Why I Chose To Roast
Entering my 42nd year I took the leap to start this new venture. It is something that has not always been prominent in my mind but has been on the periphery for some time now. What has been on my mind is people and coffee. Coffee does make people feel better. Whether physically, mentally, socially. It tends to be a way people connect. It’s a saying… let’s meet up for a coffee.
Before we get there though I want to talk about how I got here. The decision to roast coffee. Confession time. I have not worked in a coffee shop, I have visited roasters and see what they do and plagued them with questions. Read article upon article about roasting coffee before I even held a green coffee bean.
I know there are talented individuals and people out there that can “Roast Me Under The Table” so to speak and that’s fine I’m not here to steal limelight I’m here to say we’re starting out. building small, discovering and failing and picking ourselves back up again and again and again. There’s enough space in the market for a small local roaster like me without worrying the big boys like Union and HasBean and co.
The choice to roast rather than go with a cafe really came down to what do I want. Focussing on roasting we can make our own blends and therefore really own our brand, product and experience. Without that, we’re relying on another roaster doing the hard work for us which is fine but to be honest I want to know that stuff.
I want to know why I should roast for those few crucial moments longer to bring out more flavour. Or dropping the beans into the roaster at this temperature rather than that temperature. This is better because of this, that and the other. I want to know what that is. Honestly, that is exciting. Talk to a chef about why they cook. they’ll say the same
…I want to create, delight and wow. why not.. why would you not want to do that
So I made the decision. bought me a little IKAWA sample roaster which I’ll blog about later and started to roast. Now, this particular roaster is not the same as the final roaster I’ll end up with. Roasting on this is nothing like roasting on a big roaster but it’s a start.
Friends and family liked what I produced. Even the parents at my son’s football team liked it so a bit of research under my belt, it’s time to start stepping up the research and nail down the choice of roaster.
Time to start bringing all these 100’s of ideas into focus and drop the ones that take me away from the core promise… becoming a local coffee roaster.