Roaster Camp 2017
Café Vega attended the Roaster Camp organized by the Roaster
Guild of Europe (RGE) that was held in Poznan, Poland during 4-7th October,
2017. The programmme at the Camp was composed of a variety of modules to cater
for coffee roasters with diverse skill levels and interest. The main events included
lecture sessions, hands on roasting, cupping, and panel discussions with experts
from Europe and the Americas (https://roasterguildofeurope.com/roaster-camp/trainers/).
The key sessions in which Café Vega participated included:
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| A range of roasting maching available for training. |
- SCA Roasting Foundation
- Heat Transfer
- Flavour Development
- Development Time
- Roaster Maintenance
- Roasting for Different Brewing Methods
- Roaster Camp Team Challenge - to recreate the mystery blend provided, comprised of a maximum of 5 coffees.
An overview of the content of the training activities can be found at: https://roasterguildofeurope.com/roaster-camp/class-descriptions/
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| One of the many cupping sessions. |
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| Team5 roasting away! |
Some Amazing People
Roaster Camp 2017 was worth the cost, time and effort to get to the venue from the southern Caribbean. The networking and discussions among experts and roasters from across the world, as well as suppliers of coffee beans from South America (Max Louzada in particular), was an extremely fulfilling opportunity. Several persons with whom I had interactions stood out from the rest of the group: Sonja Grant (Iceland), RGE Chairwoman – a bubbly and delightful soul; Morten Münchow (Denmark), RGE Vice-Chair –an affable, knowledgeable and experienced trainer; Filip Akerblom (Sweden) –stern looking but quite engaging, knowledgeable and experienced; Rob Hoos (USA) – warm personality, disarming charm and very passionate about roasting; Felipe Croce (Brazil) – entrepreneur, coffee farmer and roaster and Klavs Slakorcins (Latvia) –a special case.
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| Sonja Grant |
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| Morten Münchow (l) and Rob Hoos (r) |
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| Klavs Slakorcins |
The Courlanders
Some of you in Trinidad and Tobago may know the story of the arrival of the 'Courlanders' (from what is now called the Republic of Latvia in the Baltic Region of Northern Europe) in 1637 at Great Courland Bay in Tobago. After three attempts they were able to establish a settlement in 1654. It seems that Klavs comes from the same village where many of those Courlanders originated…he knows their history! He is a coffee roaster in Latvia and is interested in getting coffee from Tobago for his new shop…will see what I can do to assist.
What did I get out of the Roaster Camp 2017?
Some of the colleagues tried Café Vega’s dark roast coffee at a cupping session and seemed pleasantly surprised by the taste. I got the impression that they were not impressed by previous encounters with Robusta coffee. All of the roasters I met apparently use only Arabica beans.
This Roaster Camp gave me a better understanding of the roasting process and development time for coffee. So I am encouraged to try a different profile with my current roasts to determine if that leads to a change that my customers will like.
Interestingly, I found that all of the Europeans I met, favoured medium roasted coffee. They usually roast their coffees just to the end of the first crack, whereas the majority of my customers (95%) in Trinidad and Tobago prefers a dark roast that is not acidic or bitter, but full of flavor and body…obtained during the second crack with the beans I currently use.
Another important thing that I learnt was that my sensory evaluation skills with respect to coffee, needed further development/training; so that will be my priority over the next few months. For the curious...check out the range of tastes potentially found in coffees:
Looking forward to Roaster Camp 2018!
