This is Where 22 Million Pounds of Coffee is Roasted a Year
For the past 5 years the Farmer Bros Coffee Headquarters in Torrance, CA has roasted an average of 22 million pounds of coffee per year. Although this may sound like an enormous amount of coffee to roast, it is actually down from 51 million pounds per year at Farmer Bros’ height. I was fortunate enough to be given a tour of the entire Farmer Bros’ Campus this past Thursday, where I was able to experience their entire roasting facility and the brand new state of the art coffee lab. The coffee lab is the most sophisticated in the United States and was recently featured in a cover story of Specialty Coffee Retailer Magazine, which you can read here. In this post I want to share a bit of what I learned on the tour as well as some cool pictures of the roasting facility, which would fascinate any coffee lover.
Roaster & Packaging Line in the Coffee Lab
I first met with Cindi on Thursday morning and headed straight for the coffee lab. According to Specialty Coffee Retailer the Farmer Bros’ coffee lab is a 6,500 sq ft brand new facility worth $1 million dollars. There are a few other coffee labs like this in the world but nothing like it in the United States. What makes it unique, however, is its mission of pure research to expand the knowledge of coffee. Where other coffee labs are to solve problems for o†ne coffee company, the Farmer Bros’ coffee lab is to solve problems that affect the entire coffee community.
After visiting the coffee lab, the tour headed straight into the meat of the operations. I walked into a hanger sized building, where I donned a hairnet and was greeted by nine packaging machines running nonstop (First Picture). Passed the packing line were silos, where roasted coffee is stored. From what I remember, though I’m not sure, I believe each silo could hold up to 9 tons of roasted coffee.
The rest of the warehouse that wasn’t processing green coffee was dedicated to storage. They have about 6 months worth of green coffee inventory stored in sacks piled to the ceiling.
Green Coffee Storage
A business unit of Farmer Bros called Spice Products Company also runs out of an adjacent building on site. A strong, almost nose burning scent comes from this part of the campus. You could tell from the smell that on this day they were processing cumin and chili. In fact, if you have use Tapatio hot sauce, the chili Tapatio uses is processed here.
Tapatio Chili Being Grinded
After everything was said and done my feet and back were a bit tired from touring the facility, and it was an awesome experience to witness such a mammoth sized operation in process.
Popularity: 6% [?]
The San Fransisco Fancy Food Show Part II
Barista Set Up in Front of Doors
Day 3: Peering through the Sight Glass
Normally, before I travel or indulge in an event I outline and define:
- My purpose (If there’s no purpose, I probably shouldn’t be going)
- Distinct objectives (what I would like to accomplish)
- Areas of interest that I would like to visit
- Independent Coffee Shops and Roasters
Of course, I have to have a great cup (at least one) of coffee to start my day, and the Starbucks offered in our hotel wasn’t going to do it for me. I heard of a start up retail roaster called Sight Glass and had to check these guys out. On the 3rd morning in San Fransisco the team and I walked to Sight Glass from our hotel and were pleasantly surprised. They have a shop however still under construction, so they posted up a temporary portable shop right in front of the door. Again, there was an incredible amount of people in line for pour over coffee and lattes. Anyways, this specialty roaster was started by two bothers, Jerad and Justin, who formally worked at a few other specialty coffee roasters in the area before venturing off and creating their own product. After our first cup of coffee, we decided to look through the glass for a while admiring their soon-to-be coffee shop.
Popularity: 6% [?]
The San Francisco Fancy Food Show
Taken from the terrace outside Yerba Buena Gardens Samovar Location
Day 1: The Arrival
The Posh Portage team spent this past weekend at the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. This event is made up of exactly what you would expect: food, drink, more food, and anything that has to do with food. We arrived in San Francisco in the early morning on Saturday, January 15, one day before the event began. We used the day on Saturday to scope out some specialty coffee roasters in the area (which I will address in my next post) and to get acquainted with our surroundings in the city. After 11.5 miles of walking we had accomplished our mission: we stopped by two specialty retail coffee roasters, ate at a sandwhich shop with a line around the block, walked through 5 sections of the city, and had an incredible desert. Since we were staying at the Westin St. Francis in Union Square, we thought that would be a good place to start. We headed toward the direction of the convention center (where the Fancy Food Show event was being held) passing through SoMa (South of Mission), Mission district, Castro, and headed back to our hotel. We ended our day in the Castro area after we figured we wouldn’t make it walking to Golden Gate park to see the Bison before sun down. We walked back toward Market, caught a taxi, headed to our hotel to rest our feet a little, and ended the night with a walk through Chinatown. (more…)
Popularity: 7% [?]
