I remember roasting my first batch of
coffee that’s kind of how I started to
get into the business how many of you
own your own small business I see hands
I’ve talked to someone this morning who
started her own business
sounds like your story was similar to
mine I kind of stumbled into it a few
friends that I were just talking one day
and we decided we’re gonna buy a coffee
roaster there wasn’t a specialty coffee
roastery in Greenville so we decided to
do it and we really just started it as a
hobby for ourselves and what turned from
a hobby it turned from being a hobby
into something that was more like a
business and one of my business partners
actually signed us up for an event and
that pushed us along into the process of
starting to have to roast and figure out
what we’re doing and that first batch of
fortunately that desire we had for great
tasting coffee and you know most of what
we grew up on was pretty dark
it had that ashy burnt flavor that
that’s so hard to learn to love we we
thought that we could you know maybe
make something that was similar to other
row stories that that don’t roast so
dark and and we really wanted to do that
ourselves so we kind of moved along
towards that and that first piece of
equipment that we bought was was pretty
basic it only gave us control over how
long we roasted how much coffee would
put in there and then we got to decide
when to you know take it out and let it
start to cool so fortunately the
business is kind of developed and grew
and we were able to obtain more control
of the roasting process which we were
able to control how much air is flowing
through the roaster the temperature of
that flame that’s coming to heat the the
bottom of the roaster chamber and then
we could also control or at least
monitor the temperature so overall with
those factors we’re adjusting things on
the machine
we can get that ideal being temperature
at the end so we would we had set a goal
of what we wanted to roast the coffee at
and most coffee has a pretty narrow
window for where it’s going to taste
good so we kind of work towards that end
goal and over time that that process of
roasting it started to become a metaphor
for what we eventually went through when
we decided to open a coffee shop in
roastery so what started out slow in the
roasting process you know you can’t
really see what’s happening inside the
bean but that temperature continues to
rise the temperature with our business
started to rise as it went from
something that was just on the side to
where we did that first event and that
first event kind of pushed us to have to
learn how to roast coffee better what’s
what’s going on inside coffee as we
roast it is is basically you’re starting
with a green unroasted coffee bean it’s
sitting there at room temperature
usually around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and
it’s gradually increasing and the end
goal is to get it somewhere around 400
degrees that final ideal temperature
really depends on that that coffee and
what it’s going to taste good at so but
throughout the process
you really don’t see change you’ve heard
the you know the phrase a watched pot
never boils the same is true with coffee
there’s a little sight glass on the
front of our roaster that you can look
through to see what’s going on in there
and basically all it looks like is a
bunch of beans just jumping around and
they start off in that pale green color
and slowly it develops as it increases
temperature into like a light yellow
color and then that light yellow when
it’s that light yellow color it kind of
smells like hay so not really really
that appetizing and it continues to
develop and it gets into more of a light
brown color around 350 degrees that
light brown color turns into a medium
brown and the gas inside is getting so
hot
the pressure build and then explosion
happens similar to what you experienced
with popcorn in the microwave that that
a moisture in there explodes out in a
process or a stage in the development
that’s called first crack
so after first crack around 350 degrees
the coffee roaster is is making
adjustments monitoring what’s going on
with the temperatures looking at the
exhaust temperature looking at the bean
temperature adjusting how fast the the
drum is spinning around and around all
those adjust adjustments are really
important pieces of input because they
change the profile that the coffee is
going through as far as the the
temperature over a period of time and
really that that last tale into the
process that’s really important and
that’s when the coffee turns into the
medium of the full brown color hopefully
not too black otherwise you’re drinking
too dark a coffee that’s probably going
to taste a little ashy so that that last
stage in the process really you can see
the development you can see what’s
happening it’s pretty exciting the
coffee’s in there poppin cracking and I
kind of sit back and think about how we
went through opening the coffee shop
those early days when we were just
getting started
there’s a lot of excitement you know we
were trying something new and we kind of
dope headfirst into experimenting and
that’s kind of like when we bought the
the Machine bought the equipment that
that’s similar to how we buy coffee and
then as we moved along in the process we
