If you’ve ever wanted to see how each of the little brown beans that end up in your grinder got there - here’s a piece of the puzzle. Jeff took a video camera with him on the last run to Finca Los Planes and shot field picking and then the process of washing them. Talk about a Green operation, check out the gourds they are using for picking baskets! Watch the video:
I assume if you’re a follower of the PT’s Coffee Blog, then you must be bound to the bean: As big a coffee nerd as the rest of us!
Birds of a feather, I suppose.
I assume, also, if you appreciate a pleasing cup of coffee as much as I, then you must at least have a basic understanding of (and thus, a principled respect for) the art of coffee.
Our friend John Dean, Brewmaster of Blind Tiger Brewery and Restaurant, has recently taken this appreciation and, for lack of a better term, fermented it.
Topeka’s only Brew-pub, located approximately five miles north of us at 37th and Kansas Ave., entered the nation’s largest beer competition, Denver’s Great American Beer Festival, Sat. Oct. 13. Dean and Brewer Alvaro Canizales took home a silver medal in the “Coffee Beer” category for their outstanding Java Porter.
Dean purchases green Ipanema from us regularly and has, in his pursuit of an outstanding coffee beer, triumphed in the art of home-roasting.
Coffee…and beer…all in one chilled pint glass. You’ve got to try this award-winning brew to believe it.
Congrats, John and Al!
Cheers,
Bret
When I am talking with customers on the phone, one question I often receive is, “Which coffee do you drink?” So I thought that it might be helpful to start up a regular blog about what we here at PTs are drinking. Hopefully this will give you a little personal reference for many of our coffees and also give you some insight into the quirky personalities hanging around here. So for today, Jeff and I are going to let you in on what we have been drinking lately.TODAY I AM DRINKING…BryanToday I am drinking our Sumatra Blue Batak. Talk about a great Sumatran. Personally, I am a big fan of the coffees that have nice, fruity and floral notes to them. So I usually prefer the coffees of Africa and Central America. Many people love the deep earthiness and body of Sumatran coffees, but they don’t usually make my list of favorite coffees. But this Sumatran is really an incredible one. It still has the deep earthiness typical of Sumatran coffees, but is just incredibly clean and even has that a bit of a grapefruit like sweetness to it. - Bryan
TODAY I AM DRINKING….Jeff
So I’m lucky, if not a little spoiled! I get to drink our coffee everyday and I pretty much have the pick of the lot at my disposal. So what did I drink today? House Blend, what else?
We’ve recently reworked the blend to be a little more balanced and smooth. So I was eager to try it this morning and see if we succeeded. I grabbed a cup while passing through our
Seven years ago, when we moved into our existing roasting facility, we didn’t think we’d ever need all the space we had available to us.
Wow, were we wrong!
For the last two years we haven’t held a “Jam” session, (classes and barista training) and we’ve barely been able to entertain guests as we are exploding at the seams in the existing space. Our controller actually uses a hallway as an office. It’s pretty funny actually, although not very effective as an office space. :o) Alisa, she’s our controller, claims it’s not that bad….hmmmm. Anyway, the good news is, we are preparing to move into a brand new space with more than twice the available square footage and a much improved training facility and cupping room. We are all ready for the move!
In the photo to the left you can see the newly prepped floor of our roasting facility. This area specifically has twice the space. Arnol Stegman, he’s doing a lot of the work in our new facility.
Today was a good day as we were able to get the Geek Squad in to install the AV for the training room. Including surround sound stereo equipment and 42″ Flat Screen TV. Perfect for slide shows from Origin trips and Video tape replay of training sessions. The training center will be available in less than a month. If you are interested in signing up for one of our many classes, give us a call or send Holly and email. We’ll make sure to get you in the first available class. 
