A trip to Italy

Vacation? Ohh dear more than that!

12.01.15

Monday morning finds Konstantinos (yap our CEO) Giorgos (our master toaster) and myself 33000 feet above sea level. We’re flying from Athens to Milan and from there driving with our partners 1,5 hour to a cozy Northern Italian village, Codevilla.

Flying to meet our brand new roasting machine! A top-edge Brambati BR1200. Spending 2 days roasting and playing with profiles is much more than vacation! Our green coffee is already there, waiting for us! Let’s keep on the “perfectly engineered cup of coffee!”The whole process may sound exciting, but at the same time our main concern is how this new machine will treat our beans. We have to get familiar with the science behind it, so as to create new roasting profiles that will generate the same or even better cup profiles for our coffees. Have faith!

Our biggest worry is the difference in the transfer heat principles that this machine uses. I’ve read a lot of interesting articles comparing conduction to convection. Of course they’re all here, but one of them dominates the process.What’s the impact to the flavor though? That’s our mission!
The first signs are more than hopeful! It’s a machine that gives you the privilege of total manipulation. It’s flexibility and adaptability allows you experiment and create the weirdest roasting profiles you’ve ever imagined. Roasting a few batches of our Brazil Exclusivo Coffee Island (our main direct trade green coffee from Brazil) helps us get to know each other. Controlling the air mix percentage, the combustion chamber power and the drum speed gives you the ability to make innumerable combinations of the way that heat will be applied to the beans. And then the Guatemala Antigua, makes things more complicated. But, what would be our daily life without these challenges?

13.01.15

Tuesday starts with some espresso cupping. We have to taste what we roasted yesterday and try to calibrate with our current coffees. It’s probably the most useful process for a roaster! Roast, cup, re-adjust! I’m sure roasting would be the most boring process ever, if we were not about to enter this evaluation and re-adjust cycle…

The results are exciting! Crema, aromas, acidity, sweetness, bitterness, body and aftertaste.. Everything is there, in the way they should be and now we have a basis to start evaluating our first profiles.

For the rest of the day, some more roasting, talks and technical solutions regarding the new plant, it’s equipment and layout and a typical Italian dinner no.2! In the night a typical Italian dinner with cheese, prochiuto, pasta and exceptional wine (a 90+ in SCAA cupping protocol) are more than inspiring for the following day.
We’re always welcome in Brambati’s facilities and we love working with this kind of people; not showing-off despite their impressive know-how in their field, totally professional and friendly at the same time! We do believe that with their machines they absolutely support the masstige side of coffee; mass & prestige.

Now we have to wait for some months in order to fire this machine up in our new production unit in Patras. Till then, studying the results of the first roasts comparing them with our beloved existing Probat G90.

Cheers!

Alexandros Zapaniotis
Authorized Scae Trainer – Coffee Diploma Awarded – Marketing Manager in Coffee Island