started to see that people are
interested that first event we went to
people in Greenville were asking us
where’s your coffee shop at we’re can I
buy a bag were you located those kind of
questions we hadn’t really thought of a
physical retail location at that point
this is only a month after we’ve been
roasting so
those questions kind of pushed us
forward though it piqued our interest
and kept us looking at what we could
become and over time though it looked
like from the outside that not much
happened we did several more events and
we kind of honed our skills got better
at roasting we’ve tried different
coffees we’re you know learning
everything we could about roasting
coffee and once again from the outside
it looked like nothing was happening but
we got to the point where one of my
business partners decided to move away
we had applied and got a grant from the
city to open a roastery and coffee shop
and we had her sights set on a few
locations and at that point I was still
working full-time as an accountant here
at ECU and and then that kind of that
was kind of the turning point for me
where I had to dive headfirst I had to
go into that roast chamber and things
started to happen I saw that progress
wasn’t going to happen unless I focused
all of my time all my energy into
pushing it forward so I left my job and
took that big leap that people talk
about and people ask me all the time how
did you do that how’d you make that
decision and really the for a year and a
half I was thinking about making that
decision it was a slow process it was a
building to it and but once I finally
made that decision it was on the heat
was on the salary went away and I was
focused on
how do I pay my bills and and open a
coffee shop so I moved forward with that
and you know we I had one other business
partner at the time so we both were
balancing the work of roasting and
trying to sell coffee at that point
we’re providing coffee wholesale to
other folks and restaurants started to
contact us and some churches were asking
for a coffee too so some of those early
supporters that we got kind of helped us
to have funding and and to see that
vision for how we could actually develop
our business as a coffee roaster and
then eventually we decided to go that
route of having a retail coffee shop and
with a roast relocated in it so just
like things heated up with roasting it
started to heat up with preparing and
planning out the coffee shop I started
to go through and buy equipment look at
our layout look at the best layouts
change the layout I eventually met with
architects and we came up with a draft
of what it would look like in the coffee
shop and you need those plans of course
to move to the next step to get
contractors to put bids in start that
work on the shop and all the while that
stuff’s going on we’re still roasting
still working on developing the business
more developing the concept and then
also started demolition on our space we
if you know the space we’re at it used
to be a place called campus cookies and
we tore out the walls that they had put
up they kind of partitioned it to a
workspace and we wanted it to be an open
accessible space with plenty of seating
although it’s small we maximized the
seating I think pretty well and you can
see what’s going on you can see us
making drinks you can see what’s going
on back with the roasting area so
through all that process we move forward
and then we started to we started to
look at open dates the final details of
our preparation came together with
hiring staff planning out our menu
finalizing all those little details of a
decor everything like that so so really
through that process we started started
to see how this could you know tie it
back into roasting how that slow
building those adjustments we had to
make along the way how all that kind of
fit together
now those outside voices they still were
there we had coming soon signs up and
some of you may remember that if you
lived here in Greenville I remember the
first time we posted a picture of the
coming soon’ signs on Facebook somebody
made a comment and said I hope coming
soon really means soon not like never so
that kind of that kind of hit me and I
was like not fair we’re gonna do this
quick and and after several delays we
really didn’t open that soon it took
about nine months after I left my job
and eventually we did open September
23rd 2017 and but through all that I
hope you can kind of understand and see
how that can relate to you when you have
those voices that are saying there’s no
progress they don’t understand what
you’re doing just just know that that
what’s happening inside those coffee
beans that that temperature that’s
rising only you can see you know what’s
happening you can feel it maybe you have
sensors that no one else can tell just
like we have sensors on our coffee
roaster you know what’s going on and
from the outside when you’re roasting
coffee it looks like nothing’s happening
from 70 degrees to 300 all that changes
is the pale green turns to a kind of a
pale yellow it’s that last hundred
degrees where the most change happens
really the last 25 to 50 degrees so just
keep that in mind and think as you’re
preparing for your next venture how can coffee roasting be that road map for you
