My first roasting memory consisted of me, a nut roaster, over a stove, in a kitchen immersed in the fragrant smell of gently burning green coffee beans. I know you are thinking it, but I’ll go ahead and say it—that sounds like heaven! One year after that day, I was standing over our Geisen W15A, roasting my very first batch of Ethiopian Guji Gigesa beans. They easily became one of my personal favorite coffees, and it’s fair to say that it had little to do with the sentiments of that memory.
When I was on my training course in Minnesota, the instructors kept on stating how important it is to have a pre-roast plan ready before you roast each coffee. It is important to have a purpose behind the plan in order to maximize successful outcomes. They were also kind enough to let us roast and experiment with good Ethiopian coffee, which I was very grateful for.
With all the knowledge obtained from those days tucked in the crevices of my brain, I started up the roaster, got it up to temperature, measured my green beans, and waited for that sweet moment of dropping the beans into the hopper. When I got the sign, the roaster came alive! With every churn and every hum it spoke to me and I back. From there on, the fragrant smell of roasted beans announced itself—swirling into every corner of the roastery.
I was electrified! I reached out to the trier and was enticed by the notes I was smelling as they morphed and changed: vegetal green, sweet butter biscuits, black tea, and at last florals! Then it happened, the holy sound of al sounds—the first crack. I found myself snapping into reality at this point and really focusing on the beans, as each second is detrimental to the coffee’s taste. In these final moments, I had to become one with the roaster— completely connected and waiting for it to tell me, “Your coffee gold is ready for your perfect cup.”