The Greenbean / Dreambeans Roast House LMFM
When our TORERO blend won THREE STARS at the Great Taste Awards and became the first Irish coffee blend ever to be nominated for a Golden Fork Award, our local radio station, LMFM came to the roast house one Friday morning in October to talk to us about the award and about what makes Greenbean / Dreambeans Coffee so special.
We’re going to post all four audio clips of the Greenbean / Dreambeans crew over the next while. This third clip is a walk through the roast house with Pat Grant, Greenbean’s Master Roaster.
You can listen here. (More clips to follow.)
The Greenbean Coffee Roast House. LMFM
Click play above to listen.
A Walk Through the Greenbean Roast House
Transcript:
Pat O’Shaughnessy LMFM
Yes Paul you’re very welcome back and there’s a little bit of background noise because I’m in the factory and I did promise you a little tour and I’m here with Pat again. Pat, when I look up, and you’ll see on our Twitter and our social media accounts, the vast quantities of sacks. So that’s the raw beans, first of all is it yeah? Over there.
Pat Grant Greenbean Coffee
Yeah in its form. That’s packed in the same jute sacks that it’s packed in, in the country of origin.
Pat O’Shaughnessy LMFM
Oh, I see.
Pat Grant Greenbean Coffee
So that’s Brazilian coffee here. Yeah, the last time that that was touched by human hands was by a Brazilian over in Brazil.
Pat O’Shaughnessy LMFM
Oh, my goodness, me.
Pat Grant Greenbean Coffee
It’s put into a container, we get it here. Now in its form there, it’s benign. It’s green and it hasn’t beeen (roasted). That’s where the name comes from`, Greenbean Coffee Roasters.
Pat O’Shaughnessy LMFM
So it hasn’t got your touch yet.
Pat Grant Greenbean Coffee
Oh, no, not yet.
Pat O’Shaughnessy LMFM
I’m looking at all these different vats. So is this where all the flavoring and the sorting takes place?
Pat Grant Greenbean Coffee
Each of these bins is a single roast for the machines. That’s a 40 kilo roaster. This one is a 30 kilo roaster.
Pat O’Shaughnessy LMFM
And the noise you hear in the background, Paul, is the actual process of the roasting. It’s just a pity I haven’t got pictures, I will take some pictures and show you them.
Pat O’Shaughnessy LMFM
But we’re going to go over now to the roaster. And the smell, Paul in here, by the way! The smell is just unbelievable. It’s like an attack on the senses in every form and your mouth salivates. And it’s just an incredible experience to be in here. And the heat around the roasters! And wait until you hear this now. This is the beans actually being cooled. Have a little listen now. And that’s the sound of the beans. And we’re not going to tell you how long they’re roasted for and how long they’re cooled. But I’m just looking, Pat, there’s a very strong human input to everything you do here, it’s watched at every stage, I notice.
Pat Grant Greenbean Coffee
Yeah, and the reason for the two different sizes of roasters is that the 30 kilo roaster will take a different bean and it will roast it in a different way. So, there are certain origins we put into that roaster and certain origins we put into the 40 kilo roaster. Colm watches to make sure that the temperature is right. And he has, as you see, a sight glass, we can see that, but he also has a trier handle, which he pulls out regularly to make sure that the correct degree of roast is achieved. When that degree of roast is achieved, then it’s exited onto the cooling tray.
Pat O’Shaughnessy LMFM
And forgive my ignorance here. Okay. Was this, to get to where you are now, was this a trial and error? You said 30 years ago, you can’t believe you’re at it 30 years ago. Like the information that you had 30 years ago compared to now? Do you look back and say, Oh goodness, how did I do that? Or how have we improved?
Pat Grant Greenbean Coffee
30 years ago, nobody in the country knew really anything about espresso, maybe some of the bigger, long established coffee companies. You know, they knew a bit. But coffee supply companies didn’t know about espresso machines. Espresso machine suppliers didn’t know about coffee. And the two of them have to marry together to give the proper….
Pat O’Shaughnessy LMFM
As you were saying earlier, all the components have to come together.
Pat Grant Greenbean Coffee
And this is why we got into the espresso machine business. We buy our machines directly from the manufacturers. I mean, I went over to Venice, and I went over to Milan. And I trained with manufacturers over there. I also went at the very beginning, to coffee suppliers in London, this is, raw coffee suppliers who had previously been roasters. And I said I’ll buy coffee from you if you teach me how to roast coffee.
Pat O’Shaughnessy LMFM
And this has transpired and where we are in Greenbean Roasters here on the Coes Road and Colm there, keeping such an eye. And he doesn’t want to talk to me. He’s shying away from me. He has so much experience but he’s shying away from me all the time (laughs). And he’s going to empty the machines now so Paul, we are going to have to run because there’ll be a hell of a lot of noise.
Now there’s a roast going to empty now, and here we go. Have a listen to this for noise.
We’re going to run back to you in the studio Paul. Thanks for the wonderful insights. Sorry for the noise Paul, but we did say it was going to be exciting, and it’s wonderful to see this process from the start to the end. Incredible, incredible, incredible!
We’ll be back for more of the same, nearer one o’clock we’ll have a wrap up. I’m going to have some fine coffee. Talk to you then.