More Popcorn
The ½ cup or so of coffee beans roasted in the popcorn popper only whets the appetite for more coffee, different origins and larger batch sizes. Enter… the Stir Crazy popcorn popper with the Turbo Oven lid. Now I’m roasting just over ½ lb at a time. This is more than a household can drink, so we start sharing our fresh roasted coffee with friends. Before you know it, the requests start coming in for one pound bags and a plan is hatched for an even larger coffee roaster.
Large Step Up
Craigslist is a wonderful tool to find cool stuff. And in the blink of an eye, there sits a four-burner propane BBQ with a stainless RK drum, rotisserie motor and a shop vac-driven bean cooler on the back porch. It has a 5 lb drum, but I found that 4 lb batches roasted up nicely with a consistent outcome. From this point we are selling coffee with a vision of growth and the need for a real commercial coffee roaster has become necessary if we are to offer the quality and consistency for those individuals, hobbyists and business customers that have a keen appreciation of great coffee.
A Business is Born
We have a heart for the home hobby roaster, and strive to educate and support them. We supply the best coffee from the finest sustainable farms (mostly small farms). We source organic and fair trade whenever possible. It is our wish to provide every advantage to hobby roasters. We also took a loan against our retirement fund and ordered a North Coffee Roaster from Mill City Roasters in Minneapolis, MN. I put their name here because they are an awesome outfit with excellent customer service. Now having the roaster up and running, we are able to roast 100 lbs per 8 hr shift. Individual coffee lovers and our business customers now enjoy coffee with computerized quality control. We provide artisan roasted coffee, green beans for the hobbyist, brewers and supplies to simplify the lives of our business clients.
