Why you need a sample roaster for your coffee business
Are you thinking about getting into the coffee roasting business? Or maybe you have already started, and you keep browsing the right equipment for your roastery? If you are not sure whether a sample roaster is an important asset to purchase, keep reading.
5 reasons:
Why you need a sample roaster for your coffee business
1. QUALITY CONTROL
Keeps quality of your coffee under control.
Once the green coffee arrives at your roastery, you store it and schedule it for your roasting menu. It can take weeks or months before you start roasting it. Coffee changes its flavor profile within time even if stored in ideal conditions. Therefore, it is important to regularly keep an eye on the quality. Sample roasting helps to prevent possible defects or flaws in the coffee.
After coffee samples are roasted the next step is to evaluate the taste. You can prepare a cupping 24hrs after roasting is done. Cupping provides important feedback to your coffee quality and roasting profile.
2. PRODUCTION
Unlocks the true potential of your coffee.
Sample roasting helps to understand how the coffee reacts to the chosen roasting profile and what adjustments are needed on the way to desired cup. Sometimes even a small change of your development time or charging temperature can have a significant impact on the flavor. Roasting a small amount of coffee beans is ideal when trying to perfect and highlight specific characteristics before you roast 10kg of it on a production roaster.
Before head roasters put new coffee up for production roasting they sample roast a small amount to understand a potential of the green beans. ROEST sample roaster provides similar roasting experience with its hybrid drum roasting. Therefore it’s easier to develop beans close to the taste coming from a production roaster.
"ROEST combines all the features like replicable roasts, data logging, very accessible handling and now the first crack detector, we were looking for in a sample roaster." says Olli, head roaster from @Flying_roasters.
3. GREEN COFFEE BUYING
Your biggest decisions depend on it.
Sample roasting is a critical part of quality control usually underestimated by roasteries. Deciding to buy a half a container from Brazil for your next espresso roast depends on a small green coffee sample. That is a big decision which relies on a small sample of roasted coffee.
While importers might offer you roasted samples to assess the potential of green coffee you are considering buying, it’s always better to roast it the way you like it. Kenji from @fuglencoffee_tokyo , a head roaster and buyer of green coffee: “When I buy green coffee, I want to roast and cup with my own roast point: not too dark nor too light.”
Pawel, owner of @kawiarniabezcukru: “A sample roaster is a “must have” for a high-quality specialty roastery. Thanks to it, we can learn the potential of the coffee we want to order. I think that Roest passed the exam exemplary!”
Many coffee importers sample roast their coffee on similar equipment and they are happy to share their profiles with you. It’s good for inspiration but always make sure to adjust it towards your preferences. Create your own roasting profile library for different origins or processing methods.
4. PRACTICE
The best tool to learn coffee roasting.
Before you invest a lot of money in the coffee business, get to know your product better. The best way to learn how to roast coffee is to start roasting on a sample roaster. Roasting small amounts of coffee provides a bigger playground for testing various roasting parameters. Changing one parameter at a time helps you to understand what effects it has on the cup. Sample roasters with smart technology are easy to operate and don’t require too much coffee roasting knowledge at the start. The more you roast and cup, the more you learn.
Pawel: “There is a plan to open a coffee roastery in the future. So I decided to buy the Roest in advance as the roasting process itself is like that of a large coffee roaster. This is how I learn how to roast coffee. Working with Roest is extremely intuitive and fun! I am convinced that in the future the knowledge and experience gained while working with Roest will be reflected.”
A lot to of home roasters choose ROEST sample roaster for learning how to roast coffee. It is easy to use: it provides automatic roasting so you can start observing and tasting, and also manual roasting to get more advanced with your skills.
5. SHARE KNOWLEDGE
A way to teach about coffee.
Roasting on a sample roaster improves not just your coffee knowledge. You can organize a small workshop and share the experience with others: “it’s good when you teach about coffee to your barista and customers to experience the difference from the roasting.” says Kenji.
There are many roasteries and coffee consultants using sample roasters for the roasting courses. Tim Wendelboe organizes roasting classes (due to travel restrictions classes are on pause) for professional roasters: “On ROEST we roast also defect roasts. It is a set of bad roasts, training people to recognize green or baked taste of coffee.”