The Allston v. Cambridge Coffee Experience
The Allston v. Cambridge Coffee Experience
I spent this past weekend in Boston, Massachusetts. I thought I would check out the coffee culture and ventured out to a few independent coffee shops in Allston and in Cambridge. I found the indie shops, especially in Allston, attract a hipster crowd. There are few (but major) differences between the two sections of town and their indie coffee shops, however, the consistencies are unique to the area.
Popularity: 9% [?]
China’s Emerging Coffee Culture
A Bit of History
I spent this past summer in Shanghai, China building networks, learning about the culture, and interacting with the people. Traditionally, China is a tea-drinking nation and has been for thousands of years. China, popularly known for operating as a communist government, has spent the past three decades opening its borders and introducing its citizens to the western world. Western economies continued to evolve and expand business to foreign countries which enabled China to see the benefits of having an open trade economic system. Westerners took advantage of great opportunity abroad and China wanted a piece of what the rest of the world had to offer.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Coffee Fest Seattle Part 2
1st place cup from the latte art contest
Day two of Coffee Fest Seattle 2010 was a repeat of day one pretty much. We went to conferences from 8am to noon, had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory across the street from the convention center, and then we headed to the show floor. I attended a workshop called Real Numbers and a workshop for coffee roasters about purchasing and installing a roaster. Real numbers is where I met Wes Herman, who cut costs and increased revenue by offering full health benefits to baristas his coffee shop.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Coffee Fest Seattle 2010 Part 1
I just returned to Los Angeles from my very first Coffee Fest. There have been 59 Coffee Fests now and Bruce Mellitto of Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup has been to all 59, a bit on that later.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Melbourne Coffee Experience
A flat white Australian coffee. My personal favorite.
After living in Melbourne, Australia for the past six months, I have grown to appreciate the unique Australian style of coffee. My goal with this post is to outline the Aussie coffee experience and how it differs mostly from the American experience.
The most obvious characteristic about the Australian coffee culture is that there are small cafes on every block. Coffee is an abundant resource here and is often no more than a block away in the city. What’s nice about the Australian coffee shops is that there are several independent cafe’s scattered about the city, meaning you wont find several Starbucks, Coffee Beans, or even Gloria Jeans (the local chain) condensed into the same area. Though Starbucks does exist, I found it pressing to find one. I would say from my experience that the majority of coffee shops are independent. I found this a fantastic characteristic of the culture because it’s easy to try different types of coffee beans and roasts and to try out various baristas and even espresso machines. Because the coffee shops are independent each cafe chooses an espresso machine, which is usually a commercial semi automatic machine. I never encountered a cafe using a commercial super automatic espresso machine except at Startbucks or McDonald’s, called Maccas in Australia. This leads to a wide variety of machines being used at cafes across the country.
The coffee menu may take a little bit to get used to. There is the standard coffee menu throughout Australia. This makes it easy to compare the quality of coffee and the craftsmanship of the barista at different cafes. The standard drinks will look familiar, but with an Aussie twist:
Australian Coffee Menu
Cappuccino: Textured milk extends over the rim to create a “dome.” Sprinkled on top with chocolate powder.
Caffe Latte: Latte art here seems the norm.
Flat White: An Australian invention. Shot of espreso in a ceramic cup with creamy, textured milk poured on top. This drink is not full to the top, hence the ‘flat.’ Less creamy froth on top than a caffe latte.
Caffe Mocha: Chocolate drinking powder dissolved in a shot of espresso with creamy, textured milk on top, similar to a cappuccino. Served with sprinkled chocolate powder on top.
Short Black: One shot of espresso served in a small cup
Long Black: Two shots of espresso served on hot water. Espresso on top of hot water as to not disturb the crema.
Short Macchiato: Shot of espresso served in a short macchiato glass with a dash of milk and two teaspoons of creamy froth spoon on top.
Long Macchiato: Long black with a dash of milk and two tablespoons of creamy froth spooned on top in a ceramic cup.
These main menu items listed above are all espresso based coffee drinks, this is because espresso is standard in Australia. If you’re looking for something close to American drip coffee, the closest relative to the American drip coffee would be the “Long Black.” Australian coffee drinks are all called brown tops, meaning that the coffee is always mixed in with the milk throughout the drink. If you’re ever in Australia I recommend giving the local coffee a go and explore the menu to find your favorites.
Popularity: 5% [?]
