OUR ROASTERY

Welcome to Avéc Coffee Roasters. 

We are particularly proud of our sourcing program. Most of the work that we do in the roastery goes into that. What coffees we contract is the biggest driver for good quality coffee. When we mean good quality, we not only talk about how the coffee tastes, but also about who produces it, who imports it and how fairly the money is distributed across the supply chain. To us, the social and logistical construct behind our coffees is more important than having the best sensory quality. We are incredibly lucky to work with very talented producers that have high social focus in their ways of working. We deeply believe in this way of forward buying coffees, even though it takes a lot trust and planning, we believe it is worth it for the following reasons:

  • We have to know what coffees and how much of it we want to contract months in advance, in some cases u to a year before buying them.
  • We can trust our green coffee partners with their own culture/politics/ways of life. Every country is very different in terms of how business relations works and need to be navigated. If we want to follow this way of buying coffee, we need strong partners that can make this happen without sacrifcing anyone along the supply chain.
  • Contracting coffee means financial security for producers and farmers and planning security for us. If they (and we) know (here comes the trust) a certain amount of coffee is being bought by a roaster, they can plan in advance. Not following this model can mean that they only recieve their money months after production, during which they would actually need it most. With forward buying, we sign a contract - either with the producer directly, or with an importer. In that moment, part of the money (or all of it, depending on the contract) is going to where it is needed most, directly to the producers. With that, they can fincance pickers, materials, staff and all other needs they have during harvest. Otherwise, they might need to take out loans that run on very high interest, if it is even possible in the respective country.
  • Importer vs direct trade: For small roasters like us, an importer almost always makes the most sense. Reason being that they work like a bank: Once we sign a contract with them, they pay the producer. We would only need to pay a down payment to the importer, or, mainly with the bigger ones, we only need to pay upon delivery. That can be a time difference of many months. Because we mostly buy relatively expensive green coffee, working like that is the only way we can manage cashflow as a small company.
  • Transpareny: Working with the people that we know and trust (producers and importers) gives us access to  a lot of information. Usually, when poeple are willing to give out information like what they pay pickers, the share of the importer, production cost, labour cost, etc., that speaks to profitable systems in which poeple are being treated fairly and above average respective to the local conditions. This is often not for us to say, becaus ewe lack understanding of their culture and systems, so part of this is also trusting peolple.
  • This makes working with good partners and establishing sustainable relationships together even more important. We are incredibly thankful for Bette Buna, Zanya, Bridazul and Dylan Aguilera, just to name some of the producers that we started with and are lucky to also call friends. It's a beautiful think when dependence on each other creates so much value. This only works because we all chase the same goals, live the same values and strive for the same things.

That does not mean we don't care about taste. We are also very passionate about getting the best out of our coffees. That means very tight quality control measures, a lot of cupping, measuring and obsessing over roast profiles. No matter what aspect of our roastery, we strive to get better every day.

OUR ROASTING APPROACH:

We roast on a ROEST P3000. It is one of the most advanced elictrical roasters on the market. The control, consistency and efficiency are second to none. It allows us deliver a product that is as close as possible to "the same every time" (keep in mind coffee is still a nature product and will always change slightly over time). The technology allows us to roast lighter than on a traditional drum roaster while still developing the coffee enough. 

Generally, we try to roast every coffee to a fair representation of the producers work, the variety and terroir. We aim for:

  • High Sweetness
  • Balanced Acidity
  • High Quality Mouthfeel

If not marked differently, our coffees are nordic light, and we don't roast specific to filter or espresso. Some coffees will perform better one way or the other, if that is the case, we will make a note on the product page of the respecive coffee.

 

FOR THE NERDS:

  • Our Roasts are mostly between 6:00 - 7:00 min long.
  • We roast with IT/BT - Profiles, which means we connect the Bean Temperature to the Inlet Temperature. That what, the energy input into the machine is always the same, no matter the outside conditions.
  • We roast to colour measurements/time/end temperature. Because of the small batchsize, first crack is a les precise indicator than in bigger machines.
  • Our weightloss ranges from 10,5 -12,5%. We connect it to the moisture content of our green coffees and aim for a certain Delta depending on the variety and origin.
  • Between roasts of the same coffee and same roast profile, time difference is less than 2 seconds, end temperature variance is less than 0.1°C, weight loss variance is lower than 0,1% (or 2g) and colour readings re precise to 1 Agtron.