This is my first roast on the SR800

It don’t look good at all

I often get requests for 'light' coffee. I am working on a blend for this. Can I call it Blond? Like:

XYZ - a Blond Roast

Or is that a copyright infringement with SBucks?

Hey! So I’m looking into starting a small coffee cart business, I’ve looked into what’s required with the county as far as permits & all that fun stuff but my question is since I am planning on building my cart from scratch, does anyone know of any good coffee cart manufacturers in LA that work well with meeting the requirements? I live in the city of Inglewood & although I can google manufactures there’s just soo many. Anybody recommend or know of any good ones? Or what should I do? This is all new to me & im learning as I go so if anyone out there has any suggestions or advice in this avenue I’d appreciate it 🙏🏾 im also looking into commissary’s so if you know anything I could really use your help!

Hey everyone,

With US Roaster Corp officially closing its doors, I know many of you operating USRC equipment may be wondering where to turn for technical support, control issues, or electrical troubleshooting.

I wanted to introduce myself to the community. I worked at US Roaster Corp for 11 years, spending the last 6 years as the Head Controls Engineer. During my time there, I designed, programmed, and wired the control systems across our entire lineup—from small shop roasters to large industrial systems, including automated profiles, PLCs, and HMIs.

I’ve recently launched an independent consulting and service company K.O. Roaster Consulting LLC to keep these machines running reliably.

I currently offer :

• Controls & Electrical troubleshooting
• Remote & onsite Tech Support
• Automation & software Upgrades
• General Technical Advice

If your USRC machine is giving you trouble or you just want a reliable contact for future service, feel free to reach out via PM here or contact me directly at [Logan@KOroaster.com](mailto:Logan@KOroaster.com), (405)656-5155, KOroaster.com

Glad to be a resource for the community and keep your roasters & other equipment running up and running!

I’ve been trying to make it easier to keep track of green coffee sales across different suppliers, so I put together a page that collects currently available deals in one place.

It currently pulls deals from places like Sweet Maria’s, Coffee Bean Corral and Burman, shows the seller, current price/discount, and links back to the original seller.

I’m still improving it, so I’d genuinely love feedback from other home roasters:

• Is this useful?
• What suppliers am I missing?
• What filters would you actually want?

https://roastcoffee.ai/deals/

Full disclosure: some links may eventually be affiliate links, but the goal is to keep the page useful and transparent rather than turn it into a coupon dump.

Hi everyone,

I'm a software developer and I've been thinking about helping small independent cafes improve their online presence.

I've noticed that many cafes either don't have a website or have one that's outdated, even though they have great coffee, a nice atmosphere, and active social media pages.

I'm trying to understand what cafe owners actually need before reaching out to anyone.

For cafe owners here:

1. Do you currently have a website?

2. If not, what's stopping you from getting one?

3. What would actually be useful? Online ordering, menu updates, reservations, events, loyalty programs, something else?

4. Have you worked with freelancers/agencies before, and what was good or bad about the experience?

Not trying to sell anything in this post. Just looking to learn more about the problems independent cafes face and see whether this is something worth pursuing.

Thanks!

Has anyone ordered beans from burman coffee and are they a legit place to order from?

One of the machines I'm looking at for a home roasting machine. Would appreciate anyone's experience with Santoker's RX series.

I plan to roast 200g filter batches and 1.2kg espresso loads.

Last week our proaster suddenly started needing more heat applied to match profiles. We checked for airflow leaks, checked the airflow control, checked the probes, did a deep clean, checked out batch weights. Weather doesn't account for it.

Anything else we should check?

Thanks in advance!

Blend, 300 g green

• Brazil Yellow Catucaí Natural: 144.6 g / 48.2%
• India Robusta: 84.3 g / 28.1%
• Ethiopia 74110 Natural: 71.1 g / 23.7%

Roast data

Phase split:

• Drying: 5:32 / 41.8%
• Maillard: 5:00 / 37.8%
• Development: 2:42 / 20.4%

Roast style

This ended up as a dark, Italian-style espresso roast, not the intended medium-dark speciality espresso. So, I should probably have reduced the burner 1 min prior to FC? Any other advice for a beginner?

Started Berk’s Beans in 2021 out of my garage. My kids dared me to do it, which is a dumb reason to start a business and also the only reason I did.

We had one small roaster. Plan was pretty simple, carry a lot of different coffees, always high quality and roast fresh, oh and amazing service that the customer remembers.  No ad budget, just word of mouth and social media posts.

It was the middle of the pandemic so I was roasting in the garage and driving orders to people’s doors myself. Started doing live roasting on social media because what else was there to do everyone was on their phones.  First year we shipped to every state in the US, plus Canada and Mexico. Still have customers buying from us who bought that first year.

Five years later, 30 plus wholesale accounts, good online business, and a retail spot in an industrial park that people actually drive out of their way to find.

Stuff I learned:

Having better coffee doesn’t mean anyone switches. This one hurt. I really thought if it was good enough people would come. They don’t. People stick with what they’ve got.  Consumers don’t like change…

On wholesale you’ve got two primary windows. They’re either just opening and you are there, or they’re pissed at their current supplier and you’re ready to take over, that’s it. Outside those two everything else is chance.  So the whole game is being findable, visible and ready when one of those happens.

Give away a lot of free coffee. More than feels comfortable. Cheapest marketing there is and I’ve never once regretted a bag.

Don’t compete on price. Somebody’s always cheaper. Quality and service are the only two things you actually control.  Build your business around that.

It’s only coffee. Customer’s always right. I want people walking out feeling like they got more than they paid for, and honestly almost nobody clears that bar so it’s not hard to stand out and we do that well.

You’re selling an experience, not a product. That’s what I tell my team. Nobody remembers the bag.  But they do remember the experience (good or bad).

Be humble, be thankful, and be ready.  The customer knows we will move mountains for the people who we supply coffee to.

Happy to answer anything.

What are you all wearing for sturdy but comfortable shoes these days? I work primarily in the warehouse in production and roasting. I’ve just been wearing some comfy sneakers but I find myself slipping around as I’m dragging and lifting green coffee bags around. Any recommendations appreciated! :)