coffee that’s kind of how I started to
get into the business how many of you
own your own small business I see hands
I’ve talked to someone this morning who
started her own business
sounds like your story was similar to
mine I kind of stumbled into it a few
friends that I were just talking one day
and we decided we’re gonna buy a coffee
roaster there wasn’t a specialty coffee
roastery in Greenville so we decided to
do it and we really just started it as a
hobby for ourselves and what turned from
a hobby it turned from being a hobby
into something that was more like a
business and one of my business partners
actually signed us up for an event and
that pushed us along into the process of
starting to have to roast and figure out
what we’re doing and that first batch of
fortunately that desire we had for great
tasting coffee and you know most of what
we grew up on was pretty dark
it had that ashy burnt flavor that
that’s so hard to learn to love we we
thought that we could you know maybe
make something that was similar to other
row stories that that don’t roast so
dark and and we really wanted to do that
ourselves so we kind of moved along
towards that and that first piece of
equipment that we bought was was pretty
basic it only gave us control over how
long we roasted how much coffee would
put in there and then we got to decide
when to you know take it out and let it
start to cool so fortunately the
business is kind of developed and grew
and we were able to obtain more control
of the roasting process which we were
able to control how much air is flowing
through the roaster the temperature of
that flame that’s coming to heat the the
bottom of the roaster chamber and then
we could also control or at least
monitor the temperature so overall with
those factors we’re adjusting things on
the machine
we can get that ideal being temperature
at the end so we would we had set a goal
of what we wanted to roast the coffee at
and most coffee has a pretty narrow
window for where it’s going to taste
good so we kind of work towards that end
goal and over time that that process of
roasting it started to become a metaphor
for what we eventually went through when
we decided to open a coffee shop in
roastery so what started out slow in the
roasting process you know you can’t
really see what’s happening inside the
bean but that temperature continues to
rise the temperature with our business
started to rise as it went from
something that was just on the side to
where we did that first event and that
first event kind of pushed us to have to
learn how to roast coffee better what’s
what’s going on inside coffee as we
roast it is is basically you’re starting
with a green unroasted coffee bean it’s
sitting there at room temperature
usually around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and
it’s gradually increasing and the end
goal is to get it somewhere around 400
degrees that final ideal temperature
really depends on that that coffee and
what it’s going to taste good at so but
throughout the process
you really don’t see change you’ve heard
the you know the phrase a watched pot
never boils the same is true with coffee
there’s a little sight glass on the
front of our roaster that you can look
through to see what’s going on in there
and basically all it looks like is a
bunch of beans just jumping around and
they start off in that pale green color
and slowly it develops as it increases
temperature into like a light yellow
color and then that light yellow when
it’s that light yellow color it kind of
smells like hay so not really really
that appetizing and it continues to
develop and it gets into more of a light
brown color around 350 degrees that
light brown color turns into a medium
brown and the gas inside is getting so
hot
the pressure build and then explosion
happens similar to what you experienced
with popcorn in the microwave that that
a moisture in there explodes out in a
process or a stage in the development
that’s called first crack
so after first crack around 350 degrees
the coffee roaster is is making
adjustments monitoring what’s going on
with the temperatures looking at the
exhaust temperature looking at the bean
temperature adjusting how fast the the
drum is spinning around and around all
those adjust adjustments are really
important pieces of input because they
change the profile that the coffee is
going through as far as the the
temperature over a period of time and
really that that last tale into the
process that’s really important and
that’s when the coffee turns into the
medium of the full brown color hopefully
not too black otherwise you’re drinking
too dark a coffee that’s probably going
to taste a little ashy so that that last
stage in the process really you can see
the development you can see what’s
happening it’s pretty exciting the
coffee’s in there poppin cracking and I
kind of sit back and think about how we
went through opening the coffee shop
those early days when we were just
getting started
there’s a lot of excitement you know we
were trying something new and we kind of
dope headfirst into experimenting and
that’s kind of like when we bought the
the Machine bought the equipment that
that’s similar to how we buy coffee and
then as we moved along in the process we
