Tradition and Innovation - 5 Part Series “WIRED for ROAST”

Introduction

THE MODERN SPECIALTY COFFEE business is an industry imbued with tradition and born of innovation. As we North Americans hearken back to the Old World Europeans for coffee continuity, they look to us for new efficiencies. While the coffee-producing nations continue to search for stability from the historical roller coaster that is the green coffee market, Asian countries have begun to create their own unique coffee traditions. Trade secrets are becoming passé and patents all but irrelevant. And new technologies, especially the Internet, are pushing all of us ever closer to one another.

As specialty coffee roasters, we are no different than professionals in a thousand other tradition-bound industries. We sometimes embrace new technological innovations while ignoring others, often without truly grasping the effect these decisions have on our industry and on our businesses.

This is the inaugural article of a five-part series on new technologies and innovations within the coffee industry. It is a series of introductions that will hopefully lead to conversations—conversations about coffee, coffee roasting, specialty coffee markets and how these new technologies will affect our industry as it strives for the perfect cup.

The specialty coffee landscape is quickly changing for roasters and the companies that employ them. Even as new developments in manufacturing and control technologies are changing the way that roasters practice their craft, other areas of the industry are advancing at a more rapid pace. While roasters are busy having the ever-inconclusive debate about art versus science, much of the rest of the coffee world has moved on to embrace new technologies. These changes in other segments of our industry have the potential to impact us in a profound and, in many cases, irreversible manner. Although some roasters recognize what we are seeing, many fail to truly grasp the entirety and totality of the technological changes beginning to occur in other segments of our industry. And perhaps more importantly the great opportunity and the potential threat these technological changes present to roasters of specialty coffee.

Over the next year, this column will cover technological innovations in green coffee and origin, packaging, grinding, brewing, roasting and an assortment of specialized equipment and processes. Trends in the coffee industry will also be covered in cases where they have arisen as a result of new and evolving technologies.

The individual columns are written for professional coffee roasters interested in technological developments within their chosen field. The series will focus mainly, but not exclusively on the specialty side of coffee. It is meant to be complementary with non-technology happenings in specialty coffee, such as the rise of the Roaster’s Guild, the new Roaster’s Speakeasy at the regional Coffee Fests and the ongoing discussions that are happening, both in person and via the Internet, about the changing face of technology in our industry.

Remember, first and foremost this is an introduction, an invitation if you will, to a conversation about tradition and innovation, about technology and specialty coffee, and the connection between these disparate entities. In the spirit of exchange, we welcome suggestions and will entertain and attempt to answer enquiries and criticisms.