Fresh Roaster said:
Talking about roasting, not green sourcing. It's always your fallback though. :roll: And in the end of the day, I'll trust my broker more than a roaster. How many trips has Topher made to PNG or South America lately? :wink:
Without knowledge of green sourcing, you can't have good coffee. Trip to origin while nice, it not required, but knowledge is. If you want to trust your broker that is your business. I suppose to you all Colombians taste the same, so that sampling and cupping are not needed. Some of the brokers are very good salesman, while other are very good bean buyers, without knowledge, how do you know who is what? Personally I rather trust myself.
But let's talk about roasting, and blending. Does your machine know how to roast green from beginning of the season Colombia vs. mid season vs. end of the season of the same Colombian? How about does your machine know how to make a properly balanced espresso blend? There is art, and plenty of them in any culinary endeavor. Your machine may or may not be able to duplicate the same taste again and again. But how do you develop that taste in the first place? There are commodity like greene, and commodity coffee roasters out there, if that is the area you want to partake in, that is fine. But I like to be on the other end of the spectrum, I have tasted same green roasted by different roasters who know how to source green, and through years of experiences, have developed roasting profiles that are uniquely theirs. From the same beans, I get different but equally terrific coffee. I don't know about you, but I'll say that is art.
There is a place for precision and consistency, and I am the first one to admit I can use some help in that area, but even if I were to develop a roasting machine that can factor out all human imperfection I will never be presumptuous and arrogance to the point of saying by buying my machine anyone with no prior knowledge can be the best roaster out there in no time.