WHAT IS DRUM ROASTING?

Drum roasting is predominantly a conduction method, where beans rotate in a heated drum that’s rather like a cross between an oven and a tumble dryer. Coffee roasters tend to fall into one of two camps - either the drum roasting aficionados or those that prefer ‘fluid bed’ roasting.

AND FLUID BED ROASTING IS...?

This method is predominantly a convection method, where beans are circulated in hot air, rather like popcorn.

THE YCE WAY

At York Coffee Emporium we’ve found that each method has its own merits. Coffee roasted in the fluid bed roaster has a cleaner and brighter flavour with good acidity. Coffee roasted in the drum roaster tends to have a deeper fuller body with complex character. We tend to roast our South American and Central American coffees in the fluid bed and our Africans and Javas in the drum roaster.

ONTO THE STA IMPIANTI DRUM ROASTER

This machine was produced in Italy in the early 70s and so it’s purely manual with no clever computer programmes to help. It’s just the machine, the roaster, stopwatch and temperature gauge. It roasts five kilos at a time, is powered by electric motors and heated with natural gas.

We got the machine from a place in Croatia, who no longer required it. We had to make our own chaff cyclone (this collects the dry husk-like skin of the bean while roasting), which we crafted out of various mechanical parts. A little rough and ready but it works a treat!

You need to know what you’re doing when you roast coffee on a quirky piece of machinery like this. With some of the more challenging beans, such as Monsoon Malabar, you have just a ten second window in which to deliver great coffee or you’re left with a burned mess! It’s a fantastic thing to operate. As coffee beans are organic, every sack is slightly different and we have to know how to manipulate the roast profile each time. With a bit of trial and error you can make sure that each coffee has the best roast profile possible.

We’ve modified the machine a little by incorporating a modern digital thermometer, a modern digital stopwatch and made some adjustments to the gas flow and airflow to ensure the correct flame and heat for each coffee roasted. Other than these tiny adjustments, it’s essentially the same machine as it was when it was first produced forty-odd years ago. It’s a really cute machine and a firm favourite with us.

Check out our brand new selection below and don’t forget to let us know your thoughts when you’ve tried them - we’re always keen to find out whether our choices have hit the mark with our customers (we’re pretty sure they will!).

The latest batch of new additions includes a selection of organic coffees and Fairtrade coffees.

Brazil Organic Fazenda Nossa Senhora Fatima de Carrado coffee

This superb and uniquely delicious organic coffee is processed in Brazil in the ‘pulped natural’ way, which means it misses out the fermentation stage. This gives a coffee that’s rather sweeter than wet-processed coffees and has some of the body of a dry-processed coffee. Brazil made this method famous and produces some of the best pulped natural coffees in the world. This particular coffee is sweet and complex - you can expect cocoa, plum and berry notes.

Perfect for: an espresso, aeropress or cafetiere - £4.75 for a 200g bag

Colombian Villa Esperanza RFA & UTZ coffee

Both Rainforest Alliance (RFA) and UTZ certified (UTZ certified farmers are provided with education, tools and information so they can negotiate a better price for their coffee), this superb new single origin Colombian coffee has a smooth, slightly nutty hue with surprising and delicious citrus notes. Lively and bright with lemon, peach, butter and caramel flavours it also delivers a deep mocha hit.

Perfect for: the French press/filter, espresso - £5.00 for a 200g bag

Dominican Republic Cibao Altura Movicac Cooperative coffee

This has a sublime fruity fragrance and delicate aroma. It’s a medium bodied, medium dark roasted coffee with the typical buttery flavour of an excellent Island coffee. A creamy and rounded feel to each mouthful will surprise your palate with hints of chocolate, hazelnuts and berry. It’s reminiscent of the Australian Skybury and Jamaican Blue Mountain.

Perfect for: cafetiere or aeropress - £4.00 for a 200g bag

Ethiopian Kaffa Forest Estate Organic RFA coffee

This is a superb and amazingly complex coffee grown on a family-owned estate in the highlands of the Kaffa region. In fact, it’s the exact forest where, according to local legend, mythical goat herder Kaldi, first discovered coffee by watching its effects on his goats (they danced a lot so the story goes). The coffee is wild and natural and grows in an area of some 2,000 hectares at an altitude of between 1,750 and 1,850 metres above sea level. Approximately half of this land remains a natural forest with the coffee growing among the trees. This coffee gives a lovely floral taste with traces of delicious juicy apricot, forest honey and tongue hugging caramel.

