Page 102 - #53 English

Opinion

Article by Supachai Swangumpi
Photos by Coffee t&i Thailand

Roasting Machinein a Café

“Wow…You roast your coffee here?” / “There’s a roast- The coffee I was after was not popular back them,
ing machine!” / “Why do you have to roast yourself?” These or even today, but its growth is looking positive. Only a few
are just a few questions from customers who see a roasting shops were able to introduce and sell the coffee because it has
machine in a café. I am delighted to hear those questions every vivid characters. The aroma is different, it is sweet and usu-
time and more than happy to answer them too. ally acidic. Consumers at that time had negative perspective
Going back 2 years, I just started my café and most towards acidic coffee, so we have to educate them on good and
café did not have a roasting machine in store. Cafés usually bad acidity. We should be able to balance the flavours of the
ordered their coffee beans from local roasters. However, the coffee and brew a great espresso. That is why we need our own
roast profile I want is quite different from others. Sometimes I specific roast profile.
had to order a roast profile for filter coffee to brew the espresso Fortunately, I am friend with a foreign roaster who has
I want, and this often failed as I did not get the coffee I desired. been living in Thailand for around 5 years. We always share the
It came to the point where I decided to take on coffee roast- experiences and knowledge on different roast profiles. This
ing, not because local roasters were not good, but I just could made my decision to start roasting much easier, and I even got
not describe exactly what I want from my coffee. I had to do it my current roasting machine from this friend. It’s a 1 kg ma-
myself! chine which allows me to roast a small 200-300 gram batch to a
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