I was talking to Ezra the other day and we were discussing some misconceptions out there in the coffee world. It started because I had just been pulling some test shots of La Bella Vita Espresso earlier in the day. While some might think that I am fortunate to be working with espresso fresh out of the roaster, it’s not quite what you might imagine. You see, when coffee first comes out of the roaster it is in one of its most sensitive states. During the roasting process there are gasses trapped inside the beans that are finally allowed to surface as it’s heated. In the first 24 hours after roasting, the coffee will release around 40% of its carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide will give it a little higher acidity, and also make it more unstable and a little volatile in the brewing process. After one day of rest, your average coffee is fine for normal brew use, but espresso is a bit different…
Much like brewed coffee, espresso is more reactive when going through the brewing process in its early life, but more so due to the pressure driven method of extraction. Under the pressure of gravity (during normal drip brewing) it already expands much more rapidly on day one. So with 9 bars of water pressure (about 130 psi) forcing its way through it, it is a little persnickety at best. When running test shots in this scenario, I have encountered some oddities. One of the most common is that I will know that I am dosing every set of shots consistently, but it will be nearly impossible to nail down a grind. One set will run perfectly and the next one will be much faster, and the one after that might be a bit on the drippy side. Another noticeable sign that the espresso is too fresh is that the crema will be extraordinarily bubbly and will dissipate very quickly. While it is okay to use it early on, obviously there are some definite obstacles to deal with when you are using really fresh espresso.
So how long should you wait? Well, first that depends on your espresso. I know that with our blends it tends to be friendly on the third or fourth day. In an attempt to help out the end user with this, we actually schedule our espresso roasts so that the coffee will have 2 to 3 days to rest before we ship it to our customers. We like to make sure that if they need to use it immediately that they won’t be dealing with the fickle nature of fresh espresso. So, if you notice that the roast date on your espresso is a little earlier than other coffees you ordered at the same time, there is a method behind the madness. And, as always, if you have any questions about espresso, or anything coffee for that matter, don’t hesitate to email us or give us a call. We love to talk coffee!
Holly
Maybe soon, just maybe, you’ll be able to walk in to any number of restaurants in your area and be served a real cup of coffee. It seems that regardless of the size of the number at the bottom of your restaurant tab chances are your cup has outdated, burnt, and overdone brew in it. We know it, we’ve come to expect it. But today some restaurants are changing their patron’s expectations.
Imbibe Magazine’s recent issue tackled that change head-on. And guess what? They featured local Topeka restaurant Rowhouse and the program that chef Greg Fox set up with PT’s Jeff Taylor. Fresh roasted top-quality coffee in a press pot delivered to each table. Customers love it, and we can finally be happy that a few pioneering restaurateurs are looking at coffee as a serious part of dining.
Take a peek at the article (PDF - 800k).
PT’s Coffee Competitor Training
Hello all! The SCAA Midwest Regional Barista Competition is quickly approaching and the PT’s Team is gearing up for another round of practice sessions! We have found, year after year, that these competitions have brought a higher awareness to our retail customer base, as well as higher expectations. These events have pushed the members of our staff that have chosen to participate to be skilled, professional, and precise baristas who are interested in the details of coffee, and motivated to show others how even the simplest beverage can be an experience rather than just a drink.
This year we thought we would extend and invitation to our wholesale customers to be a part of this experience with us. Due to the amount of time and space available we are going to limit this group to ten, so if you are interested in becoming a competition savvy barista please contact us as soon as you can! We’d love to have you!
Holly Bastin
PT’s Coffee Roasting Co.
(888)678-5282
holly@ptscoffee.com
Lets Talk Coffee has just concluded in Puntareanas, Costa Rica. A memorable event, hosted by Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers, that brings coffee producers from all over the world together with Roasters and Bankers from all over the world together to talk about coffee and issues at origin and the solutions that are possible.
This was my first year to attend Lets Talk Coffee as an invited guest and I certainly look forward to future events. What an awesome way to get people together and talking the same language. The language of cupping coffee, the language of finance, the language of Spanish and even the language of Swahili from our friends in Tanzania. With translation available at all times communication this weekend was exceptional. But enough about the languages, I really want to tell you about the newest project we at PTs Coffee Roasting Co. are going to be involved.
