The Wild Roaster

One recent afternoon, I spent time with Kaye, owner of the coffee shop “The Wild Roaster” In Deerfield, IL. This little coffee shop is within the local train station (an actual coffee shop, not just a kiosk), and she roasts the beans right there in the store. When I asked if she could show and teach me a little about roasting coffee beans, she invited me to see the process in action! Relatively speaking, her roaster is a small one, but for now it is doing the job. One of the benefits of this, though, is that you know that the beans you are enjoying from The Wild Roaster were roasted within the last 3-7 days. (They are intentionally NOT used immediately after roasting. Here is some information as to why you wait.) Frequent roasting and small batches guarantee freshly roasted beans!

Roasting the beans is both an art and a science. Suffice it to say, there is a lot of trial and error involved in roasting beans just right! There really is no set recipe or set of instructions for doing so. Additionally, much of what determines whether or not the beans turn out well is personal taste. Kaye has learned from others and her own experience over time what temperatures work best and for how long. The colors of the beans change as they roast (not a surprise), and there is an art to getting the beans to just the right color and taste. Obviously, the senses of smell and vision are involved. Listening plays a role, too. As the beans roast, you have to keep your ears open for a crackling sound (similar to Rice Krispies in milk).

As the beans were roasting, Kaye was able to use a device (part of the roaster) to pull out some of the beans and check the color. You can certainly note the more subtle color differences when you have several beans in different stages of roasting lined up!

Shades of Coffee Beans (I think that would make a good name for a band.)

Timing is everything! Roasting beans is not a process that you can really put on “auto” and walk away. The timing and rate of changes of different temperatures, both for heating and cooling, play important roles in how the final product will taste. By the end of my time at The Wild Roaster, I definitely had a greater appreciation for good coffee!

Time for the roasted beans to start cooling off. Bonus--another view of the different shades of the coffee beans at different stages of roating. — Time for the roasted beans to start cooling off. Bonus–another view of the different shades of the coffee beans at different stages of roasting.

While there, I did have a chance to enjoy a drink as well. Kaye gave me a “coffee drinker’s drink”–a macchiato (espresso with some steamed milk and foam). I am not enough of a coffee connoisseur to have fully appreciated it straight, but after adding some sugar, I thoroughly enjoyed it (and was RE-ENERGIZED for the rest of the afternoon).