Air Roasting

There are many reasons to choose air roasting. First and foremost in our mind is the fact that air roasting produces beautiful coffees. This process combined with our state of the art roaster, gives us an amazing level of control over the roasting environment, and consequently over the product that emerges from it. The control system allows us to make subtle adjustments to the roasting environment in real time. For example, we are able to increase or decrease the temperature within the roast chamber by one degree increments almost instantaneously.

This allows us to experiment with a level of fine detail that is simply not possible with roasting technologies that uses a flame under a metal drum. The challenge with any traditional drum system is the thermal mass of the drum. You have a massive piece of very hot metal that limits how quickly you can change the temperature in the roast chamber, and also limits how fine those temperature changes can be.

In our roasting process there is no flame under the drum. Instead there is a burner at the base of the cyclone. This burner heats the air that circulates through the roast chamber and roasts the beans. The fixed stainless steel drum, which resist absorbing heat, uses a paddle assembly to stir the beans.

Quality

The great advantage for us, that later translates over to our customers, is that by making fine changes to the burner we can get immediate fine changes in temperature (either up or down) within the roasting chamber. So with our process we're able to make quick fine changes to our roast profiles and thus develop all the nuances and subtle flavors in our beans.

Consistency

We believe consistency is a key factor in good coffee.

With a traditional system, air is being pulled from outside the roaster while coffee is roasting. As the outside atmosphere changes (temperature, humidity, pressure), adjustments need to be made to the roast profiles to account for those changes and thus ensure consistency. Our process employs a closed loop system. Meaning the roast chamber is isolated from the outside atmosphere. Essentially, with every roast the machine creates its own atmosphere within the roast chamber. This allows us to get the exact same roast conditions every time we roast, no matter what the conditions are like outside the roaster - and this ensures we get the same consistent flavor development with every roast.

Huge energy savings

We believe in a greener earth.

Our process IS the most environmentally friendly roasting process to date. We reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% compared to a conventional roaster and afterburner system of the same size. These energy savings result from a few innovations. Mainly, we don't need an afterburner. Conventional roasters use afterburners to eliminate the smoke produced during roasting. Afterburners typically consume at least 400% more fuel than the roaster itself. Our process uses a single pressurized burner to both roast the coffee and incinerate the smoke and odor.

Recycling Energy

The conventional roasting process constantly pulls outside air into the roast chamber and then heats that air from room temperature to roast temperature. Our process recirculates the heated air. Our machines unique technology captures the hot air coming out of the roast chamber, removes the smoke from the air before exhausting it, and recirculates the remaining hot air back into the roast chamber. By using less energy during this process, we reduce CO2 output by 80%.