COMMON GROUNDS NOW ROASTING ITS OWN COFFEE

Talk to Phil Zimmerly long enough and you’ll learn something about coffee. For example, coffee is a tree. Beans are really seeds. The pits are what you end up with to make coffee.

I know this because Phil told me. Our conversation took place as he shared with me his secrets of roasting coffee – a skill he mastered this summer.

The back room of Common Grounds – the place where small groups formerly met to discuss everything from the library book of the month to the nitty gritty of Bluffton - is now the official coffee roasting room of Bluffton’s downtown coffee shop. Actually it is the home of Big Z Coffee Co. Phil’s long-term goal is to be a wholesaler of roasted coffee. The purchase this summer of a coffee roaster is the first step in making that happen.

As Phil talked and I took notes, he led me through the steps of coffee roasting, while telling me more and more coffee facts.

For example: There are millions of kinds of coffee beans all over the world. Each kind is unique.

But, this story is about roasting coffee. So, here goes:

With a coffee roaster, Common Grounds cuts out the middleman in the process starting with picking the coffee and ending with handing you a hot cup of the stuff. Phil now buys green coffee beans in 152-pound bags for roasting.

If those bags can produce 130 pounds of coffee, the result after roasting is about 1,500 cups of coffee.

You can roast 30 pounds of beans at one time in a 17-minute period. Phil said that it took around 30 to 45 days of experimenting this summer to get it just right.

Steps involved start by pouring the coffee beans in the roaster at 350 degrees. “It’s like a clothes dryer,” Phil told me.

During the 17-minute period that coffee roasted during our conversation, the beans turned from green to bright green then to cinnamon and on to a dark tan color.

When you hear the first “crack,” that means that the bean separates and essential becomes coffee. Phil describes the cracking as the sound of corn popping. He described it correctly.

Cracking takes place at 390 degrees.  Phil says that a medium roast, or city roast, is created at 430 degrees.

“When the process first starts, the beans smell like green grass or hay,” Phil said, as I sniffed the beans. He was correct.

“It’s fun. I love roasting beans,” he said, as the beans roasting continued to darken. “Now it’s a waiting game,” he said continuing to watch the beans roast.

During our talk, Phil tried to explain the finer points of espresso coffee, but I was lost in the translation. Something about using a combination of different beans, blended after roasting or during.

After 17 minutes and once he pronounced it beans-turned-to-coffee, Phil said, “This could be in your cup tomorrow. I like to allow the beans to set for one day before I brew it. That gives the best taste.”

The coffee roasted during the interview was “Brazil Santos,” for the coffee connoisseur reading this.

Hearing the steps involved that now go on in the back room of Common Grounds, well, it makes the coffee taste even better: locally roasted, most often yesterday, under the watchful eyes of Big Z.

“I’ll have a large cup of Icon coffee to go, please.”