What is a micro roaster?
Needmore Coffee is a micro roaster, which means that we roast all of our beans in small batches. We’ve already talked a lot about why roasting beans in small batches is important. Although large roasters may save time and cut costs by roasting lots of coffee beans quickly, they sacrifice quality and consistency. Roasting our beans in small batches allows us to carefully monitor the roasting process so that we can reduce waste and always have the freshest coffee on hand.
How does roasting coffee work?
Our coffee roaster works by applying heat to the raw, green beans so that they release their oils. We apply heat for varying lengths of time, depending on the roast we want to achieve. As you might have guessed, we keep the heat on our lighter roasts, like our El Salvador Santa Elena, for a shorter period of time than our dark roasts. Light roasts release less oil and maintain a sweeter, more fruit-forward flavor. We expose our darker roasts, like Nicaragua, Jinotega, to heat for longer periods so that more oils are drawn out. These roasts have a darker, more robust flavor. We roast the beans for our Nicaragua, Jinotega coffee until they turn a dark chocolate color to bring out their plum, caramel, and chocolate malt notes.
How important are the beans?
A great roast starts with great coffee beans. That’s why at Needmore Coffee we source all of our raw, green beans from farmers who share our values. We roast all of our ethically-sourced beans using our three-kilo gas drum roaster. Drum roasters offer a slower, gentler roasting process than other roasting methods. Using a drum roaster allows our roastmasters to closely monitor the appearance and aroma of the beans. To produce the distinctive coffees that you know and love, we carefully roast all of our beans on-site at our Bloomington roastery. As a micro roaster and coffee shop, we usually roast our beans on Mondays and Wednesdays. If you stop by during one of our roasting days, you can even take in the sites and sounds of small-batch roasting while you enjoy your coffee!
