Roasting
SMALL BATCH-ROASTED. HANDCRAFTED.
Tully’s is a true handcrafted roaster, which means we still believe that small batch, drum roasting is the best way to unlock a coffee’s true potential.
Every coffee bean that ends up in your cup is roasted in one of our two, antique, cast iron roasters. These classic roasters provide remarkably even heat distribution and control, and unlike computerized roasters, they allow us to adjust the roast so that outside variables like humidity, temperature, and barometric pressure never negatively impact our roast. Since our batch sizes are small, we are able to keep our roasting process intimate and hands-on, responding immediately to sights, smells, and sounds in order to capture just the right flavors at just the right moment.
ROASTING. A HIGHLY SENSORY EXPERIENCE.
At Tully’s, we do not limit ourselves to one roasting style. While many other coffee companies stick to one signature roast, we believe in customizing our roasting process, using all five senses to achieve a roast profile that is ideally suited for each Tully’s single-origin coffee or blend.
After numerous years of mental cataloguing, our roasters know exactly how each batch should appear to the eye at critical stages of the roasting process. The color, gloss, texture, and stretch of the bean can change in less than a second. We must pay close attention to these visual cues so that we can tell exactly where the roast is, and control where it is going.
Coffee goes through two significant sound stages: first and second pop. It’s important to reach the second pop in order to release the beans’ complex flavors and aromas. The ear of a trained roaster can actually hear the velocity of these sounds, and adjust the roasting heat accordingly.
Throughout the roasting process, our roasters scoop samples of beans from the roaster. A well-trained nose will be able to tell instantly if a roast is progressing too slowly, too fast, or just right.
The texture of a bean, how it breaks apart when cracked open with the teeth, as well as the bean’s inside and outside colors when broken in half, help the roaster monitor how the bean is developing through the roast.
Airflow, roast speed, heat adjustment, and final roast depth can dramatically change the flavor of a coffee. Our team performs multiple cuppings to ensure that each Tully’s coffee matches the distinct taste profile you know and love. These everyday cuppings also allow our experienced roasters to help our apprentices train their palates, and sharpen their roasting skills and instincts.
TO BLEND OR NOT TO BLEND?
Creating remarkable blends takes years of experience, and a total refusal to settle for anything less than the best. A master roaster must fully understand the finer points of green coffee buying, roasting, and brewing, as each of these elements is vitally important to crafting a standout blend.
Like a master chef, our master roaster begins with experimentation. He cups the finest coffees, artfully combining and balancing flavors, making subtle roast modifications again and again. One coffee may be the perfect base for the recipe, another may provide the sweetness, or spice, or spark that draws you in, and yet another may give the coffee that finish that lingers on the mind long after it fades from the palate. When all the elements come into alignment, he’s crafted a coffee blend that is more than the sum of its parts– it’s a unique representation of the style and spirit inherent in every Tully’s coffee.
For the perfectionist mind of a master roaster, it’s tempting to turn every coffee into a blend. But every so often, a coffee comes across the cupping table that stops us in our tracks and bests our wildest imaginations—all on its own. These are the rare, remarkable coffees that earn the Tully’s Single-Origin Coffee label.
