Inside Alterra: 2007 Roasters Guild retreat

On August 15th, the roasting department embarked on a much-anticipated journey to the annual Roasters Guild Retreat held in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The Roasters Guild is affiliated with the Specialty Coffee Association of America, much like the Barista Guild, and is designed to bring people from similar facets of the industry together.

Each year, the guild hosts a “Roasting Challenge” in which teams of roasters from all over the country (and world) compete.  This year, the challenge was to roast four pounds each of three coffees (Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Ethiopia), using roasting equipment with which most of us were unfamiliar, and submit them for intensive cupping and final ranking. In addition to the challenge, there were also highly informative seminars given by experienced people in the industry.

I was struck by the fact that although the attendees share similar job descriptions, the spectrum of philosophies and perspectives on roasting coffee is immense.  I always thought there would be some industry standards or guidelines for roasting coffee, but it seems that roasting is more a product of philosophy than methodology, which left me feeling even more excited to be a part (though it may be small) of the specialty coffee movement.