Roasting
Our coffees are roasted in Mill City 3lb drum roaster at the roasterie in Haddon Township! It's a nice maker space located within the SOHA Arts building. Currently you have to arrange a visit to see the inside, just email us!
Prior to the Mill City coffees were roasted on a Diedrich. Diedrich has been making coffee roasters since the 80's and is a well known maker of high end roasters utilized the entire world over. Prior to the Diedrich we used the Huky 500, which was a hand built roaster by a former shop teacher.
Coffee when roasted undergoes thermal changes and has essentially two main stages: The first crack and the second crack. Everything from the first crack to the moment the 2nd crack occurs is basically all about origin flavors. The Terrior if you will. When the 2nd crack happens the roast flavor tastes start to taste even or mask completely origin flavors. People often say burnt, but also chocolate, or nutty for this type of roasting. While the 2nd crack is desirable to some, and some coffees indeed are meant to be roasted to that point for the best flavor, all of our coffees are sourced specifically for origin flavors.
So how do we know where within the roast the coffee should end? We settle on how we want the coffee to be through a thorough cupping process that is fairly common practice within the industry. Further we do extensive brew testing on a variety of brewers to understand how our customers might consume their coffee. While we don't own every toy we do cover many of the known brewers such as Aeropress, boncmac, Chemex, v60, french press, ibrik, and two home espresso machines.
So how do we know where within the roast the coffee should end? We settle on how we want the coffee to be through a thorough cupping process that is fairly common practice within the industry. Further we do extensive brew testing on a variety of brewers to understand how our customers might consume their coffee. While we don't own every toy we do cover many of the known brewers such as Aeropress, boncmac, Chemex, v60, french press, ibrik, and two home espresso machines.