Houston, You’re Clear to Roast
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to turn an obsession of mine into a business and announced the creation of Split Key Coffee. Since then, several friends have asked me a lot of questions about the business, coffee and what plans I have for the future. I am hoping that the creation of this blog can not only help answer those questions, but can also serve as a way to track my journey. If you want to stay updated, please subscribe your email!
Why did you start a business?
This question has by far been the most popular. There are a lot of great reasons to start a business and despite what you may think, it’s actually pretty easy. For me, I registered a business in order to add legitimacy to my roasting, account for expenses and learn the challenges of running a food-based company. Having those articles of incorporation filed is an official blank slate; you can build the business however you want.
You like coffee that much?
Indeed! I’ve been into coffee for the past several years and have more recently been obsessed with pulling the perfect espresso shot. Through my travels and learning, I’ve met a lot of cool people in the industry and thought it was something I’d like to be part of in a deeper way. Roasting lets me learn yet another part of the process while also gaining control of how the green beans are prepared.
Are you quitting your job?
For those who don’t know me personally, I run product for two different cybersecurity ventures — one full-time (RiskIQ) and the other as a side business (NinjaJobs). While coffee is a big interest in my life, it’s not something I plan to pursue full-time quite yet. I enjoy learning about new subjects and there’s more than enough time on the nights and weekends to fill with coffee for right now.
What’s your plan?
Over the next few months, I intend to start doing small-batch coffee roasting out of San Francisco. I’ll be focusing much of my time getting to know my machine and creating roast profiles. My hope is to roast on a regular basis and share samples with friends to not only promote speciality coffee, but also get their feedback. Once I feel comfortable, the larger plan is to open a small online store and sell coffee within the United States.
What are you working with?
This is by far my favorite question. After my announcement, I placed several orders for various items. Here’s the breakdown of the equipment I am using and a quick note why I chose it.
Hottop Roaster KN-8828B-2K+
The Hottop roaster slants a bit towards the higher-end home roasters, but offers a lot of control over the roasting process. The model I went with also has a USB port which lets me link the roaster directly up to my Mac. Open source software, Artisan, allows me to control the roaster and graph the entire process.
Compak E5 OD
When looking at grinders, I knew I wanted something specifically for espresso. I spent a lot of time looking at different options, but ultimately settled on the Compak E5 OD because of it’s doserless design, extreme quality build and smaller size. The grinder tends to be a bit messy, but it’s worth the super fine output. The Compak replaces my Nuova Simonelli Grinta which will be used for pour-over coffee.
Nuova Simonelli Oscar
For the past two years, this has been my machine of choice for brewing espresso. The Nuova Simonelli Oscar can be frustrating at times, but when used properly, it produces a solid double shot. The heat exchanger provides a fairly stable temperature, but a lack of PID often has you surfing a bit to ensure your water isn’t too hot during the pull. All my coffee is pulled through a bottomless portafilter which provides the best way to identify any issues with the shot.
Specialty Green Beans
Being in San Francisco means I am stones-throw-away from one of the greatest coffee distributors ever, Sweet Marias. While I get used to my roaster, I’ll be purchasing a majority of my green beans from their location in Oakland with my first focus on beans sourced from Ethiopia.
Acaia Pearl
Precision is everything when working with espresso. While a bit much for a scale, the Acaia Pearl not only looks nice, but offers exact measurements and built-in brew timing.
Hario Tools
Hario produces some of the highest quality products when it comes to coffee. I’ll be using the ceramic V60 drip and 600ml glass pot for brewing pour-overs once the coffee is roasted.
Pesado 58.5 Tamper
A lot of coffee products place function over design, but Pesado goes a step beyond with their tamps. Through some joint collaboration, I was able to get a custom made wooden tamp handle to go along with the Pesado 58.5 base. The tamp is cool to look at and the additional base size means a snug fit into the Nuova Simonelli bottomless portafilter.
Now that all my equipment has arrived, I can finally begin roasting. In my next post, I’ll cover my first coffee roast and share the results. Having seen the tools I am using, I’d love to hear how you brew your coffee at home! Getting started in home brewing isn’t terribly expensive and results compared to an automated machine or standard drip maker are night and day different. If you have questions or comments, leave them below!
