Fancy yourself a coffee afficionado? The Coffee Roaster, a boutique coffee roaster based in Brisbane and Sydney, is offering winners of the Yahoo!7 Food + Wine comp a chance to roast their own coffee in their new piccolo roaster.

Dan from Coffee Roaster answered a few questions for me about the company's innovative self-roasting technology as well as the next big trends in Australian cafe culture.



Tell us about the piccolo roaster…

The Piccolo Air Flow coffee roaster is capable of roasting 500 grams to 2kgs of coffee each batch. It is a precision device which is computer controlled and manages the roasting process by monitoring the coffee bean temperature while the coffee is roasting.

We developed it for our use in blend development. We roast small batches at different degrees to determine the roasting recipe which develops the best espresso flavour.

However, it works so well that we are making it available for customers to roast our unique coffees. We look forward to a visit by each competition winner.

Where does your coffee come from?

We purchase Speciality Grade coffees from many countries around the world between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. We also have organic coffees grown with organisational endorsement of Fairtrade & Rainforest Alliance.

Do you have a favourite single origin?

Certain taste and aroma synergy is achieved by blending different coffees; like Colombian, Nicaraguan and Kenyan Hence, my favourite would be a blend. However, I like all of our single origins; they taste good because they are all very good representations of the best each country can produce. If I was Napoleon being exiled to the island of St. Helena it would be Nicaraguan & Kenyan.

And what’s the most popular Coffee Roaster coffee?

Our first blend, TCR1, Central American Spiced with African is very popular. It is a Central American blend with 29 per cent Ethiopian. This would be tied with Café Giulia blend which was the highest scoring coffee at this year's Sydney Royal Easter Show. It was awarded a silver medal as no gold medals were awarded.

What are some of the tricks in roasting delicious coffee?

Anyone can have an epiphany and produce an award winning coffee. The real challenge is to reproduce it consistently. Consistency is one of the hallmarks of our Chinook Air Flow coffee roaster. The competition winners will experience this directly.

Why do you think café culture is so popular in Australia?

Our relatively recent arrival of a large number of continental immigrants (the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric construction comes to mind) resulted in a few espresso machines being sprinkled amongst our population. Then the subtle influence of coffee's wonderful aroma and invigorating hint of caffeine did the rest.

What’s your preferred way of drinking coffee?

Espresso and long black. Espresso is a pleasant slap in the face which should be consumed quickly so the morning routine, for example, can continue without delay. Long black, on the other hand, can be enjoyed at leisure while reading the paper.

Long black, being weaker than espresso, allows a more perceptive evaluation of the coffee's attributes. If is for this reason that we don't have coffee breaks...however, we do a lot of quality control.

How do you make coffee at home?

Our weekend coffee is made with a multi-boiler espresso machine having an E61 brew head and perfect brew water temperature control. The coffee is whatever blend or single origin we are enjoying or evaluating at the time.

What do you think will become the next big trend in coffee in Australia?

Most café business is generated by repeat customers coming back because the coffee and human interaction is very good; not because of the name on the footpath barriers. More café owners are recognising this and taking steps to improve and differentiate the coffee they use.

They do this by seeking out a consulting supplier, like ourselves, who can create a blend in partnership with them and label it with their business name. This builds their business good will & value. It also tells the clientele in a subtle way that this café is confident in their coffee abilities and is likely to provide them with an excellent coffee beverage.