Notes on the Roasters Guild Retreat

By Pam Olmstead

The Roasters Guild Retreat is somewhat like camp for adults — and as a kid, I loved summer camp! There’s the same excitement about traveling, the opportunity to meet people, anticipation of reuniting with friends and the occasion to learn.

We roasters are a breed of our own … the retreat draws a variety of people.  It’s a Julie Andrews meets Ozzy Osborne crowd (and everything in between). We share a few common threads and we’re a very amicable bunch. I have never met a roaster I didn’t like. I believe we also share an obsessive compulsive nature, which comes in handy when trying to achieve the perfect roast. Also, every roaster has an opinion and we’re all willing to share! This adds flavor to the retreat.

There seemed to be more Canadians this year - Go Canucks!  But the overall international representation was stronger as well. There were also many newbies. The retreat is a fantastic opportunity for roasters, both new and seasoned, to learn, to network, and to learn even more through the people that they’ve met.

It is nice to see the Roasters Accreditation Program coming to fruition. It’s apparent that the RG Council has done a lot of work to get it off the ground. They’ve made a formidable attempt to serve the varied experience of our membership.  On the downside, the atmosphere of the workshops seemed to have changed, perhaps less discussion? In any case, the attendees had the opportunity to evaluate the classes so I’m sure the accreditation program will continue to move in a positive direction.

The sessions covered a good selection of topics. It was great to see “Decaffeination Processing” emerge on the agenda. If any of you have feedback or questions relating to that class, please drop me a line.

By the way, I was really encouraged, working as I do, for Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company, Inc., by how much discussion there was this year, informally at least, about roasting decaf. It seemed to me that members of the RG are really getting a grip on the fact that decaffeinated coffee is physically different from non-decaf and needs to be treated differently. It needs to be warmed more gently and watched more carefully, as it can more easily scorch and burn. This was also touched upon by Joseph Rivera in his presentation on decaffeination technology.

The most common solution that the roasters I talked to had worked out was to simply start the roasting schedule with the decaf charges so that you’d be working with a cooler roaster. As the decaf schedule proceeds (and the roaster warms up), it obviously becomes necessary to hold back a bit on temperature and be especially vigilant for developing hot spots and/or scorching the coffee.

If you have tips on roasting decaf, I would love to hear them! Please email me at polmstead@swisswater.com.

The retreat continues to inspire me. Each time, I return to Vancouver with more insight on roasting and the industry as a whole. I am always motivated by the positive feedback that I hear about our product and I love to share this new knowledge with the Swiss Water team. The retreat gives me a desire to learn more — I’m already looking forward to RG Retreat ’06!