Coffee roasting for the computer age
Posted by TheShot on 26 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: Machine, Quality Issues, Roasting
It’s no secret that I generally disdain superautomated espresso machines (myself and Howard Schultz apparently included) and the convenience-step-forward/quality-step-backwards home pod machines. So you may get the (false) impression that, when it comes to coffee, I am an anti-technology Luddite. While I have never placed PID temperature controllers on the group of my home machine — and while I have no faith a machine will ever be able to toss out substandard shots the way Sammy Piccolo can — with coffee roasting it’s a different story.
Recently I met Matt Weisberg, general manager of Fresh Roast Systems (not to be confused with the infamous Fresh Roast home roaster, of which I am a longtime owner, from Fresh Beans, Inc.). Matt’s company consists of a number of innovative, patented retail coffee roasters — self-contained and deployable for on-site fresh roasting just about anywhere — and a handful of techie/coffee geeks who manage and evolve them. The team may know squat about operating an espresso machine, but they are religious fanatics when it comes to the freshness of roasted coffee. Matt is one of the most vocal advocates I know for making the public recognize that roasted coffee is a lot more like fresh baked bread than the bottled cola our society has long treated it as. And that’s music to my taste buds.
Last month, Matt invited me down to their East Palo Alto office/coffee roasting lab to check out some of their roasting equipment and operations. It was clear from my visit that Fresh Roast Systems — through sophisticated instrumentation that includes lasers, pressure systems, and computer controls in a device the size of a large refrigerator — were attempting to scientifically emulate the job of a roastmaster.
This is highly controversial. Matt has been stirring up controversy and trouble (two things I seem to be naturally attracted to) on the SCAA‘s Roasters Guild Web forums. Most traditional “artisan” roasters (a term Matt scoffs at) are men and women of art rather than of science. On the surface, that hardly sounds like modern day grounds for the Hatfield-McCoy feud. But to many roasters who act as the guardians of the trade, Matt’s company represents a threat that illicits a visceral reaction. They scoff at the notion that anything they do could be scientifically deconstructed through instrumentation, measurements, and controls. So they tend to be reactionary: “this stuff tastes like garbage”, “it comes out of a computerized machine instead of the hands of a traditional roastmaster — so what do you expect?” Ultimately, this debate is a modern version of John Henry folklore.
John Henry versus the Steam Wand
Which side do I fall on in this debate? I personally could care less about any pretense of science or tradition: just give me good coffee. And while I wouldn’t say that Fresh Roast’s steam drill killed off the John Henry roastmasters with a heart attack, I can say both approaches are pretty good in their own right.
Making espresso at home from the coffee I roasted with Fresh Roast’s equipment, I may have to disappoint many a roastmaster: the flavor profile for single-origin stocks of green beans measured up quite well, producing full flavors (and very good crema) for many days afterwards.
Unlike the curse afflicting superautomatic coffee machines, the variables involved with coffee roasting appear to be fewer and rather self-contained and controlled. Roasting seems to lend itself much more to a successful scientific approach rather than relying exclusively on an artisanal “black arts” explanation for how good roasts can be achieved. Take a look inside the automation of the Illy roasting plants in Trieste, and you’ll see — and taste — what science and technology can offer.
For Fresh Roast’s latest technology “trick”, last week Matt had me run a roast from my office 40 miles away using an Internet connection. Using a simple prototype made of an Internet-accessible building security camera along with GoToMyPC access to their touch screen roast controller, I was able to remotely roast (and watch) a couple pounds of F.T.O./shade grown El Salvador coffee. Slap on a computer-generated label and Fedex shipment, and you’ve got a nice webcam application that delivers custom-roasted fresh coffee without the mess or smell.
5 Comments »
on 13 Apr 2007 at 9:04 pm +00:00T 1.Coffee Business Strategies said …
Automatic coffee roaster receives high praise for quality
Texas Roast of Rockwall, TX received a respectable 89 point review of their Cowboy Roast dark blend from reviewer Ken Davids of CoffeeReview.com. Just respectable, that is, until you take into account that the coffee was roasted by a computer! Amazing!…
on 22 Jun 2007 at 5:06 pm +00:00T 2.Espresso News and Reviews - TheShot.coffeeratings.com » Confessions Of A Starbucks Barista said …
[...] don’t roast your beans to the namesake Charbucks level. (When visiting the guys down at Fresh Roast Systems , it was clear that the comparison Starbucks roasts practically flew off the Agtron scale.) And [...]
on 16 Jun 2009 at 9:37 am +00:00T 3.Anonymous said …
The interesting part about the article that was left out is this-
The Roasters Guild is in fact a bunch of artisans- but they are not afraid of technology- they actually embrace it- you can look at several other companies that produce similar technologies like Probat, Ambex, Diedrich, Agtron… that all of the members of the GUild regularly use and give input to all of those companies to help them improve their products for the benefit of the roasting community.If you actually talk to most roasters you will find that most PREFER to have automated controls for their roasters- as long as they can disctate the curve for the program
The “visceral’ reaction is not to the technology or the concept, the reaction is to the way Mr. Weisberg approaches the industry, like a used car salesman. If you know nothing about cars you may be fooled by his rhetoric, but if you know enough about the product you realize he is just a sales guy trying to badger his ‘customers’ into buying a product.
I have never seen a visceral reaction to Carl at Agtron (his competitor, Nor to Probat, Diedrich or Ambex…. hmmm something is amiss in the article
on 16 Jun 2009 at 6:30 pm +00:00T 4.Joseph said …
The marketing scheme of Fresh Roast systems exploits and fosters a misconception that roasters are artists afraid of losing their iron grip on coffee. The fresh roast system is ostensibly marketed as a way to free a cafe or grocery from the over-priced, stale coffee roasters are peddling. This rubs roasters the wrong way because it fails to recognize the true skill of a great roasting company: coffee selection and profile development.
The system they provide is certainly capable of roasting good coffee with reproducible results, no one from the roasters guild argues against this point. They balk at the portrayal that roasters are unwilling to embrace automation or engineering. This is patently false and every roaster manufacturer offers many degrees of automation for all of their roasting equipment, including retrofitted systems for vintage machines.
Mr Wiesberg is at the center of his own controversy because his abrasive personality NOT his equipment. He has ruffled feathers amongst a broad spectrum of the coffee community, from roasters to consultants to engineers. Breaking many of the rules of sales, not the least of which is disparaging his competitors, he has sought to create controversy in an effort to market his product as groundbreaking and paradigm shifting.
Freshly roasted coffee is a mantra of many roasters and has been for ten years running. To allude to Mr Weisberg and Fresh Roast are central to and champions of the cause is shortsighted and utterly lacking in historical context. I can count a few dozen roasters who have been marketing coffee with production dates and a very short freshness window for many, many years, long before Mr Wiesberg joined the coffee community.
As we move forward, automation will be central to the industry. Very few roasters would disagree with this notion. Indeed, the true roastmaster will excel with automation because the secret to a great coffee lies in the development and execution of the profile and coffee selection.
Selecting exceptional green coffee is at the very core of great coffee. Without the sensory skills of a trained professional, all the automation and technology in the world cannot make a lackluster green coffee taste great. While tools and instruments can be employed here, nothing is as capable as the sensory skills of a good cupper and the initial profile development of a skilled roaster.
The idea that roasters are opposed to technology is laughable and honestly the negative reaction to Fresh Roast Systems is rooted in their apparent disdain for the so-called artisan roaster.
Honestly, there are a number of roasters who would consider an 89 from Ken Davids a bad day. There are a number roasters who consistently score 92 points and higher 5,10 or more times over the past few years.
These roasters use Probats, Gothots, Loring Smart Roast, Samiac, Diedrich, Roure, Renegades, Primo and Sivetz machines. The common thread is flat out amazing green coffee and a knack for finding the profile that brings out the best qualities. A great roaster can take a great coffee and make it sing on any machine, however even a great roaster can’t make chicken soup out of chicken poop.
on 21 Jul 2009 at 11:56 am +00:00T 5.Rich W said …
Have never talked to Matt, but have often found his commentary on online forums abrasive and unprofessional.
That said, the FR system is certainly good enough for some pretty good shops. And if you’re a cafe/retailer capable of doing 1000#/mo but can’t add a gas roaster at your store (for any number of reasons – and there are many), the FR system appears at this time to be the only logical recourse as well as one that’s affordable.