New Comers in Coffee Industry

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I'm thinking of switching my profession from IT to Coffee-related industry. Reason: my dad owns a small coffee factory in Indonesia. The business is slowing down and I really want to help.

Currently the roasting, grinding and packaging processes are done manually. Hence the standard is not consistent. What are the equipments needed if I want to automate the process? Eg. Roaster (which type), Grinder, etc.

Another question: my dad often told me that he needs to add sugar during the roasting process otherwise the roasted beans won’t be black. Is that true?

-- Susan (susanwarti@hotmail.com), March 09, 2003

Answers

dear susan

during the roasting process the natural sugars come to the surface of the beans which will give the beans a very shiny look. The longer you roast the beans, the more sugars that come to the surface. The biggest problem you have when roasting this dark is fires. So keep the roaster clean.

equipment Their are many good roasters to choose from and i have found that the more simple it is, the better for you when it comes to cleaning and repairs. It is nice to have automatic temp. controls and self-cleaning but you dont have to have it. I started roasting on a jbez burns thermlo 2 bagger with no automatic controls and roasting by eye only. I moved up to a jbez burns 23r 4 bagger with full auto. controls which was great. This type of roaster is great when you are roasting a lot of volume so you need to take a good look at what you think your needs will be and go from there as to the size of roaster you will need.

Packaging equipment Look into a wright mono-bag form fill machine, this is a cheaper machine that will pack your frac-packs and one lb bags in film bags. bosch also makes a good machine.

Donot forget the bucket elavators and holding bins.

If i were you i would attend a coffee convention. one may be coming up in Boston, Mass.

-- gary (ger1054@attbi.com), March 09, 2003.


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