Perfect for: anytime, anywhere - £5.50 for a 200g bag

Sumatran Gregarang Village Cooperative Organic Fairtrade coffee

Coffees from Sumatra are characterised by smooth, intense flavours and this is no different. Exotically lush, sweet and heavy-bodied, this coffee is deep and full bodied with a tangerine sweetness layered with heavy chocolate. We let this one rest for a few days after roasting to ensure the flavours are allowed to develop.

Perfect for: espresso - £5.50 for a 200g bag

OUR ROASTERS

Our three roasters are:
Coffee-Tech Engineering Solar Automatic electric drum roaster
STA Impianti vintage manual gas drum roaster
Sivetz ¼ bag fluid bed gas air roaster

In a series of blog posts we’re going to give you the lowdown on each roaster, starting with...

SOLAR AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC DRUM ROASTER

Most roasting machines use the drum roasting method, where heat is applied to a rotating oven. The green beans are fed in and roasted using conduction, radiation and a little convection. And this is exactly how the Coffee-Tech Engineering Solar Automatic works.

It’s fully programmable and we use it to roast the small batches required for our online orders. This means every single order is genuinely freshly roasted and hasn’t been left around waiting to be sold. It works best roasting small batches of around 1-2kg and will roast even the most difficult beans.

CORRECT ROAST PROFILE

When we’ve ascertained the correct roast profile according to the coffee type (this involves working out the optimum time, temperature and airflow in the roasting process), we can simply select it on the roaster and it automatically follows the programme. We just then need to monitor the process and intervene at the correct points to achieve a consistent roast and taste.

FLEXIBILITY AND CONTROL

With the Solar, Coffee-Tech Engineering pride themselves in offering “unprecedented flexibility in producing quality, unique coffee... with total control over the final product, the ability to repeatedly produce the same profile time and again...”. We pretty much agree with this, however, as coffee beans are subject to inconsistencies, it’s still vital to keep a close eye on the roast and intervene if necessary.

A GREAT LITTLE ROASTER!

Simply put, we love this roaster - it gives great tasting coffee and can produce the clean, fresh tastes we expect of South and Central American beans, while also coping with the characterful anomalies found in Indonesian and some African beans.

This delicious, rich and full bodied coffee bean (rather innocently) caused PayPal to freeze our account as part of their embargo policy on Cuban goods! It definitely was an unusual Monday at the roastery this week.

Initially we had to remove the Cuban coffee from the website but we have implemented a solution that has allowed it to be added back to the website.

The bad news...

Unfortunately, if you want to buy our Cuban Serrano Superior coffee (either individually or as part of a larger order) you will not be able to pay via PayPal. If your basket includes this coffee you will need to complete your purchase via our secure Sage Pay method.

The good news...

Cuban Serrano Superior coffee is back online and available to buy and for the next few days we are running a special discount price on this coffee to celebrate!

You can buy a 200g bag of the Serrano Superior for £4.00 instead of the regular price of £4.50

Never forget that a coffee shop is first and foremost a business, and like any other business you need passion, creativity, common sense, good decision making skills, strong interpersonal skills and an absolute handle on the numbers to make it a success! It’s definitely not an easy option, especially in these tough economic times. There is a lot of competition and the chain coffee shops to compete with - but conversely, independent coffee shops are more popular than ever.

York Coffee Emporium can help in many ways, from supplying equipment to helping you create the perfect blend for your shop, but first there are a few basics to consider.

TOP THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What's your big idea?
Coffee is all about culture. Recently, independents have been taking market share from the large chains by delivering a better product, better customer service and a more individual, customised offering. Think of an idea or approach that will differentiate you from the chains!

Do your market research.
Visit as many cafes as you can and create a list of the good and the bad. Ask friends and relatives to do the same. Do some desk research on market size, segmentation, trends,footfall, revenue etc - this will help you choose a location, which is a vital factor.

Plan, plan and plan again.
You'll need a business plan that covers everything from marketing to operational processes to finance. A good understanding of finance and spreadsheets is vital and there is a lot of resource and help out there to get up to speed. Planning will help you to focus your ideas, although don't be surprised or concerned if things change once you get going.

Choose your suppliers with care.
Your suppliers should understand and buy into your vision. If something is offered for free and seems to good to be true, it probably is. Be suspicious about signing long term or tied contracts (for example, a 'bargain priced machine if you buy our coffee’) as your suppliers should survive on their individual merits. And finally - choose good coffee, tea and food!

