Coffee Tao

I’m back from visiting family in my hometown. Of course it was great to see my family for the holiday, but it was also nice to get my hands back on the old 12kg Samiac machine I used to roast on:

She’s old and looks a little rough, but it’s still my favorite roasting machine. All manual except for an aftermarket digital thermostat for the gas, it’s the machine I learned to roast on and it still turns out great coffee. Jared Ross (pictured below), the fella I trained to take my place when I left a couple of years ago, is still going strong and roasts a mean Rwandan. (In fact he had a batch on hand of the same Rwandan varietal I praised Stumptown for a few weeks ago, and it was easily as good.)

I roasted a few batches on the Samiac and it felt pretty good. I roasted a couple of batches of Brazilian Cerrado–not one of my favorite beans but a reliable blending coffee– and some Sumatran Mandheling, both of which I’ve brought back with me to Seattle and am currently enjoying. There’s something about a classic, all-manual drum roaster that automatic air roasters and expensive roast profiling software can’t ever seem to successfully emulate. I really believe, as with fine cooking for example, that there’s no substitute for experience and your own nose. [/soapbox]