started to see that people are
interested that first event we went to
people in Greenville were asking us
where’s your coffee shop at we’re can I
buy a bag were you located those kind of
questions we hadn’t really thought of a
physical retail location at that point
this is only a month after we’ve been
roasting so
those questions kind of pushed us
forward though it piqued our interest
and kept us looking at what we could
become and over time though it looked
like from the outside that not much
happened we did several more events and
we kind of honed our skills got better
at roasting we’ve tried different
coffees we’re you know learning
everything we could about roasting
coffee and once again from the outside
it looked like nothing was happening but
we got to the point where one of my
business partners decided to move away
we had applied and got a grant from the
city to open a roastery and coffee shop
and we had her sights set on a few
locations and at that point I was still
working full-time as an accountant here
at ECU and and then that kind of that
was kind of the turning point for me
where I had to dive headfirst I had to
go into that roast chamber and things
started to happen I saw that progress
wasn’t going to happen unless I focused
all of my time all my energy into
pushing it forward so I left my job and
took that big leap that people talk
about and people ask me all the time how
did you do that how’d you make that
decision and really the for a year and a
half I was thinking about making that
decision it was a slow process it was a
building to it and but once I finally
made that decision it was on the heat
was on the salary went away and I was
focused on
how do I pay my bills and and open a
coffee shop so I moved forward with that
and you know we I had one other business
partner at the time so we both were
balancing the work of roasting and
trying to sell coffee at that point
we’re providing coffee wholesale to
other folks and restaurants started to
contact us and some churches were asking
for a coffee too so some of those early
supporters that we got kind of helped us
to have funding and and to see that
vision for how we could actually develop
our business as a coffee roaster and
then eventually we decided to go that
route of having a retail coffee shop and
with a roast relocated in it so just
like things heated up with roasting it
started to heat up with preparing and
planning out the coffee shop I started
to go through and buy equipment look at
our layout look at the best layouts
change the layout I eventually met with
architects and we came up with a draft
of what it would look like in the coffee
shop and you need those plans of course
to move to the next step to get
contractors to put bids in start that
work on the shop and all the while that
stuff’s going on we’re still roasting
still working on developing the business
more developing the concept and then
also started demolition on our space we
if you know the space we’re at it used
to be a place called campus cookies and
we tore out the walls that they had put
up they kind of partitioned it to a
workspace and we wanted it to be an open
accessible space with plenty of seating
although it’s small we maximized the
seating I think pretty well and you can
see what’s going on you can see us
making drinks you can see what’s going
on back with the roasting area so
through all that process we move forward
and then we started to we started to
look at open dates the final details of
our preparation came together with
hiring staff planning out our menu
finalizing all those little details of a
decor everything like that so so really
through that process we started started
to see how this could you know tie it
back into roasting how that slow
building those adjustments we had to
make along the way how all that kind of
fit together
now those outside voices they still were
there we had coming soon signs up and
some of you may remember that if you
lived here in Greenville I remember the
first time we posted a picture of the
coming soon’ signs on Facebook somebody
made a comment and said I hope coming
soon really means soon not like never so
that kind of that kind of hit me and I
was like not fair we’re gonna do this
quick and and after several delays we
really didn’t open that soon it took
about nine months after I left my job
and eventually we did open September
23rd 2017 and but through all that I
hope you can kind of understand and see
how that can relate to you when you have
those voices that are saying there’s no
progress they don’t understand what
you’re doing just just know that that
what’s happening inside those coffee
beans that that temperature that’s
rising only you can see you know what’s
happening you can feel it maybe you have
sensors that no one else can tell just
like we have sensors on our coffee
roaster you know what’s going on and
from the outside when you’re roasting
coffee it looks like nothing’s happening
from 70 degrees to 300 all that changes
is the pale green turns to a kind of a
pale yellow it’s that last hundred
degrees where the most change happens
really the last 25 to 50 degrees so just
keep that in mind and think as you’re
preparing for your next venture how can coffee roasting be that road map for you
Please follow and like us: