Great news! After quite a bit of research, we have a new coffee roaster: a Bellwether.
And that is actually mostly thanks to you. Because if you didn't drink so much FREKKO coffee, we would have just kept roasting on our old roaster for the time being. But we love new things, so we are grateful to you!
With the Bellwether, we can set our roast profiles more accurately, extract more information from every roast, and keep the taste of our coffee more consistent. But what does that mean for you as a coffee drinker? And why did we actually choose this coffee roaster?
We're taking you behind the scenes at FREKKO!
Why did you choose a Bellwether?
We want to get to know our coffee better and better. And preferably by understanding what happens during roasting and what that does to the taste.
With the Bellwether, we can set our roast profiles more accurately and extract more data from every roast. This allows us to compare roasts better and fine-tune them more effectively.
The Bellwether also has an automatic function. That saves us manual labor and gives us more room to focus on the roast profile instead of the roasting process. And that is quite handy; now we can both roast coffee with the roaster.
The Bellwether roasts on electricity instead of gas, and because we can roast more accurately, we also waste less coffee. A nice, sustainable bonus that makes us happy.
Can you taste a difference with the new coffee roaster?
The goal is for you to keep recognizing our coffees and tasting the flavors you are used to. We were able to transfer our existing roast profiles to our Bellwether, so you won't taste much difference in flavor.
What does change is the consistency. With our previous roaster, we had to constantly monitor and adjust the roasting process ourselves. That worked well, but working manually also means that timing and small human differences play a role.
The Bellwether can accurately follow a roast profile designed by us and gives us more insight into what happens during roasting. Our hands are free for other things, and we also see nicer coffee beans coming out of the roaster.
What can you do better with the Bellwether than before?
Experiment more purposefully, above all. A lot changes in a coffee bean during roasting. The way we approach the roasting process influences the final taste. Or rather, it's now the way we tell the Bellwether to do it for us ;]
Think of the balance between sweetness, acidity, and body, or the character of a coffee with fruity and floral notes. Not every bean requires the same approach. That's why we want to understand what happens during roasting and adjust the profile accordingly.
With the Bellwether, we can read more data and compare roasts more easily. This allows us to investigate what works and where we can still improve.
And for us as a webshop, it's ideal that we don't have to stand next to the coffee roaster all the time and throw every kilo into the roaster manually. This gives us more time for other things we do to make you happy.
Why do you actually roast coffee yourselves?
Because we enjoy it and we love coffee! And also because we like to know what happens to our coffees, from the bean to the cup. Where does the coffee come from? What is the process? How light or dark do we think a coffee should be roasted? We want to have influence on those answers ourselves.
Since 2022, Freek has been roasting the FREKKO coffee. We select coffees we are enthusiastic about ourselves and discover through roasting and tasting how we can best bring those coffees to life.
One coffee requires a different approach than another. Sometimes we are looking for an accessible, sweet espresso; sometimes we want to highlight the fresh, fruity, or floral sides of a coffee.
Roasting yourself gives us the room to make choices. And the Bellwether helps us to investigate those choices more accurately, but of course, a machine doesn't decide what we like. We continue to taste that ourselves, and that is a lot of fun!
Is anything changing in your coffee assortment?
Not immediately, but we are not standing still, of course! We regularly swap our specials, precisely because we also enjoy discovering new coffees ourselves. There is so much to taste and learn, and we love sharing that with you.
The Bellwether gives us new possibilities to experiment with our roast profiles and to bring out the character of each coffee as best as possible.
And speaking of new coffees... a new special is coming soon that we are going to roast on the Bellwether. Something with a G... But we won't reveal that just yet ;]
We will continue to offer you fun coffees to further explore the world of specialty coffee.
What does the new coffee roaster mean for me as a customer?
Hopefully, most of all, that you continue to enjoy your familiar FREKKO coffee.
Behind the scenes, we get more possibilities to work accurately, compare roasts, and monitor the quality from batch to batch. You might not see that immediately when you open a bag of coffee, but it is part of the attention we want to give to our coffee and to you.
But if you pay close attention, you will see one important difference: the beans are more consistent in color. So every bean will be roasted almost identically, and you can see and taste that.
So we have a new roaster now, still the same love for coffee, and especially a lot of excitement to keep discovering.
Specialty coffee is not just about special beans. It's also about the choices you make when selecting, roasting, and finally brewing that coffee.
Do you have questions about our coffee, the roasting process, or which FREKKO coffee fits your brewing method? Feel free to send us a message. We'd love to help you think it through.
See you at the next roast!