It’s one of Sustainable Harvest’s newest developments to help coffee farmers living near the Gombe region of Tanzania, in a place called Kigoma. Sustainable Harvest has cuppers, agronomists and training staff that help the 2,700 growers learn how to create coffee that meets the standards of the specialty market, and get better prices for their work in the process. As a result, the farmers are being asked to protect the region around the Gombe chimpanzee reserve from further deforestation. The remote area of the Gombe region of Tanzania is a perfect coffee growing environment, but farmers traditionally used inefficient methods to soak, ferment and pulp their beans, wasting precious water and resulting in coffee of inconsistent quality that sold for a low price. With poor incomes from coffee, farmers were tempted to convert their plantations to other crops, cutting down the shade cover in the process. This results in encroachment on the Gombe Park and threatens its chimpanzee population – one of the few remaining in Africa. While the chimps can coexist peacefully with coffee, other crops such as corn or cassava result in a loss of tree cover and increased soil erosion; these crops also attract the chimps, bringing them and humans into conflict. To combat these issues, Sustainable Harvest introduced three technologies to increase the income of these coffee farmers:
Water-efficient coffee mills (“eco-pulping” machines) will enable the farmers to process coffee at a consistently high quality with relatively little input of scarce water;
Cupping equipment (for roasting and tasting samples) will enable them to appreciate the quality and value of their coffee; and,
Barcode readers linked to computer databases will allow them to record their quality assessments, manage coffee stores, and communicate with buyers and roasters outside of Tanzania, empowering the growers to manage their production for maximum profit.
The project was made possible in part by a grant from the Lemelson Foundation. The grant to Sustainable Harvest Specialty Coffee Importers and a program-related investment to EcoLogic Finance to introduce new coffee technologies to the Kanyovu growers’ cooperative in the Gombe region of eastern Tanzania. The technologies will improve the cooperative’s processing and handling of specialty coffee, increasing incomes while simultaneously encouraging protection of local biodiversity, including a chimpanzee reserve. A win win opportunity and PTs Coffee will be one of the few select companies to be involved with this project and offering the coffee in the United States. A big thank you to Allegro Coffee for sharing with us on this project.
The coffee should be available by December 1 and available through the holiday season.
Regards from Costa Rica
Jeff
I know, I know, what is a coffee roasting company doing trying to teach people how to roast their own coffee? Well, we thought that some of you may not be satisfied with just learning about roasting, roast profiles and such from the outside. Homeroasting can be a ton of fun and is not as hard as you might imagine. Although you can buy a lot of great equipment to help you fine tune your roasts, you can start roasting with only a few simple, household items. In this little tutorial, I will briefly explain the basics of homeroasting, so that you can start learning about the many intricacies of this wonderful bean and enjoying coffee roasted by your own hand.
So, the first thing you need is a good supply of green coffee. Honestly, not just any beans will do if you want a great end product. One of the big differences between a company like PTs and Folgers or Maxwell House, is that we search the globe for the best greens the world has to offer. In the industry, these coffees are known as specialty coffees. Yet not even any specialty coffee will necessarily produce a great end product. That is why we travel to the countries and the farms where it is grown to taste the coffee
before we buy it. Therefore, you really need to buy your greens from a company that you trust and know buys only the best coffees. PTs has just started offering our green coffee on our website to anyone who would like to try their hand at roasting some of these amazing offerings. So pick up one of our sampler packs (coming soon) to try some different origins, or go with one that you already know that you like.
As far as the roaster is concerned, you have quite a few options. A lot of people have different opinions about what makes the best home roaster, so if you want, try a few to see what works best for you. Among the many creative options, you can use a small air popcorn popper, a pan for over the stove or metal bowl and heat gun. I will mainly focus on using an air popcorn popper because that is what I use to roast. Soon I will hopefully be moving up to a home-built drum roaster but more on that at a later date.
In order to roast with an air popcorn popper, you need a popper like the Toastmaster 6202 Popcorn Maker. The key to finding a popcorn popper that will work for roasting coffee is finding one that will reach the proper temperature for roasting and keeps the beans moving the whole time. These types of popcorn poppers will have air vents on the
sides in the bottom (See Image).
If you use the appropriate amount of beans, the popper will pushhot air through these vents that will roast the beans and keep them moving. The amount of beans you use should equal the amount of popcorn kernels the popper suggests. Initially you will need to stir the beans with a wooden spoon because the green beans are still full of water. Once they start roasting, they dry out and become light enough that the air from the vents is able to push the beans without any help from you.
