The Wire - the coffee coast -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 3/22/2006
Last Visited: 4/26/2006
"We don't have a sample roaster," says Jim Clark, co-owner (with his wife Annie) of Black Bear Micro Roastery."That's a special kind of expertise, and I'm way too subjective ...their own product."According to Clark, people are apt to reject new tastes, which is why most cafés do not give out coffee samples.
...
Clark, who buys beans in large quantities, has spent years developing Black Bear's unique storage procedure, which he believes is key to preserving quality.
While roasted coffee has over 800 chemical compounds, he says, unroasted beans only have around 60.
...
Clark has a number of air conditioners and refrigeration units to combat fluctuations in the climate."My first idea was that I wanted to freeze the beans," Clark says, "and (our consultant) said not to do that.The green beans are actually alive, they're called ‘viable,' and when you freeze them you kill them.But not only do you kill them, you actually affect some of the compounds and affect the quality.So you have to keep them in perfect condition, you can't let them freeze."Now Clark keeps the beans at an even 49 degrees, allowing him to place large orders when the best beans become available and still keep them consistently in stock.Developing the storage area, Clark says, was the most difficult process he has gone through as a roaster, largely because of the need to continually tweak the system in order to keep a perfect balance of moisture.
...
Jim Clark, a mad scientist among roasters, has made major modifications to his roasting system in order to achieve a greater degree of control and consistency than is possible with a standard machine.He noticed that the same beans roasted with the same profile did not always come out tasting quite the same.After installing a number of sensors throughout the roaster, he discovered, according to his Web site, "that there is no direct relationship between the output of the burner and the resulting temperature of the air being delivered to the beans."The solution was twofold: he rigged an air temperature controller to the roaster, and he delegated control of the entire apparatus to a computer-based system.Now, he makes all the changes to roasting profiles in a spreadsheet.To his knowledge, no other roastery in the world uses a similar system.The results, he says, have been greater than he had expected."You can roast coffee with a computer program in a way that human beings just can't do ...batch that we do."
The quest for consistency, as Emerson never said, is the hobgoblin of little roasters.Because larger companies like Folgers or Maxwell House roast massive amounts of coffee at a once, it is easier for them to create the same product time after time.While Clark has put a lot of effort into achieving consistency, he appreciates the flexibility of being a small roaster.Past a point, he believes, consistency comes with a price.
With agricultural products like coffee, he says, "It's a law: as your volume goes up you have to lower quality in order to maintain consistency.
...
Jim Clark says the Black Bear Roastery is distinguished by his computer system, which allows him to have separate profiles for each bean while still ensuring that particular beans are roasted exactly the same way each time.
...
While this may be true, Black Bear's Jim Clark thinks there is a more important factor in who will buy specialty coffee."I have discovered since being in the roasting business," he says, "that it has nothing to do with education, money, any of that-it has to do with genetics."
...
According to Clark, this also accounts for the popularity of the almost charred flavor of Starbucks coffee."At least three quarters of the population is genetically receptive to what they produce," he explains.
11 online sources [ view sources ]
Profile is not claimed [ claim profile ]
