Bean there, done that…roasting as told by new coffee house owner Adrian Badger of Steeltown Coffee & Tea
Sunday, May 24th, 2009Pittsburg, CA will soon have it’s own coffee house that cares with the opening of Steeltown Coffee & Tea. They will be serving fresh roasted Pacific Bay Coffee. Adrian is doing a great job keeping local coffee fans up to date about the progress of his cafe and you can sign up for his newsletter and check on his progress at:
http://www.steeltowncoffee.com/Steeltown_Coffee/info.html
Bean there, done that…Roasting done right
by Adrian Badger, Steeltown Coffee & Tea, Pittsburg, CA – May 23, 2009Earlier this month I was extremely fortunate to spend an evening roasting coffee with John Laird, the local roastmaster who will be supplying Steeltown Coffee & Tea with his exquisitely roasted coffee beans to be used in our espresso and coffee drinks. John is a charming man with a sparkle in his eye who followed his dream several years ago and began roasting coffee for his own coffeehouse, Pacific Bay. Since opening, John has been dedicated to roasting his coffees in a way that brings out the very finest flavors and aroma of each carefully roasted batch of coffee beans.
I already had a general understanding of the coffee roasting process when John offered to show me how he works, but after spending several hours perspiring in the heat of the roaster (which, incidentally, is a beautiful work of art itself) I have a new respect for both the green coffee bean, and the roasting process. John’s roasting machine has all the computerized bells and whistles on it but, for John, they are but a tool with which he masterfully sculpts every roast by hand.
Over the course of the evening I was able to witness the skill of an artist combined with the precision of an engineer. During every minute of the
roasting period John carefully and accurately adjusted the roaster’s temperature in order to achieve the perfect roast “profile” for the specific beans being roasted. The appropriate roasting time of any given batch of coffee beans varies depending on many factors including the species, the country of origin, the age, and the desired darkness of roast. With many years of experience behind him, John is able to coax the optimal flavor from the beans
by tweaking time and temperature to reach his goal for that particular batch. While constantly monitoring these variables, John also periodically samples the “darkness” of the batch to ensure things progress as planned and that the aroma, for lack of a better word, “matures” as expected.
After spending the evening with John I clearly see a parallel between the art of fine wine making and artisanal coffee roasting. A difference, however, is that while wine ages over time in cellars, coffee “ages” during the relatively brief roasting process. Wine makers have a lot more time and flexibility to determine when their product has reached its prime. Coffee roasters must make the same determination within minutes or seconds rather than weeks or months.
Artisanal, small-batch roasters like John bring something unique to the specialty coffee industry that you can’t find in mass-produced coffee beans; a respect for the bean that translates into a miniature masterpiece in every cup. Steeltown Coffee & Tea is fortunate to be able to offer John’s works of art and I look forward to sharing the enjoyment of his meticulously roasted coffees with you.
From the March 2009 issue of Diablo Magazine:
