ROAST PROFILES: Recent Episodes
DAVID MYERS
My conversation with Doug Graf spans his entry into a family roasting business to learning how to navigate complex roaster and roasting machines problems over the phone. Doug has been diagnosing, repairing, installing and helping roasters past 2 decades and the secret to his long career is a constant learning mindset.
We kick off season 2 with a discussion about the Wilmington Coffee Fest and building community locally.
Long time coffee educator, green trader, roaster and all around coffee guy, Joe joins me to talk about his pathway through coffee. From origin trips as a teenager to leading a growth organization, how to maintain relationships in coffee on all sides of the equation and going home at night knowing he did his best to create fair and equitable solutions for all parties.
Lucas and his extended family have been growing coffee in Brazil for 5 generations, dating back to 1872. Early on, they focused on arabica, but government programs and the market began to change in the 1960’s and they began growing robusta. In the mid 2000’s, Lucas began his experiments with various post harvest processing methods to learn expand the flavor profiles and within 10 years, had developed a market for his micro lots of amazing robusta coffees. Today his journey continues and Fazenda Venturim coffees are now known around the world. Listen in to his journey.
After 6 years of working in coffee, Sara is on the cusp of opening Rising Tide, a co-roasting facility in Austin, TX. Sara shares what got her into coffee, how she managed to start her own business and in a short time, expand that to the larger Austin community
I talk with Brandon about his roots growing up in a farming community in Indiana and how that translated to a career in coffee. How he's found a niche within a larger company and stuck to his values to create meaning within that company.
Anne Cooper is a well known roasting consultant with clients around the world. She discusses her journey through coffee to land in this position and what keeps her interested.
I interview Stephen Houston from Belfast on his journey into and through coffee. He's currently setting up his own roasting operation in Belfast
I interview Ruth Church, Moses Mbonimpaye and Esperance Uwamahoro from their operations in Rwanda. Esperance is the president of the women’s group of growers under the Agaseke Cooperative.
Roast Profiles: Conversations with roasters and other coffee professionals about their journey to and through coffee. Taking applications for interviewees and sponsors.
Sponsored by:
Just added a 1 day Sensory Foundations class along with a 3 day Roasting Intermediate + session for October 26th - 29th. Come spend a fun filled week of roasting, smelling, tasting and sharing at the Probat USA training lab in Lincolnshire, IL, just north of downtown Chicago.
We are working on a new retail coffee project and are looking for the right person with the set of skills necessary to successfully launch this new concept. Base will be SE Michigan, primarily Ann Arbor.
Experience with cafe service, cafe management, space and menu planning, community engagement, digital marketing and most of all, great people skills. Growth opportunity as we move from a single concept to multiples. If you’re entrepreneurial in mindset and want the security of a stead paycheck with benefits and bonuses, this could the the place for you. Interested in learning more? Tell us about yourself and what you see as your place and future coffee. Send a cover letter and resume to david (at) workingtitlecoffee (dot) com
This past week, we held our first SCA roasting classes at the new Probat lab in Lincolnshire, IL. In keeping with the times, we kept our class size limited and had social distancing measures in place to keep everyone safe during the 3 days of activities. In addition to roasting on the Probatino and P12 roasters, the participants were the first users of the new Probat electric sample roaster which also features newest release of Pilot software which will enable users to transfer data from the sample to production roasting. Wow!.
The new lab is almost twice as big as the previous facility, as is the factory floor. With large windows allowing lots of natural light along with a bank of windows offering a view of the production space, it’s a very comfortable learning space.
Our coffee sponsor, Hacienda La Minita, supplied plenty of green samples from Costa Rica, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Sumatra for our roasting and tasting exercises giving attendees a broad exposure to regions and flavors.
Our next classes will be held in mid-November. Check out our schedule on the Education page of this website for updates and class schedules..
We’re happy to announce that in the coming months, we’ll be adding home and SCA professional level roasting courses at our lab and tasting room in downtown Ann Arbor. As well, we’ll be taking over the professional roasting classes at Probat USA in Chicago starting in early 2020. This is really exciting news for us and hopefully for the roasting community as we expand our offerings. Please stay tuned for more information and and an announcement of upcoming class dates in Ann Arbor and Chicago.
Coffee Farming is a Family Affair
The Tarrazu Valley in Costa Rica is one of the most well known and recognized regions for producing great coffees and we’ve been roasting some of them since the beginnings of our company. But something has been slowly changing over the past decade. That is the ever expanding offerings of smaller and more distinctive lots of coffee we can source. The micro-lot revolution! From our view at 1700 meters, no one exemplifies this more than Minor Esquivel of Finca La Pastora. His farm, in the San Pablo de Dota region, has been in the same family for over 60 years. During his stewardship, he has become an innovator, working on new processes and continually reinvesting in his operations to further differentiate his offerings and create a sustainability family business. The original estate has been divided into 3 separate farms; 2 for his daughters and La Pastora on which he built his own mirco-processing mill and more recently a full coffee lab for roasting and testing his coffees. He also added a small guest house that overlooks the valley so that visitors can now stay for a few days and work with the family during the harvest.
His experimentation with honey processed coffees is what really sets this operation apart from the rest. This involves removing only the outermost skin of the coffee fruit, leaving the sweet mucilage intact. The coffee is place on raised African drying beds for 14-20 days, and as it does, the coffee takes on a honey color, hence the name. Minor takes this even further by removing the skin in varying amounts to create different flavor profiles. Named for the various honey hues, his lots include yellow, red and black honey. He also produces a traditional full natural and African process where the coffee is left in large plastic barrels for 5 days, then hand washed of the pulp in the same containers. Looking around on the day we visited, all of his work was in plain view. Standing in the middle of all these coffees creates an overwhelming sense of anticipation of what these will taste like in a cup!
In addition to Finca Las Pastora, we visited Hacienda La Minita and Beneficio del Rio Tarrazu where many of our coffees are processed. Cara, our lead coffee trainer, and Kaitlyn, the Arbor Hills cafe manager were along for this trip and got to see first hand the complete seed to cup process. We were treated to tastings of the new crop of Costa Rican coffees we have been roasting for many years. Hacienda Rio Negro will again be a mainstay of our offerings for 2019 and we’ll also try a new Dota lot, La Gladiola which has a distinct floral brightness.
In only a few short months, these coffees will be available to us in Ann Arbor and we can’t wait to offer them to you!
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