How Decaffeinated Coffee is Made
Direct Process
There are several different processes that companies use to decaffeinate coffee beans. First of all coffee beans are decaffeinated when they are still green, before they are roasted. The most common process is called the direct process. In the direct process they use chemicals like methylene chloride and ethyl acetate. These chemicals are also used in paint stripper, nail polish remover, and glue. The first step of the direct process is to steam the green coffee beans for 30 minutes to bring the caffeine to the surface of the bean, and then the coffee beans are rinsed with these chemicals. If you are looking for decaffeinated coffee, I would suggest that you buy coffee beans that have not been decaffeinated by this process because of the chemicals used. At the end of the chemical wash process the beans are steamed for 10 hours to remove any remaining chemicals solvents.
CO2 Method
Another method that is used is the CO2 method. The beans are immersed into a CO2 solution that is under such immense pressure that the CO2 gas has turned into a liquid. The CO2 acts as
a solvent and washes away any of the caffeine at the surface of the bean. After this initial process is complete the pressure is released and the CO2 turns back into a gas form and evaporates and leaves behind the beans.
Swiss Water Process
The best process is the Swiss Water Process. In this process the beans are soaked for 10 hours in a green coffee extract. Coffee beans are soaked for a long time to remove the flavor and the caffeine. After about 10 hours when all the flavor and the caffeine have dissolved in the water the beans are removed and what is left is a concentrate of flavor and caffeine. The caffeine is then filtered out of this solution only leaving the flavor solids. With the next batch of beans that is soaked in this green coffee extract solution, only the caffeine dissolves in the water because of the high concentration levels of soluble flavor components that are already present in the solution. This method removes 99.9% of the caffeine present in the green coffee bean. This is the best and most natural method for decaffeinating coffee. Posh Portage Fresh Roast Coffee only roasts decaffeinated coffee using the Swiss Water Process.
I don’t suggest that you try and emulate these processes at home since the cost and amount of time it would take would not be efficient.
This is a video explaining and promoting the Swiss Water Process.
Popularity: 20% [?]
How Important is Fresh Roasted Coffee To You?
For me freshness of roasted coffee is more important to me than any brand names, so to share my perspective I will explain the roasting process, and why I believe fresh roasted is the best way to go. FYI this will be a general overview; I will save a more detailed article and video for a later post.
Coffee is mostly sold in its roasted state, but very few people know about this roasting process.
The roasting process starts when we open the gate at the bottom of the hopper right above the roasting drum. The beans slide into the drum which is heated from below via gas burners. The roasting drum is a horizontally spinning drum that roasts the beans evenly with a current of hot air.
At 392°F: Roasting Process Begins: Heat breaks down starches in the coffee bean resulting in caramelization. Caramelization in coffee beans is the oxidation of complex starches turning them into simple sugars; an example of this would be sucrose in green coffee beans being broken down into the monosaccharides fructose and glucose. This process results in a nutty flavor and the browning of the coffee bean.
During roasting, oils, acids, and caffeine are altered by the extreme heat, changing the flavor
At periodic times during the process the roastmaster will check on the progress of the beans by looking at samples from a scoop, called a tryer.
At 401°F: Additional oils start developing at this temperature, again altering the flavor of the coffee bean. Caffeol is created at 392°F and is largely responsible for coffee’s distinct flavors and aromas.
When the right moment comes the roast master opens the chamber door, dumping the beans onto the cooling tray. The beans are stirred on the cooling tray as air is drawn down through them to cool them as fast as possible so that the beans cease roasting as fast as possible.
The packaging of the freshly roasted coffee is also part of the roasting process and can be just as important as roasting. In order to preserve that fresh roast taste for as long as possible the packaging must protect the beans from light, oxygen and moisture. Fresh roasted coffee is packaged within just minutes of cooling, and because coffee beans will continue to leak CO2, Carbon Dioxide, after roasting, a proper package will have a pressure relief valve to let the CO2 escape the package.
This valve will also serve to push out any oxygen that was in the bag at the time it was heat sealed. These coffee bags are also made out of foil which block out light.
Yet, even with these bare minimum requirements for fresh roast, coffee still loses 25% of its flavor within two weeks of roasting. Freshness is paramount to coffee, and coffee is a perishable product, which most people do not realize. The majority of people are drinking stale coffee, be different and taste the difference of freshly roasted coffee beans.
Wondering where to start? Our Posh Portage Coffee, look for the black coffee bag, is guaranteed fresh and will be delivered just days after roasting. Click here to view our selection.
Popularity: 19% [?]