Get advice.
There is a wealth of stuff on the web, in the library and, most likely, within your family and friend network, let alone Local Enterprise Partnerships etc. Don't be afraid to use all these sources.

Get operationally fit.
You need to be competent and have staff that are up to the mark. Get training if required and take care when recruiting - you need helpful, friendly staff that understand what you want to achieve. You'll need to be able to run a busy operation six or seven days a week and be consistent with quality of service and end product, along with all the other support disciplines required by the business: accounts, logistics, compliance with regulations, marketing etc.

PR and marketing.
You'll need to think about how you're going to get the message out there to get customers in. Don't leave this to chance - use the local press, social media, flyers, opening offers and maybe advertisements. PR and marketing should never be far from your thoughts!

CHOOSING THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT

You'll need everything from mops and fridges to espresso machines and furniture. It’s important not to underestimate how much this could cost. Below are a couple of useful articles to have a read over with your coffee!

How to start a coffee shop - do your market research

Knowing your market - understanding the competition

For espresso and coffee machines, you need to consider reliability, price and functionality. You'll need to select a machine with the correct output for your estimated usage and you need to be prepared to invest in the training of your staff as many machines are complex.

Ask about service costs, spare part prices, service levels and discounts - and then ask again! Make sure you have the correct power supply, plumbing and space for the machine you want and don't allow yourself to be seduced by the outward appearance of the machine. You'll also need a good grinder, water treatment system, barista accessories and crockery (what type and size cups are you going to hold?). At York Coffee Emporium we work with the espresso machine manufacturer La Cimbali - due to their inherent reliability, quality and advanced functionality. We can advise on the best machine for your needs, as well as all the peripheral information.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT COFFEE AND GETTING THE RIGHT BLEND

Getting the right coffee blend is really important. Luckily artisan roasters like us are here to help! Choosing the blend is something that we do hand in hand with the cafe owner. We normally recommend a house espresso blend, based on the taste characteristics wanted to be the owner (these should be tied to their vision and the expected taste of its customers). This could be one of our existing blends or a new blend created just for the cafe.

We also offer Guest Coffees, usually seasonal single origin 'specials' supplied with provenance information and tasting notes. This offers customer choice and a change. As a roaster we can vary the percentages of the single origin coffees in the blend as well as alter the roast profile. This means that if you like a particular blend but it's a little acidic or a bit too mild, we can alter the roast profile of the beans (At York Coffee Emporium all coffees are roasted individually by single origin and then blended to maximise the taste profile of each type) to get it just right for your taste. If you are looking for a wholesale coffee supplier in Yorkshire talk to us!

SUCCESS STORIES

The specialist coffee market is growing year on year as the popularity and interest of quality coffee has risen. After all, most of us are keen to taste and appreciate good coffee (and tea) and this has contributed to a healthy resurgence in independent coffee shops and artisan roasters.

It's fantastic to see the passionate, quirky independents delivering great coffee and being successful. An increasing number of the general public now know when they have been served a good or bad coffee and are choosing to search out the good - you only need to look at the thriving independent cafe scene in Yorkshire to see. All of the cafes we supply take a huge interest in the coffee they stock and are keen to source quality, local products.

WE CAN HELP!

We are always keen to help with all aspects of opening a cafe including coffee, espresso machines, tea, other drinks and accessories, point of sale material and training. As we’re passionate about our product and industry, we have formed a network of like minded, honest professionals who collectively provide a huge knowledge and experience base - so if we don't know the answer we'll know someone who does!

GOING TO THE EXTRA MILE

When Castle Howard’s coffee shop switched to York Coffee Emporium and had a few problems with their grinder, I ended up helping them out in an unexpected way! I’d delivered the coffee, adjusted the grinder and left them to it,although I wasn't happy with how the grinder was performing. The following day all was not well so I went back and found that the grinder had moved out of tolerance again. A quick diagnosis, clean and reset sorted the issue but by this time the queues were quite long and the manager was short staffed so I ended up donning a Castle Howard apron and helping out! Six hours later I left exhausted but happy, having had some great fun - they do have polite and understanding customers at Castle Howard!

I find that blending is a great way of adding additional flavours and dimensions to our favourite coffees. If we’re creating a blend for ourselves then it generally happens in one of two ways: either we plan a blend for a specific occasion or it’s an organic process following our discovery of a new coffee.

THREE OF THE BEST COFFEE BLENDS

We have loads of brilliant blends in our shop, all created with real care and attention and I’m confident that you’ll find one that you like.

One of our best sellers is the Excelso blend, which is a delightful mix of Kenyan, Java and Monsoon Malabar, recently recommended by John Torode. This blend is quite unusual as it works as both an espresso and in the cafetiere!

If you have a decent espresso machine, then I really like the South American blend - it's sweet, smooth and flavoursome and awesome in espresso form.

If you prefer cafetiere coffee, then look no further than the Mocha Java blend with its sublime mix of Java and Ethiopian Sidamo origins.

CREATING BLENDS FOR OURSELVES

For example, if we’re looking to create a Christmas blend tasting of chocolate, fruit pudding and allspice, then we’ll use our knowledge and experience as to the coffee origin and roast profile that we choose, and basically trial and error regarding the percentage mix of each single coffee. But we also might get excited about new coffees we’ve taken on and decide to experiment to create a fantastic blend.

It’s not possible to fully predict what the coffees will taste like when blended. You could choose a Brazilian for sweetness, an African for citrus acidity and a Java for dark cocoa but when combined they often take on a completely unexpected flavour. This is down to the fact that there are over 380 different flavourants in coffee and, while we can identify them all individually in a lab, it is still mostly unknown how they interact to produce certain flavours and tastes.

CREATING BLENDS FOR CLIENTS

When creating specific blends for clients we need to find out the kind of taste, flavour and strength they’re looking for. This is usually what they believe their customers want. So if they’re creating a coffee blend for their restaurant, then they might want a deep, dark after dinner coffee, whereas a cafe may want an Italian style espresso, for example.

We like to do a coffee tasting with the client, where we’ll arrange around ten cups of different single origin coffees around a table, grouped by geographical location. We will then get the client to taste the coffees to fully understand just how different they taste, and to help them select the coffees they like. We’ll then create a number of trial blends using different percentages of the origins, until the client is happy with the flavour. And voila! A bespoke coffee blend has been created. Sometimes we can create a blend within a day but, often, it’ll take much longer.

Here at York Coffee Emporium we have been working to increase the number of coffees that we stock that are RFA certified and currently have four great coffees to choose from. But do you know exactly what it means?

Coffee farming

More than 25 million people worldwide depend on the coffee crop. As the second most traded commodity in the world after oil, coffee is the economic backbone for many countries. And it’s farmed on an area of 30 million acres worldwide - that’s an area almost the size of England!

For more than 150 years, traditional farming techniques ensured the continued existence of a thriving ecosystem under a canopy formed by native rainforest trees. In the 70s, greed and big business intervened to implement a new farming system. This involved clearing the forests, packingcoffee bushes in and using loads of agrochemicals. These farms produce more beans but the cost to the environment is astronomical - there is a hugely devastating impact on wildlife, erosion of soil and pollution of streams.

The Rainforest Alliance

The Rainforest Alliance and its partner groups established in 1993 at the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) that forested coffee farms are havens for wildlife and began helping farmers to implement sustainable farm management systems.

Success story - El Salvador

To demonstrate the biodiversity on a properly managed coffee farm, one certified cooperative in El Salvador was monitored for wildlife. It contains more than 100 tree species, dozens of species of rare birds, wild cats like ocelots, rare frogs, butterflies, orchids, monkeys and even a giant anteater - all sound evidence for sustainable coffee farming.

The seal of approval

Coffee lovers everywhere can support farmers who are maintaining these forests by looking for the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal of approval. Here at York Coffee Emporium, we have some fantastic certified coffees for you to sample and you can find them easily using our RFA filter on the coffee page.

Shop for RFA coffee at York Coffee Emporium

You can search for RFA coffee online in our store and we have some great beans to choose from:

The Colombian Supremo
Costa Rica SHB
El Salvador RFA
Mexican Finca Muxbal RFA

NEW COLLECTION POINT IN CENTRAL YORK

Don't be alarmed, we are opening a new collection point from Monday 25th March at de'Clare's deli on Lendal ( opposite the Explore town library and Museum Gardens entrance).

de'Clare Delicatessen & Cafe
5 Lendal
York
YO1 8AQ

de'Clare serve our wonderful Excelso coffee in their deli - the great blend recommended in the Daily Mail by John Torode from Masterchef.

We are really excited to partner with owners Clare and Ian who run de'Clare deli (and also the de'Clare tapas restaurant on Peter Lane).

