Chris Schooley on Coffee Roasting
Metropolis' Top Roaster - Chris Schooley |
I am a production roaster. Day in and day out I perform the same task over and over again, and I perform this task until the orders for the day are all filled. Though the workload may change, my charge does not. I must roast coffee beans with the same consistency and care with which they were chosen. From a proprietary viewpoint, the importance of quality and consistency is clear, and a sense of purpose is vital to a business' survival. Obviously, one's continued employment also hinges on quality and consistency. But actual fulfillment and gratification at the labor level hinges on this same sense of purpose. In the factory, where each person has a limited function, how does one find purpose?
The idea of factory work conjures up vivid imagery: robotic auto assembly lines or the gruesome spectacle of Upton Sinclair's meatpacking plants. Specialty coffee roasting isn't quite like building cars, and hopefully only an unlucky few lose their fingers in a batch. It more closely resembles the manufacturing of Tiffany lamps. An artist originates a design, and then artisans duplicate the design multiple times. The artist in our case is a combination of the grower, processor and cupping team that chooses the coffee and decides how to roast it. The artisans are, of course, the roasters.
"Now hold on just a second!" you bellow. "Coffee roasting is an art form, is it not?" Darn straight it is! But think on this: As a coffee roaster, you are not trying to create an original piece of work with each roast. In fact, just the opposite.
It is important that you think of yourself as a skilled craftsman and not as Monet while you are standing in front of your machine. Your artistry as a roaster needs to come from your palate, not your palette. It is essential that you know how to cup the coffee you are roasting. It is more than within reason to assume that you should take part in the cupping that decides which coffees to buy and how you will be roasting them. You must participate at the artist's level. However, on the production floor you must operate with the alert and knowing hands of the watchmaker. You must know precisely the timing with which each gear moves with the next. The mathematically mechanical mind takes precedence to poetry when flames and iron are at play.
If knowledge of cupping is the first step to finding purpose in production work, then knowledge of your machine is the next. How much control do you have over your roast? What kind of adjustments will you have to make in order to roast a half batch? Why are flames shooting out of that? Knowledge of your machine comes partly from maintenance. Basic cleaning and scraping of cooling trays and exhaust systems, and the regular checking of connections and bolt-work give you an understanding of how and why a roaster works. If you have been having airflow problems and you find a substantial creosote build-up in your ductwork, well, 2+2=4.
Knowledge of your roaster also comes from careful (and supervised) experimentation. I am not suggesting that you attempt to roast blindfolded or otherwise impaired. I mean a more scientific kind of experimentation. First of all, document your roasts. A simple line-graph measuring temperature vertically and time horizontally works splendidly. This will help you visualize what is actually happening, allowing you to witness the dynamics of heat transfer. Don't just measure time and temperature, though. Be sure to document each and every adjustment you make during the roast, and don't forget to also indicate when the major roasting events (popping or cracking, whichever you prefer) take place and how long they last. Graph different-sized and multiple loads of the same coffee. Cupping against these graphs will give you much-needed perspective.
Another way to experiment is to roast on different equipment. Roasting on the same machine may give you intimate knowledge of that machine, but you may be so caught up in all of its individual quirks that you don't fully comprehend the actual process. Think about it: If you have only driven in a car with an automatic transmission, you are going to make a fool out of yourself when you borrow your buddy's jeep with the trick clutch. You may only ever need to roast on a single machine, but I truly believe that one of the best ways to help you grasp the concepts of coffee roasting is to apply those concepts to equipment with which you are not familiar. If you do not have direct access to a different roaster than the one you learned to roast on, then this is just one of the many reasons why The Roasters Guild is such an excellent tool for those in our trade. A sense of community invariably breeds a sense of purpose. A community creates a dialogue, a forum to exchange ideas and experience. The Roasters Guild not only grants roasters accessibility to communal insight, but also gives them the opportunity to try their hand at a variety of different machines, and puts them in contact with the manufacturers. You've tripled your understanding right there. Roasters, join the guild!
I'd like for us to return to cupping for a moment. Before, I mentioned how it is important for the production roaster to take part in the cuppings that decide which coffees will be purchased, and how they will be roasted. I would imagine that this is already fairly common practice. One more thing I want to stress along those same lines is the continued cupping of coffees well after you have initially decided on their roast levels. This kind of cupping falls into the quality control category. You really should be cupping every roast that you do. It isn't necessary to set up a full-scale cupping for each batch. One cup for each batch should be sufficient. If there is anything you find to be questionable about any batch, you can delve deeper by setting up more cups of said batch. There should also definitely be documentation of your roast and of the cupping. Clear cupping notes are excellent reference points. There are many tools to use when testing the quality of your product, but these tools are only truly effective when used in conjunction with regular cupping.
Beyond simply diagnosing whether or not your roasts are acceptable enough to move on into production, cupping can also reveal how you may want to change the level of a coffee's roast as it ages. Do not chain yourself to the idea that a coffee must always be roasted to one particular level for its entire tenure in your line-up. This also holds true for blending. The blend you created three years ago probably won't taste the same now, and will be miles away from the initial profile in another three years. The key word here is profile. While you cup the new blends you're putting together, make sure to zero in on the key elements as you create. Take note of the body and how the acidity interacts with it. Most importantly, make clear notes on flavor. An excellent way to do this is to write down the three most prominent flavor notes you find in the cup. Let us say that for some reason you have put together a blend where the three most prominent flavor notes are cherry, dry cocoa and a potent skunkiness (don't look at me, it's your blend!). Now over the course of a year, or maybe even a few months, you start to find it hard to identify the cherry note in the cup, and your skunkiness has turned into a pleasantly soft herbal note. Changing the roast-level of one or more of the components of the blend, or even changing the components themselves, can help you maintain a consistent blend profile. Consistency through change? That's so crazy it just might work.
Moving away from blends, I cannot begin to fathom a sense of purpose in production without in some way recognizing origin. Nothing beats a trip to origin, period. For the growers, the sense of purpose comes from survival. In order for our industry to be sustainable we must have a clear idea of, and sense of responsibility to, the people and places that grow coffee. Both literally and figuratively, it is the root of all that we do. If actual travel to origin is beyond your capability--and I realize that for many people it is--learn as much as you can through research. As the specialty coffee industry evolves, I notice that more and more emphasis is put on single-origin coffees. Whereas 10 years ago specialty coffee was largely thought of by the general buying public as hazelnut flavored beans grown in some undisclosed location or Uncle Zany's Midnight Blend, consumers now shop more actively for coffee by origin. As a production roaster this translates to higher definition of your craft. What decent carpenter doesn't know the qualities of the wood with which he is working? The fact that the general public is becoming more educated about specialty coffee means that you have the opportunity to guide them through new origins. What better source of purpose is there than the infinite potential for continued education?
Coffee roasting is an endless search for mastery. Day in and day out, the production roaster stands in front of the machine, performing the same task over and over again. More than just operators, they command an intimate understanding of their instruments, and of the goods they produce. Fueled by a constant thirst for learning more, they use each roast as an opportunity to extend their knowledge, being careful to achieve a semblance, a consistency. No matter the size of their operation, they take part in a unique craft. Sure, all of this may come across as just simple cheerleading, but my intentions are for an antidote to the automaton. In many ways the production roasters are an axis of the specialty coffee industry, and a job within the specialty coffee industry is one of the defining occupations of our time.
My work has meaning, it has purpose.