Selecting the canvas…

Hello Beanheads. It’s Monday and it’s slowed down just a bit at the shop so I’m gonna take a little time to talk to you a bit more about beans. Last post I talked about the variety of processing methods that yield some very distinct results. Now, I’m going to talk about my process for choosing which beans I will use in our coffee roastery and cafe.

Let me start by being transparent - I have only been doing this for about a year. So what I’m going to share with you is my experience in that single year. I am not an expert, nor am I a floundering novice. I am somewhere in between - maybe an educated competent semi-expert? Anyhoo, just want to tell you that because I’m sure there are others much more educated in this process than I am that might have a slight eye roll as to what I’m about to say. Just sayin….

First things first - anyone in the coffee world that does not go to every country and tour farms and cut deals with growers directly absolutely MUST connect with a reputable coffee importer. When I started this process I targeted 5 importers I thought would be a good fit - companies whose reputation was for patience with newbies such as myself. Boy was that interesting. Two of the companies whose names I shant divulge but are some of the largest importers in the US were unapproachable, snobbish and downright rude, treating me like a child and talking down to me like a second grader. Their presentations were “here, choose these beans and order them. anything else? Bye.” Ok maybe not that curt, but I was immediately turned off by their lack of patience and unwillingness to answer questions. Buh bye. Next was a fantastic company with a great reputation and patience for the questions, offering me a guiding hand. The problem was their warehouses were only on the East and West Coast and, while they had a vast selection of beans, their beans were priced much higher than other importers AND the freight charges meant I would have to price my beans at over $21/lb. I was simply not willing to start that high.

Choosing Coffee

It can be difficult to choose coffee because there are literally hundreds if not thousands of coffees to choose from.

Then my friend, David, a roaster in Kansas City, turned me on to Anthem Coffee Importers in KC. I called and was connected with a fine, kind, patient young man named Daniel. We had a few conversations about our roastery, what I was looking for, and what they could do for me. They arranged to send me several samples of beans we both thought would fit the profiles I was looking for (more on that in a second). I spent a couple weekends roasting and cupping the samples, and settled on several varieties and origins that suited what I was looking for to start the roastery. Their prices were decent, and best of all, the freight was about 1/4 of what I would have paid from the coasts. Better yet, if I needed a bag or three of beans, I could truck it down to KC and just pick them up. Sold! 14 bags of beans were on the way.

So how did I choose what I ended up buying? I took each sample and roasted some of it according to the Specialty Coffee Association standards for cupping. Oh, what is cupping? Good question. It’s the process of roasting beans to a specific roast profile, grinding them, brewing them by submerging them in hot water for a specified amount of time, and tasting the coffee by loudly slurping it from a special cupping spoon. (Ok, there’s more to it than that, but for now..) The process allows you to taste the true nature of the bean. For now, it’s enough to say that I roasted each bean to SCA standards and cupped all of them. That narrowed the list down. Next, I took those same beans and roasted each one three different ways - a light roast, a medium roast, and a dark roast. I kept the roast times, development times, etc. consistent throughout all roasts. Then I cupped them each again. This resulted in determining that there were a few I didn’t really like in any roast, and those were discarded. Next I took some of the beans and blended them to determine how I might make a blend for my espresso, and my light, medium and dark roasts. This resulted in alot of clarity for me, as I found a couple beans that didn’t work well with others. In the end, I found 5 beans that, when blended together to a medium and medium/dark roast resulted in a lush, slightly tart, creamy, balanced and delicious espresso. (Although, that also changed after we opened and people were saying our espresso was too tart, so my assistant roaster, Rusty, and I reformulated it twice more until we have what I now believe to be the best espresso in Omaha!)

The lesson here is simple - it’s largely trial and error, or maybe more like trial and success. You see, you can get beans from the same farm every year and the beans will be different every year - the aromas and flavors will be different depending on the climate, weather, soil acidity, etc. So coffee isn’t just something you can buy by name. You have to experience it. You have to touch and smell and taste it. And in the end, you’re roasting the coffee YOU like to the point that YOU believe that it is the SWEETEST coffee possible from that bean. That’s why we’re called “SweetBeans”. I think that my years of being a chef inform my choices when it comes to coffee - I tend to taste “deeper” into the coffee because of it. Yet I’m still an…what did we call it….an educated competent semi-pro. HA! Eventually we will start offering sensory classes at SweetBeans. We’ll set up cupping tables and taste and describe our experiences of tasting coffees from around the world.

Well, that’s all today. I’ve got to get my orders in or I won’t have milk for the week! Y’all have a great week, and until next time…

Have a BEAUTIFUL DAY!

James