You will be able to collect any orders made through our internet shop at de'Clare's deli, and we are also stocking some bags of particular favourites if you need to restock in a hurry!

As a barista, I love Flat Whites as they allow me to create a drink that is specifically different to the standard Cappuccino and Latte, but also as a roasting expert as it gives me a way to enhance the flavour of the bean itself, while making a milky coffee.

Optimising the roast and flavour of the coffee is always my focus, but often the addition of milk can impair this. For example, a medium roasted coffee standing alone with no added milk can bring forth such a depth of flavours - sweetness, acidity, a cocoa-y hint of bitterness - that can then all but disappear as soon as foamed milk is added. My challenge is to produce a coffee that retains the depth of flavour of the roast and melds seamlessly with the milk to produce the optimum balance.

What exactly is a Flat White?

The drink originated in the 1980s in New Zealand or Australia - although this is pretty hotly debated! Suffice to say, it was developed around then somewhere in the Antipodes. There is also some argument over what exactly constitutes a Flat White, but for me it’s the following:

1: Full fat milk is textured until it reaches a velvet micro-foam (not a stiff froth)
2: The textured milk is then poured over the espresso and folded through the whole drink, leaving no layer separation between liquid coffee and textured milk.
3: It can be made with a single or double shot of espresso, as long as the milk is correctly proportioned - the coffee needs to do most of the talking, not the milk.

A Flat White should be served in a medium size (8-9oz), so it’s bigger than a Macchiato but smaller than a Latte.

Making a GOOD Flat White

It’s about packing as much taste as possible into a small package. The coffee should be high quality, not over roasted, dosed and ground correctly to ensure the perfect extraction of the coffee liquor.

A Flat White uses less milk and less foam. The foam it does use is microfoam, which has tiny bubbles (hence Flat White) and so it uses proportionately more coffee than a Latte. The texture should feel velvety and there should be a natural creamy sweetness.

Which coffee works best?

Really depends on your personal taste. I like a little fruity acidity to help cut through the milk but any of these are real crackers:

1: South American Blend (sweet and mild)
2: Skybury (rich and creamy)
3: Peru Tunki (milk chocolate praline)
4: Excelso Blend (a little different with a naughty punch)
5: Cuban Serrano (great Mocha hit)
6: Java Blawan (awesome dark cocoa flavour)

Different coffees change the final flavour

You need a coffee that works well with a velvety sweet textured milk. If you go for a coffee that's too fruity or acidic like, for example, some Kenyan blends, then you may get a curdled taste that’s not great.

The Flat White tends to soften some of the harsher taste profiles in coffee and amplify others, so a punchy smoky nutty Colombian turns milder with a hint of hazelnut chocolate, while the Tunki tastes like smooth praline.

Make it at home

It’s really simple to make a good Flat White at home with a decent home espresso machine. You don't need to foam the milk; you want the end result to be textured in a similar way to a Latte. with a little tight foam on top - something which most home espresso machines can handle.

Why I love a Flat White

I like milk in my coffee sometimes and the Flat White, if prepared correctly, can deliver the subtle characteristics of a well roasted coffee while at the same time offering a mild milky/creamy taste. For those roasters that burn their beans there is no place to hide!

Our coffee of the month offers the chance to try something that is perhaps new and the special reduced price could help tempt you into trying something different!

So here are our new coffee and tea of the month.

PEACH, CITRUS AND A HINT OF PRALINE

We are pleased to recommend the fabulous Mexican Finca Muxbal RFA coffee to you and this Central American coffee is a belter.

It was a tough coffee to get right but well worth the effort.

Enjoy this light/medium coffee and taste the wonderful balance of flavours with its characteristics of peach, citrus and a little praline.

The Mexican Finca Muxbal coffee is available at a reduced price while it is coffee of the month.

Mexican Finca Muxbal - £3.85 for a 200g bag

The coffee is Rainforest Alliance certified - this coffee is a true gem.

A TRUE CLASSIC WITH A ROBUST FLAVOUR

Our fabulous York Emporium Earl Grey tea is our latest tea of the month and you can now stock up on this tea or give it a try at a reduced price.

A 100g pack of Earl Grey is now £2.80 for a limited time.

This loose leaf Earl Grey is wonderfully rich and robust. This Earl Grey is a superior blend of high quality Sri Lankan and Kenyan teas with bright blue real cornflower petals and natural oil of bergamot for a natural rich flavour.