Italian roasting: a sweet heresy!

A few days ago, I saw the blog of an American roaster (Metropolis) passing by on Twitter which inspires me a lot. This company took a radical position that made me smile, because I've been dreaming of doing the same thing for several years. They abolished full-bodied roast profiles.

According to the text, they consider that “dark roasts” are not in harmony with the mission of their company. They prefer to vary the roasting profile of each bean depending on its terroir and its tasting. Wow! How I understand them! Those who work with me know that I hate destroying a bean by roasting it to the max.

So-called Italian roasting is an aberration for me.

No matter the bean, roasting it this way tastes the same. Cupping with a Colombian who is well past the ^2nd crack is a waste of time for me. And it is with this in mind that I have often thought about stopping this type of roasting. What's the point of buying good beans to burn it at 450F (Agtron #45). Why didn't I do it? Well, like Metropolis, I stuck the coffee offer on the Brûlerie du Quai mission. Use coffee as a medium to create enriching social contacts. And let this medium be the best possible. Every week, we sell hundreds of bags of Bosco, Espresso Milano, Réveil Zombie, beans roasted to the maximum.

Moreover, not everyone is equipped or has the knowledge to prepare coffee optimally. I have also gotten into the habit of testing my espresso blends in a full automatic Seaco. In my ideal world, everyone would have a GS3 at home, a piston, a clever... The Seaco is not ideal for extracting coffee and gives very low extraction compared to a commercial machine. To get some punch in the cup, you need an Italian roast or a certain dose of robusta. If every week people drink the special espresso crema in a Seaco Aroma and are satisfied with it, I have done my job.

Why would I stop making this type of coffee?

I have my own idea about the marketing and the image war among the American roasters who will arrive in Quebec shortly. For my part, I feel like I'm on the other side of the world and experiencing my coffee trip without fanfare. Yes, I roast certain coffees until the bean is almost ebony black and yes, I put robusta in certain blends (special crema, espresso milano, European blend). But, I also live my passion differently, in my range of prestige coffee, which I treat as a noble product, which I roast, which I taste, as Metropolis does, and which is sold almost exclusively in BDQs (apart from a few other maniacs who, for example, call me to tell me that my last Yyrgacheffe was not roasted like the last one, and that he preferred the last one. What follows is a discussion about the grade, the lot, etc.... J 'love it!) I am currently working on moving the roasting workshop which will include a beautiful laboratory and two other roasters for testing. We will have fun ! But beyond all that, I sincerely believe in the mission of Brûlerie du Quai to bring people together around a cup of tea. When two very virile guys from Gaspésie dropped the bottle of beer to go have a chat over a coffee, I did my job. Whether there is Bosco in the cup or a sample of lot #1 from Rwanda Buremera MIG, winner of the Cup of Excellence in 2008, I don't care. I did my job. But if it's me who drops the bottle of beer to have a chat over a cup with you, we'll organize things so that it's a little less roasty...

If you want to try coffee that has nothing to do with Italian roasting and tastes like heaven, I recommend...

1. The Yemenia
2. The Typica Jamaica Blue Mountain
3. The Geisha Panama La Esmeralda
4. The Kona of Hawaii

Dany