Coffee Roasting Company

Why are we the best Coffee Roasting Company?

To understand how different Lakota's fresh roasted coffee really is, we need to take a close look at our roasting process.

We begin with worldwide selections of the best green mountain-grown coffee that money can buy. Why mountain grown? The saying is: The higher a coffee plant is grown, the harder the bean, the harder the bean, the better the flavor. By some miracle of nature, coffee plants grown from 3000 feet and up produce very hard beans and truly amazing flavor components. We have been working with several coffee importers for many years to bring us the best coffee that money can buy. They employ experts who make sure that we continue to get the best of the best!

Now that we know we have the best beans in hand, preheating our small batch San Franciscan roaster to 400 degrees is the next order of business. What's the big deal about small batches? Simply put, batches of 25 pounds or less are kept completely air-borne throughout the roasting process; imparting a very smooth, even roast.

Why is the temperature important? Many Coffee Roasting companies do very short roasts at very high temperatures, this is known as "flash roasting". They also tend to roast lighter than we do because it saves them money. We roast a bit deeper than many companies do because we believe that's where the "sweet spot" is, that fully develops the flavor characteristics of each coffee. We do a longer roast, from 12 to 18 minutes, at a lower temperature - from 400 degrees to no more than 440 degrees, depending on the amount and type of coffee being roasted.

It's more expensive to roast this way because we lose up to 18% of the coffee's weight during the roasting process. The goal here is to gently bring each coffee up to it's full potential, through personal attention to the characteristics of each coffee. This is why we call it "hand roasting". Every roast we perform gets hands on, personal attention. Every roast is different, depending on everything from the type of coffee, the specific type of roast we are doing, and the humidity and barometric pressure on that particular day. It's not rocket science but the result of paying attention to the details of each and every roast pays big dividends in terms of pure unadulterated flavor "in the cup"!

To get the full story on roasting go to:

http://www.specialty-coffee-advisor.com/fresh-roasted-coffee.html

Here you will find a complete step-by-step pictorial roasting tour as performed on Lakota's 16-kilo San Franciscan Roasting Machine.

When we say we're serious about our coffee, we mean it.  Give us a try!
We guarantee you'll love us or your money back!

What is acidity?

Where coffee is concerned, acidity is actually a pleasing, highly desirable characteristic of coffees complex flavor. Acidity is present in all varieties of coffee, in the form of formic, malic, and acetic acids among others. These same acids are found in vinegar, fruit, and wine. Proper roasting lends itself to wonderfully balanced acidity, giving coffee its pleasing "snap" and sharp, bright liveliness!

If you are sensitive to coffee acidity, we recommend a coffee that is naturally lower in acidity such as the Indonesian coffees: Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, Timor, or Celebes Kalossi. Dark roasted coffees are also a good choice. The darker the roast, the lower the acidity.

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