Making the magic happen
Gagnaire believes that a good roaster must be a good technician who knows how to work the machines and select coffee and a creative one who can experiment daily to craft new recipes for blends. He cites profiling as the job’s biggest challenge: choosing how to roast the coffee and what energy to apply during the process.
He finds roasting exciting because transforming the coffee with integrity directs the flavor in a way that highlights both the terroir and the producer’s work–if amiss, the coffee fails to reach its full potential. Yet to him, the most rewarding parts of his work are discovering new flavors, new producers, and new places worldwide.
During the roasting process, quality always makes a difference: preserving the essence of the beans and treating them with respect is crucial to unleashing their full potential. Coffee requires a final transformation before being consumed, and during the preparation, the consumer must respect the work of both the producer and the roaster. “Preparing a coffee is a job that requires rigor and passion,” says Gagnaire. “Rigor is greatly facilitated by using a bean-to-cup coffee machine.”