Copyright © 1999-2005 Adams Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.  Reproduction Prohibited. Would You Like A Reprint of this Article? CLICK HERE!

The Daily Grind
Three roasters share a day with us.

By Karen L. Wagner

Like independent coffee retailers, roasters also have a passion for coffee. For many roasters, the attraction is akin to a love affair that began at first scent. Once the aroma of that roasting bean captured their senses, it just never let go.

It makes sense, then, that while retailers may focus on their interaction with customers, roasters have a much more intimate relationship with the coffee bean. Roasters may describe the mood of a particular varietal or how certain blends pose more of a challenging roast.

The peculiarities of each roast, though, are also what attract roasters to their work. No matter how long they’ve been at it, roasters describe the job as a never-ending learning process involving the specific standards of science and personal touch of art. Just as retailers struggle to expand their business while maintaining customer contact, roasters strive for that perfect roast, time after time after time.

It all makes for one very (yawn!) long day.
Paul Allen/Caravan Coffee
Roastmaster Paul Allen was introduced to roasting a few years back by Pete Miller, president of Caravan Coffee, Newberg, Ore. The two met at church, played a game of tennis and then Miller invited Allen to visit his roastery, Allen recalls.

“And he was doing some sample roasting that day, and I just loved it,” says Allen, who has been working for Caravan for about three-and-a-half years. “I think he picked up on something I didn’t know myself, that I had a passion for (roasting).”

Of course, how could Allen know? In his previous job, the native New Zealander was a Bible school teacher. But his passion for the bean proved stronger and Allen began working part-time in the packaging department. He soon started sample roasting and four months later began roasting full time.

What most attracts Allen to roasting, he says, is all the details involved in the process, from what to look for as the beans roast to how long the roast should be. He also enjoys the idea of reaching specific standards, while at the same time recognizing that each roast may be just a little bit different.

Caravan Coffee roasts about 78,000 pounds of coffee annually, mainly for independent retailers.
The bad mornings are those when there are too many Viennese blends, Allen says, where he has to do two or three roasts for one type of coffee, which can be challenging. “It just adds a little more pressure,” he says. “I know there’s a bit of relief when I’ve finished doing them.”

The good days are when Allen is roasting his favorite varietal—Ethiopian Yirgacheffe.

“It’s a small, little bean. I think I like the nutty flavor. It always surprises me how nice it is,” he says, noting that he enjoys drinking the coffee as well as roasting the bean. “It’s just very consistent and quiet.”
Allen has learned a lot about roasting in these last few years. He spent three days last August at the Roasters Guild retreat in Dillon, Colo., where he was part of a team that came in second in a competition involving about 20 groups trying to roast the best Mocha Java blend. The retreat was part of an ongoing learning process that flames Allen’s passion for roasting.

“I know there’s a lot more to learn,” he says, “and I like that, as well.”

It’s Wednesday, 6 a.m., and I’m holding a “Tigertail double shot Flat White” (New Zealand for a less milked/no foam latte, guess my origin), in the quiet of our living room. The day is starting right. Two hours later I arrive at Caravan Coffee, in Newberg, the two 12-kilo San Franciscans, affectionately called “Frannie” and “Cisco,” are turned on to warm up. While this is happening, I enjoy cupping a batch from yesterday with a colleague. We use the SCAA form, which I have adapted to my Palm Pilot (Tungsten E). Friday morning is reserved for a full-on cupping. What a way to start a morning, though.

Pete (my boss) starts the roasting with smaller batches, getting them warmed up, while I check the computer for the day’s roasting orders. I proceed to make these blends, anywhere from 5 to 20 pounds. Once this is finished I will take over the roasting on both machines, keeping a good six-minute gap, as my arms are not long enough to open both doors at the same time.

I will write up further tags for incoming orders but will keep my eye on the roasters as a priority. I’m looking at time, temperature (probe), color and noise. Bringing art and science together, perfect for a melancholy temperament. These are detail things, but so important to the overall picture. Getting a chance to go to the Roasters Guild was a part of that. Understanding the Mocha Java they highlighted brought about so much appreciation for coffee intricacies. Coming second with our team “Phat Phire” was a bonus. Coffee festivals such as Nascore or Coffee Fest are proving an invaluable source of education. That’s the journey part. After three years, I’m more of a beginner than when I started.

After two hours roasting, I will make a Flat White for Pete and me, enjoying the break. Roasting will continue usually until 1 p.m. We thoroughly document each roast. That means starting and finishing weights (for roast darkness), our in-house roast color, preheat times, temperatures, etc. We want to get it right. Another order just came in for five pounds of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. I had just dropped five pounds of Ethiopian. Oh well. That is the joy of a specialty coffee roaster.