As the beans roast, they will slough off something called chaff. The chaff is a skin that remains on the beans after they have been processed. This will happen with almost any type of coffee bean other than decaf beans. The decaffeination process removes the chaff. It is usually a good idea to have a bowl positioned where the popcorn would come out to catch the chaff; otherwise, it can create a bit of a mess.
As the beans roast, there are different stages that they go through. Recognizing and understanding these stages will help you perfect your roasting and will allow you to effectively communicate with other roasters. The first stage is a drying process. During this stage the beans will loose about 13% of their mass as the water evaporates from the bean. The next important stage in the roast is called the first crack. This occurs at about 400 F. During this stage, the bean expands due to heat and water evaporation and physical cracks will appear at the ends of the beans. As this stage occurs, you will hear the beans cracking; this cracking sounds like popcorn popping and is the first audible sign that the beans are roasting. At this point, the beans will have a light brown coloration and will not yet have any oils on the surface. Ideally, there will be a pause between the first crack and the next stage. This pause does not necessarily occur when using a popcorn popper because it is hard to keep the bean temperature from rising too quickly. This next stage is called second crack. It will sound more like rice krispies popping in milk than popcorn popping. The beans will have a darker brown coloration, and oils will start appearing on the surface of the beans. Towards second crack, a little smoke will appear. You needn’t worry about the smoke; it can start to be a pleasant smell after you have been roasting for a while. Because of this smoke, though, most people either roast outside or under a stove hood. Usually roasters do not allow the coffee to roast too much past this second crack because the beans will start to loose their distinct characteristics and take on the characteristics of the roast.
After you have determined that the coffee is almost at the roast profile that you desire, you should turn off the popper, dump the beans into a metal collender and shake the beans until they are about room temperature. It is important to try to cool the beans as quickly as possible because they will be anywhere between 430 F and 450 F and will continue to roast. There are many innovative and creative ways you can devise to cool the beans, but shaking them in a collender is probably the easiest.
So after that, you have completed your first coffee roast! You can either brew up the coffee right away or wait a couple days so that it has time to degas and come into its full flavor. Some coffees will taste better after they have rested for a couple of days.
Now that you have roasted your first batch of coffee, go ahead and experiment. Experimentation and creativity is an important part of homeroasting, so try some different roast profiles, origins of coffee and methods of roasting. You can use these basic ideas to try roasting in a pan over the stove or a campfire. If you want more information, there is plenty available on the internet, including a vibrant community of homeroasters who are more than willing to help. Another great resource is Kenneth Davids’ Home Coffee Roasting: Romance and Revival.
Have fun roasting, and let us know if you have any questions or need any help. I am more than happy to talk about homeroasting, and almost anyone here can talk your ear off about coffee in general. My e-mail address is bryan@ptscoffee.com.
Bryan
It was about 6 weeks ago I guess, that I was having a conversation with David Griswold, Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers. We were talking about coffee of course and he mentioned Let’s Talk Coffee. It’s a program his company puts on every year to introduce coffee buyers and coffee producers. This year it’s being held in Costa Rica, and thats where I leaving for this morning.
To be honest about it, decisions facing small coffeehouse owners in this day and age are not easy. Do you buy Fair Trade Coffee, Organic Coffee, Farm Direct Coffee and is the coffee shade grown? It can get really confusing for the coffeeshop manager who is trying to manage the staff as closely as the food budget.
With that said, I take my responsibility to educate myself and our customers about the qualities of our coffee and the producers who grow it. So I’m heading to Costa Rica or the weekend. I’ll be meeting with growers from throughout Central America who will be gathering to share stories and cup coffees with David and myself. I’ll blog about my trip as time allows. I will say, as I sit here in the airport at 5:30am…I’m eager to arrive in San Jose and begin learning about the producers who supply Sustainable Harvest with the coffees they offer, and I look forward to working more closely with Sustainable Harvest as a company.
You can visit their website at: Sustainableharvest.com
Regards
Jeff - PTs Coffee Roasting Co.
