Old World Coffee Lab Theory is...Roasting

We are officially coffee roasters!

Old World Coffee Lab has taken the plunge into the deep end of roasting coffee ourselves locally, here in Reno, Nevada. If you couldn’t tell – we are very excited about this new endeavor

To bring in-house select coffees and roasting it ourselves grants us the ability to maintain quality of all our coffee beverages being served at our coffee shop to our lovely customers. It allows us to be one step closer to the actual source of coffee.

The Logistics

We start by receiving unroasted (green coffee beans) samples from different importers, sample roast those beans to determine quality of the coffee and if it’s a coffee that will fit into our overall coffee program. Once a coffee has been selected it is shipped from port of entry (usually the port of San Francisco).

Then when it arrives at our warehouse roastery location we sample roast it again, to double check that quality and start determining how we will roast it on the production roaster. Once a profile has been established we can roast large batches of that coffee on the production machine. ­

The Process

Now being a part of the coffee roasting process, we can better control where our coffee comes from, how it arrives in our coffee shop, while also bringing in uniquely choice offerings. Such as our Ethiopia Gedeb, which is a very special coffee to me.

This coffee comes from a single farm within Ethiopia, which is rare and hard to get to. Ethiopian coffee has traditionally been managed by the Ethiopian Government, who blends all the coffee from a region to provide zero traceability back to a coffee farm source. From our perspective, it’s a bit melancholy when we can’t pinpoint the true source of our coffee nor give credit where credit is due for great coffee.

We have built out an entire roasting and processing facility strategically here in Reno. This extension of our business was designed in to allow us to produce a large volume of coffee roasting options, yet still focus on the quality of the coffee. What’s the machine that we use to roast? We purchased a Probat roaster, a fancy schmancy top-of-line roaster.

Quality Control

To make sure each batch is consistent and meets our standards of quality, a small sample is pulled, and we cup a sample from each production batch. This helps us make sure that we are always producing the best quality coffee.

The Coffee

One of our coffees is the Ethiopia Gedeb. It’s produced by Bedhatu Jibicho and processed as a separate micro-lot at the Banko Gotiti Cooperative where Bedhatu is a member. The Banko Gotiti cooperative is located in the southern district of Gedeb, Ethiopia. The cooperative was established in 2013 and Bedhatu’s farm was selected as a model to help everyone in the cooperative improve their harvesting methods.

Bedhatu was born and raised in Worka. She started working in coffee in the 1960s when the government gave land to her husband. Bedhatu’s takes great pride in the fact that she has managed the farm operations for over 50 years, even before her husband passed away in 1991. As Bedhatu is now over 80 years old, her adult children have started to become more involved in continuing her rich tradition of coffee production. The family plans to use the premiums from coffee sales to expand production and start an export company.

The Party

We are going to be hosting a Grand Opening Party on December the third. We will be having a public cupping, party, and latte art throwdown. Check out our Facebook event for more detail.

With Tryer in Hand,

Your Friends at Old World Coffee Lab

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