During roasting, an aged Sumatra bag on the top shelf broke its duct tape seal and proceeded to empty two to three pounds from eight feet up—what a mess. We sealed the area off for safety and then later that afternoon I got the forklift and moved all the lower pallets of coffee out to give the area a good vacuum. Coffee is messy at any time but when it is everywhere, wow. I’ll be glad for a shower tonight.
After lunch with my wife, Rachel, it’s on to cleaning both roasters and afterburners with compressors, vacuum and brushes. There is nothing like a clean roaster to keep things in a good condition and keep the flames away. Someone asked a moment ago for the chaff for their roses. I’ll separate that when I clean. I start blending tomorrow’s coffee orders, then refilling some of the 22 bins with the appropriate green beans from around the world. Other work is seen to: administrative work, poundage that day, inventory and writing diary entries for magazines.

Wednesday afternoon is also set aside for some sample roasting with our 1-pound San Franciscan roaster. We must get in two to three sample green coffees per week. Some we want to check with our stock, others we want to just increase our awareness of what is out there. It makes for a good Friday start, with most of the staff and others interested. We do a light roast color to get the most flavors from the bean. Today it is some Mexican samples. We need to look at a replacement for our Mexican blending coffee, because we only have six bags left. Assessing coffee for our voluntary high standards is a big part of my job, deciding what will work best for us and, therefore, our customers. I have to say, it is harder to roast on this small roaster than the larger batch roaster. It was a good place to learn though.
The end of the day is approaching. It’s been good. I love the job. I have done a number of jobs, from Bible lecturer to librarian to ski instructor to European tour director, but this would be one that suits me to the ground (pun intended); I’m thankful.

Gee Barger/Counter Culture Coffee
After having worked as a roaster at Counter Culture Coffee for a couple of years, Gee Barger was lured away in 2000 by the high-tech world swirling around the coffee company’s Durham, N.C., location. A few years later in June 2003, Barger found himself right back in a place where he discovered he had belonged all along—roasting coffee.

“Through the power of the roaster machine, you’re able to sit and do almost anything you want with that bean,” says Barger, who has also worked as a barista. “And the fact that every little thing you do to it can affect its flavor is just a really fascinating and really cool thing.”

At Counter Culture, Barger says, the roasting philosophy, while recognizing the importance of the science of roasting, emphasizes the artistry.

“It’s a craft and it needs to be treated that way and it needs to be nurtured,” he says.

But Barger says the roasters also keep detailed records noting various data, such as the percentage of reflectance in a bean. To do that, for example, the roasters use an instrument that measures how much infrared light bounces off the coffee bean, which in turn, tells how dark or light the bean is. So, if the roaster knows that a specific bean turns out well at a measurement of 55, then that’s the goal for that roast.

Sometimes, when the number doesn’t add up, Barger says the roaster will cup the roast to check the taste and see if it’s not good or actually better than what was expected. Often, he says, the roaster will bring in other employees to get their opinions on the taste of that roast. That, he explains, is where some of the artistry comes in.

Sometimes, though, there’s a fine line between maintaining the craft and producing high volume, Barger adds. Counter Culture roasts about 500,000 pounds of coffee annually. The majority of customers are local restaurants and coffeehouses, but others include specialty grocers, such as Whole Foods, along with independent grocers.

The main machine is a 60-kilo W. Roure, a drum roaster from a manufacturer in Spain. Recently, Counter Culture received a 60-kilo roaster made especially for the roastery by the Renegade Roasters Design Group. The new machine, Barger explains, will be used for espresso roasts, while the other 60-kilo will be used for lighter roasts.

Barger says one of his favorite beans to roast is the organic Ethiopian Harrar.

“It’s such a potent smell that comes off the coffee when it’s roasting. It never roasts the same way twice. It’s very finicky,” says Barger, explaining that sometimes the bean wants to roast quickly and be out of the roaster, while other times the same varietal will take its sweet time.
“I guess it’s just kind of like the errant child,” Barger says.

As for Barger’s wayward ways of a few years ago, he says his IT days are long gone. Roasting at Counter Culture is where he wants to be. “I don’t see myself leaving anytime soon,” he says.

7:00 a.m.
I arrive at work, fire up the roaster, and do a quick survey of the inventory on the floor. As the roaster warms up, I set up the first few roasts: Colombia Supremo from a cooperative in Huila. As the green beans climb up the lift, I head into the cupping room and pour myself two shots of espresso. One of the nice things about roasting is that my day begins before anyone else comes into the office. Things haven’t had a chance to get hectic; it’s just me, the jet engine sounds of the roaster, and the beans.

