Page 60 - #53 English

Management

Story and Photos by Jeeraphan Kanchanaveera (Yut)

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Are you ready to roast ?

It’s normal to see a roasting machine in a café nowadays, need to really learn about it, especially during this time where
and many entrepreneurs who own a café or planning to open one customers are more demanding. A roasting course in a coffee
are considering buying a roasting machine. Before you spent a institute or a roaster is a good start because there will be a lot
large investment on it, let’s slow down and ask yourself – “Am I of opportunity to exchange valuable experiences. Before you
ready to roast?” buy anything, you should make sure that the feature, model, and
The fact is a café would looks a lot more charming if brand match your requirements. Do not overlook extra details
there is an espresso machine and a roasting machine. But why such as service & support or spare part availability. If possible,
do we need to roast our own coffee? buy or rent a small roasting machine for practice because prac-
“Specialty coffee” is becoming more and more popular. tices help reduce mistakes when doing a real batch.
With this trend booming, café owners are trying to present their Another serious consideration is your budget for in-
products by differentiating them for others. Roasting is one way stallation and miscellaneous expenses. Be sure to keep it under
to develop your coffee to the customer’s increasing demand, control because it might pose a real treat to your finance as
and many café have chosen this path. Another reason a café there wouldn’t be just the cost of the machine. Other equipment
chose to roast is inconsistency like slow delivery, inconsistent and add-ons like an after burner, smoke vent, and gas pipe, as
quality, and green bean shortage. However, it’s important to do well as decoration and green bean stock are also expenses to
some research on coffee roasting in order to determine the right always keep in mind. Nonetheless, it’s easier to install a roasting
machine for your café. machine in a new café or a café that has been designed to fit a
machine from the start than in an existing café.
Before Buying a Coffee Roaster To get started, you could buy or rent a small, inexpen-
In order to find a unique coffee to impress your cus- sive machine for practice and familiarize yourself with coffee
tomers and gain competitiveness over other cafés, you will first roasting. After getting used to the practice machine, it’s time to
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