Why we roast in small batches

Our drum holds twelve kilos and we rarely fill it past ten. A larger machine would cut our roasting week roughly in half, and we have decided twice now not to buy one.

Control over the last thirty seconds

Most of what separates a good roast from a flat one happens after first crack, in a window of about ninety seconds. On a small drum that window is easy to steer. On a large one the thermal mass makes the machine, rather than the roaster, the one deciding.

Roasting to order, honestly

Small batches mean we can roast on Tuesday what ships on Wednesday. Nothing sits in a warehouse. The date on the bag is a roast date, not a best-before invented twelve months out.

What it costs

More labour per kilo, and more electricity. It is on the order of a fifteen percent premium, and it is the reason our bags are not the cheapest on the shelf. We think it is visible in the cup, which is the only defence that matters.