8:00 a.m.
Our production manager, Ryan, and his crew (Jonathan, Katie and Tim) show up and get to work filling valve bags, calling out coffees as we start to run low. One of the trickiest things about being a roaster is making sure that there is enough coffee available to fill the customers’ orders, while taking care not to have coffee that is going to get stale. Freshness is such an important aspect of the specialty coffee industry, and it is the responsibility of the roaster to make sure that the customer gets the freshest product available.

10:00 a.m.
Things are in full swing now. Customer orders are rolling in and the blenders and baggers are working frantically to get the coffee ready for orders that we’ll be shipping out by the end of the day. Fresew, our delivery driver, has the local deliveries all packed up in the van and starts out to visit our customers within driving distance.

11:00 a.m.
I pass the roasting duties over to Joe, who will cover for me while I take a break for lunch. I’ve asked Joe to handle the main production roasting for the afternoon so that I can concentrate on roasting some green samples for Peter, our director of coffee. We also have a visitor from one of our newest customers, Aaron Ultimo of Murky Coffee, visiting, and I’ll be cupping with him.

12:00 p.m.
Coming back from my break I roast for another hour, while Joe takes his lunch. One of the great things about my job is the teamwork aspect. No matter what needs to be done, everyone is willing to pitch in to make sure that we handle any situation promptly.

1:00 p.m.
I start working with the sample roaster, a small San Franciscan. This is where one of the most crucial operations in the company happens. The roasting of green bean samples and the cupping of those samples determines what coffees will be purchased, roasted and offered to our customers. Each small batch has to be roasted to perfection so that it can be properly analyzed for flavor, body, aftertaste and defects. For the next two hours I’ll be carefully watching, smelling and listening to these beans as I try to bring out the characteristics that will tell us if the beans are something that we would like to carry.

3:00 p.m.
The cupping room is where some of the most important decisions in our company are made. The way that coffees perform during the cuppings tell us a lot about how we should roast the coffee, where we can use the coffee in blends, and how it might perform in the espresso machine. Another part of the cupping room experience lets us share our passion for coffee with our customers and with the public. Today, Peter and I are cupping with Aaron from Murky and discussing some new additions to our coffee line-up, a Fair Trade organic Bolivia and a Rwanda. The Bolivia provides lots of sweetness, along with a juicy acidity and notes of cherry. The Rwanda is a bit wilder, with hints of grapefruit and lemon. Peter shares with us some of the background of how we came into these coffees, what we selected them for, and how to approach introducing these to others.

4:00 p.m.
Before leaving, I take a quick look at the production floor, touch base with Ryan and Joe to make sure everything is going well, get a glimpse of what my day tomorrow will be like, and head home with the smell of coffee lingering in my jumpsuit.

Manuel Nunez/Distant Lands Coffee Roaster
As roastmaster for one of the largest roasters in the country, Manuel Nunez has to sometimes play defense. Competitors, he says, have chided Distant Lands for having an entirely automatic roasting process, purporting that the coffee isn’t as good as it was before the roaster went full throttle. The artistry of roasting, Nunez says they say, has been lost.

“That’s not true,” says Nunez, who oversees two other full-time employees who roast and three 500-lb. batch roasters for Distant Lands, Tyler, Texas. “We’ve actually perfected it because not only (do) we still have the art of it, but we have the science of it.”

When it comes to man vs. machine, Nunez should know. In 1986, Nunez began working for a gourmet coffee roaster called Country Coffee, which subsequently became Distant Lands. He was the company’s first full-time employee and started in the shipping department as a machine operator. He learned how to roast from a retiree working part time.

While Nunez enjoyed roasting, it wasn’t until Bill McAlpin took over the business in the mid-1990s that he began to really learn about things like cupping and the green bean. Since then, Nunez says the constant learning is what has kept him so passionately involved.

“We’re dealing with an organic product that’s always changing,” he says. “Even in green form.”
As for those who pooh-pooh automation, Nunez marvels at the consistency that machines offer. Yet he believes the roaster can have a great impact on the roast. All the tools that a roaster uses, smelling, hearing, seeing, for example, are still important and if a roaster stays up partying the night before, well, then that’s going to affect the consistency of the roast, he says.

Even though he’s been able to adapt to the use of increasingly sophisticated equipment, Nunez says he hasn’t lost the art of roasting and strongly believes it’s still the roastmaster who is, well ... master.
“The roaster, himself, still determines when the roast is ready,” he points out. “But if you have the equipment to give you the data that you need to consistently roast a perfect roast, roast after roast, that’s what’s incredible.”

This year, Distant Lands will roast 7 million pounds of coffee on three Jabez Burns 23R roasters. The client list includes national chains as well as independent retailers. Two years ago, the company opened a new roasting facility that includes state-of-the-art equipment, quality control operations, and even an education room where customers are brought in to learn about the roasting process.

“Education’s a big part of our business,” he says.

