Small Batch Roasting

introduction

What is small batch roasting? Why does it matter and how does it affect coffee flavor, aroma, and quality? In this post, we’ll try to explain what small batch roasting is and why we think it produces superior coffee.

What is small batch roasting?

Small batch roasting is exactly what it sounds like. It’s roasting the coffee beans in very small quantities or batches. Depending on the roaster they’ll either roast the coffee in large, heavy quantities or, like us, only roast in small amounts to ensure the very best in roasting quality and flavor. Our roaster does this on specialty roasting equipment and with a finely tuned process that has been perfected over many years.

Roasting is akin to cooking. Some people can get lucky and produce a good meal every once and a while. But it takes years of skill and craftsmanship to really understand the coffee, farming, brewing and a little bit of chemistry to master coffee roasting.

That’s why we have the best roaster in the country. With small-batch roasting, we’re able to precisely reproduce the same flavor profiles in each roast over and over again ensuring that every time you order, you’re getting the same high quality, perfectly roasted coffee that you enjoy.

Why does it matter?

Here’s an example. If you’re getting ready to have a bowl of soup for dinner, you want to ensure that the soup is thoroughly heated and cooked through. You don’t want the top to be scalding hot and the bottom to be ice cold. That wouldn’t be a very enjoyable experience. So you put the soup in the microwave to heat it up. You set the timer for 5 minutes and away you go.

The next thing you know, the wife comes in and says she’d like a bowl as well. So you get her a bowl and stop the microwave, putting hers in with yours. However, you don’t reset the timer. You just leave it as is. Most people know that adding more items to the microwave will require an increase in heating time and might produce uneven heating results.

The same is true when you roast large batches of coffee. Roasting coffee is no different than cooking food. You’re really just heating the beans, extracting moisture to the desired flavor and calling it done. But roasting in large batches is more difficult and often produces uneven results. This means different roast levels throughout the beans and as we all know, different roasting levels mean different taste profiles.

So that’s why roasting in small batches really matters. It allows you to consistently produce the same roast on the same bean each time resulting in the same flavor. That’s why it matters.

When you buy a bag of the Guatemala Gut Punch with us, you want the same flavor every single time you purchase it. You want that same gut punch when you drink it because hey, you like a good punch in the gut each morning to get you going!

Small batch roasting allows us to do that over and over again ensuring that each farm to cup bean we give you is the same every time.

Freshness

Another benefit of small-batch roasting is that it allows us to achieve superior freshness. If we were to roast 200 pounds of coffee each day, but only sell 50 pounds, that means someone might be getting 7 day old roasted coffee. By the time it actually arrives at your house and you use it, it might be up to two weeks old. That’s not our desire. By roasting in smaller batches, it allows us to deliver the freshest coffee possible.

questions

If you have any questions about our roasts, blends or anything else, please let us know. We’d be happy to answer any and all questions you have.