“A craftsman is an expert worker who uses tools, machinery and raw materials for the production or transformation of certain objects or foods. Before the industrial revolution, all production was entrusted to them.“ Wikipedia
Selection of green coffee
The work of artisan roasting obviously it starts from the selection of the green coffee : the unique characteristics determined by the variety, the soil and the climate, the care and attention paid by the farmer before and during the harvest and subsequent processing, packaging and shipping. THE coffee from the same country, the same region and even the same farm can have different results and characteristics in the cup if we change just one of the factors listed above.
Roasting
The best artisan roasters select specific lots from each producer, purchasing samples to test ( pre-shipment samples ) and only then the complete supply.
In the light of this, it is easy to understand that i artisanal coffees begin the phase of roasting starting from a base of better quality than the majority of industrial roasters, this is a necessary but not sufficient condition to obtain a superior cup, since this potential still needs to be "unlocked" through a series of chemical reactions (Maillard and Caramelization) that occur during roasting, a roaster dedicated to his work has spent years trying to develop the characteristics of each coffee in the best possible way, and only experience, study and experimentation can play a fundamental role.
There are different types of roasters (and obviously different ways of behaving) however monitoring and manipulating temperature, airflow and drum revolutions are the key to heat transfer to the bean and to optimizing the roasting profile. roasting of each coffee , which is subsequently tasted in the cupping phase , marking any small adjustments for the production of the next batch.
Mixing
Only after tasting (cupping phase) do we move on to mixing, already sought after by the artisan roaster to obtain the taste he wishes to express, this takes place "cold" and is a fundamental and indispensable point in artisanal coffee roasters, it goes without saying that this entails a waste of energy that would be saved by roasting them together while giving up on fully developing the characteristics of each coffee, we think of cooking the chicken and potatoes together, we will certainly have a "dignified" result, but in no way perfect as if these were cooked separately and only then served together.
Last but not least , a little degassing is a good thing especially if the consumption of the product is intended for espresso, but artisan coffee is always sold fresh as it is roasted only for necessary consumption, no later than one month after the which the aromatic complex and the texture of the cream diminish making the product inevitably “ less interesting! ”