So, of course, is passion and that’s something that Nunez says hasn’t faded. “Even today, 19 years later, I’m still very passionate about roasting,” he comments. “Just the aroma—it’s something you fall in love with.”

5:45 a.m.
I arrive at the plant and make a fresh pot of coffee from a recent production roast. This not only clears the cobwebs but also confirms to me that the roast was done properly.

6:00 a.m.
The employees that will be unloading today’s container of green coffee have all arrived. We receive at least one container of raw coffee every day. Each container holds between 250 and 334 bags of green coffee. The bags each weigh between 132 pounds and 154 pounds, depending on the country of origin. Once unloaded, the coffee gets tagged and dated. Next, it must get Q/C approval. It is checked for moisture content and density. Finally, it is cupped against the approval sample before it can be released for production.

6:30 a.m.
I check on the roasting department. The roaster techs begin work at 4 a.m. every morning. So far, everything has gone smoothly as I had expected. These employees know to call me on my cellular phone or at home if there is the slightest problem.
For roasting, we use three late 1940s, early 1950s, Jabez Burns, four bag, batch roasters which we have rebuilt and updated with automatic clean-out systems, profilers and afterburners. We have designed our plant so that we may install a fourth roaster when needed.

7:00 a.m.
I make another pot of coffee from a different production roast. I check my e-mails from management, co-workers, customers and vendors.

8:00 a.m.
David Neumeyer, the assistant plant manager, arrives. We review the production schedule and adjust the morning’s schedule according to whether we have any employees who have called in sick or are running late. Most of the production employees will begin work at 8:30 a.m. Those employees that need to talk to me about something before their shift meet with me in my office.

9:00 a.m.
I join Sylvia Sosa, our quality assurance manager, in the cupping room where we review the various roast sample logbooks. Some of the quantitative tools that we use include an Agtron machine, a moisture analyzer, a Rotap machine for ground coffees and a headspace oxygen analyzer. As usual, everything is within acceptable parameters today.

Sylvia gives me an updated schedule for cupping coffee this morning. We try to only cup before lunch because the palate is fresh and at its most sensitive in the morning. Everyone who cups knows to eat a neutral or bland breakfast, avoiding spicy foods. In the afternoon, the palate can get tired and confused by what one has had for lunch. We also avoid tasting espresso until after we have cupped the day’s coffees because espresso assaults the taste buds and lingers on the palate.

We always cup the samples against our current inventory. This makes for a little extra work for the sample roaster, but our objective is to always receive or purchase coffees that meet or exceed the quality of the current inventory. This helps us to consistently supply our customers with the best examples of every origin we carry. We also always cup coffees blind. It is remarkable how the mind can predispose the senses with even a little information. We do not want to be influenced by the source of the coffee or a price that we may have been quoted. Any attention to the supplier or the price occurs after we have approved the sample. It is our practice to keep detailed cupping notes and archive the green samples we approve. This gives us a reference when we, again, cup each coffee as it is received.

Between cupping, I meet with the other managers to discuss current and future projects. Each day, there are small fires to extinguish and today is no exception.

11:30 a.m.
I am able to break for lunch.

12:00 p.m.
I meet with the roaster techs to prepare the roasting schedule for the next morning and to go over any potential changes in roast profiles. Tomorrow, we will be roasting some of our more exotic coffees, including Kenya AA, Papua New Guinea, and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. We will also be roasting several of our organization’s trademark coffees: Costa Rican “La Minita Tarrazú,” Guatemalan “La Flor del Café,” Colombian “Reserva del Patrón,” Sumatran “Iskandar” and Costa Rican “El Conquistador.” I tell the roaster techs that I will come in early tomorrow because we will be roasting the new crop arrival of our flagship trademark, “La Minita Tarrazú.” I want this coffee to be perfect!

1:00 p.m.
I return to my office and try to catch up on paperwork. I check my voice mail and return some calls, all the while looking up at the multiple video screens mounted on the wall. These screens allow me to monitor most of the activity in the 80,000-square-foot plant, as well as the exterior of the facility. This has proved to be a useful tool for our security, safety and production.

3:00 p.m.
I review the day’s production. After studying the orders on hand, I can anticipate the demands on our resources and I fine-tune the production schedule for the next week.

4:00 p.m.
I meet with Michael Howerton, the maintenance manager, and discuss ongoing projects, equipment rebuilds, and upcoming expansion of production. This is a very important meeting that I try to hold every day. Any plant’s efficiency depends on careful and continuous maintenance. Fortunately we are blessed with a maintenance crew that is dedicated and skilled.

4:30 p.m.
I turn the reins over to Mr. Neumeyer and call it a day!

Please Note: Some pictures or diagrams are only
available through the printed media.

Originally published - March 2005
Specialty Coffee Retailer.
For more product/company information go to the
READER SERVICE area.