There’s nothing quite like fresh roasted coffee.

As Hugo Weaving so eloquently put it in The Matrix “It’s the smell.”  

Sure, he was talking about the stink of humanity in his machine world, but it is still apt to quote him.  Because that’s what it is with fresh roasted coffee, it’s the smell.  It’s your first encounter with the café or roasters, as you step into their little world, their lovingly produced product speaks to you through the olfactory glands and right into your heart.  Every smell is re-associated by the brain, the scent of fresh rain in the air and you can be whisked back to the rugby fields of your youth, or the musk of petrol can be having you call dad, just to tell him how much you love him.  As it is with coffee, the smell of it roasting is a heady, grassy mix of earth, wind, and fire and with it comes the visions of your two hands holding dearly to moms, on the way to school, as she rushes into a café for an espresso before work.

The roasting of green coffee beans is to garner a base, the chemically and expertly ‘drawing out’ of a simple coffee cherry the complexity and flavor profiles that the barista then works with to follow through with the effort to allow the customer to experience many years and many hands in one sip.  This phenomenon has now entrenched a large proportion of society, now hooked to its addictive and enjoyable complexity of flavors.  From fresh cherries to chocolate, lemon licorice and grassy goodness it’s amazing to imagine that each cup you down have traveled so far and passed through so many hands on a long journey from another continent, passed many societies and into your cup.

This art of coffee roasting has a long a colonial history to it, one that some purveyors of today’s burgeoning coffee scene take with them to each day’s work.  Using the knowledge gained from the past to influence the reactions of the customer today and to inspire the generations of tomorrow and we love them for it.  Everyday.