We don't want to go to fast, remember we have a flight plan to follow.
Step Six. Once we reach our desired temperature we then back off the throttle just enough to keep our forward momentum. We don't want our plane to fall! We will keep that forward momentum going until we reach our next checkpoint. As roasters we call this first crack. This is a checkpoint we use to make sure we are following our flight plan. At this checkpoint we determine if we are going to arrive at our destination too late or too early. For example, if we have been flying too fast too hot we would recalculate our plan and make speed adjustments to get us back on track.
Step Seven. After our last checkpoint we now have to start considering our landing. We can land at full speed. Well I guess you could but it would be ugly. You see coffee has an optimum point of roasting time, like flying to different airports you have different landing strips and different conditions to deal with. If you have ever flown to Hawaii you know what I'm talking about. You know that wide right hand turn; but wherever the flight is going you are going to have an optimum landing time, it's critical. At this point of roasting we must know when we are going to land. During the decent to the runway you will experience many different feelings. Sometimes smooth, sometimes bumpy and sometimes scary. If you notice the pilot is flaps down and on and off the gas, it's kind of ironic, as a coffee roaster we too are flaps down and on and off the throttle. There is no other way. Flaps down in flying a airplane helps the decent, but at the same time the pilot needs to add throttle to keep the plane moving forward. Again as a roaster wee to must land the coffee with flaps down taking full benefit of air flow while at the same time using throttle to keep the coffee moving forward until we land. Everything happens so fast at this stage there is no room for error, its all gut. The coffee is going through so many chemical changes that its almost hard to control. However with proper planning everything can come together perfectly.
Have you ever been on a flight when the pilot lands the plane and everyone on board claps as to say wow we made it again? Well in our world of coffee roasting at Christopher Bean Coffee Company a very funny thing occurs when we land the coffee. I can tell you from years of experience the coffee claps. No I'm not kidding it really does, as if to say wow we made it out in time. There is a scientifical reason for the clapping and if you really want to know why you must email
us at sales@christopherbean.com
Happy Flying!
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