Behind The Scenes: Sweet Maria’s Roasted Coffee

Nov. 8, 2018

Did you know Sweet Maria’s sells roasted coffee? We have been doing it for years but never promoted it much since green coffeeGreen coffee refers to the processed seed of the coffee tree fruit. Coffee is a flowering shrub that produces fruit. The seeds of the fruit are processed, roasted,... is our main thing. Every two weeks our roaster, Julio spends most of an entire work day pouring coffee in and out of our Probat L12 gas-fired roaster. Whenever a roast date is coming up, Julio plans his approach to four Sweet Maria’s coffees, usually two single origins and two blends. We roast coffees that are also available as unroasted green coffees so you can compare your roasted coffee to ours.

Julio uses the laptop to reference roasting notes. It doesn’t control the roaster at all. All adjustments are done by hand with the aid of a timer and thermometer.

Julio brews and tastes the coffee he roasts to be sure it’s going to be great! This is done without much rest time but his palate knows how to anticipate a coffee’s taste even before it’s rested.

Keeping track of the roast process by paying attention to sights, smells and sounds

Most of the smoke is vented out of the room but there’s always a big puff that escapes the roaster when emptying the drum.

The coffee isn’t directly exposed to fire, unlike the metal drum it’s roasting in.

Freshly roasted coffee doesn’t smell nearly as good as coffee that’s been rested for a day but this much coffee, just out of the roaster still smells pretty darn good.

We sell roasted coffee by the pound. Most of the specialty coffeeSpecialty coffee was a term devised to mean higher levels of green coffee quality than average "industrial coffee" or "commercial coffee". At this point, the term is of... industry has moved toward smaller volumes, like 12oz or 6oz bags. We think one pound is still a good amount. By the way, compare our price of $17.50 per pound to the prices of fancy coffee roasteries. We offer more coffee per dollar. We package our roasted coffee in valve bags that are great for preserving freshness. As long as we have some in stock you can order from our website or buy some from our Oakland store.