Roasting Coffee at SCC

Coffee is a proxy for potential.

The little cherry pit that we know as a “coffee bean” holds so much. A broad array of flavors and experiences rests locked within its chemical make-up. Our goals in roasting are to free the flavors we love and present a forum to our community for connection and care. 

A great coffee roaster leverages science to create art.

After 30 years of roasting coffee, we’re still learning. Starting in 2017, we sought to relearn how to roast coffee. We questioned what we thought we knew about this process and worked with experts in our industry to refine our assumptions and our processes in service to sweeter, cleaner, and juicier coffee. This journey persists. 

Coffee is a volatile medium.

In some respects, coffee bears a resemblance to wine. They both grow with variability on an annual basis, and they both evolve over time. As an organic product, coffee is always changing. We can’t roast a particular lot of coffee the exact same way month in and month out. Instead, a smart and talented coffee roaster will make constant adjustments to their roast profile as they seek to maximize positive flavor elements. 

What is a “roast profile?”

A roast profile is the plan for how we intend to roast a particular batch of coffee. This involves control of variables such as roaster temperature, airflow, and bean temperature over certain time periods. We use a software called “Cropster” to help us record and manage these variables as we roast each batch.

The manipulation of those roast variables creates shapes on a graph. We carefully watch two kinds of “curves” on the graph. The first curve represents the temperature of the beans we are roasting. The second curve tells us the “Rate of Rise” or “ROR.” “ROR” is a measurement of the extent to which the temperature of the beans is increasing at any point during a roast.

Once we’ve “steered” the roast to achieve our desired parameters and curve shape for that batch, we “drop” the roast into the cooling tray. 

Light, Medium, & Dark.

While our green coffee team mostly loves lightly roasted, juicy, and floral coffees, we know that the taste preferences of #coffeegeeks run deep and wide. At Stone Creek Coffee we source and roast across a broad spectrum to meet each coffee drinker where they are at. 

If you want a honey-process pink bourbon with notes of pomegranate sangria, we can do that. If you want a smooth, roasty washed-process Guatemalan, we are here for you too. Regardless of where the coffee is in the roast and flavor spectrum, we bring the same care and intentionality to each batch. 

This is a passion project.

We work in coffee because this is what we love. We’re driven to make our coffee better in the cup, better for our employees, and better for our planet. We aim to extract joy into every cup. 

One of our core commitments at Stone Creek is to Never Stop Learning. We adopt the posture of a learner. This disposition helps us remove the barriers to growth like inertia, status quo, and our individual preconceptions. 

We’re proud of the work we’ve done, but we’re far more excited about what lies ahead. We can’t wait to learn where we’re wrong and to discover new paths.