upkeep

those (four) of you who read this blog regularly know that i started in on a topic a month or so ago that i have yet to finish posting about. we were discussing the political, social, economic and quality ramifications of the various agencies and bureaucracies currently associated with the specialty coffee trade.

since that time an interesting thread has gotten going over on coffeed about fair trade pricing and all its attendant ramifications. in light of that educated discussion i'm going to bow out from completing my thoughts on it, as i have put my little hat in the ring over on that thread and don't want to be potentially talking out of turn.

in other news, the new roaster will be here shortly. in one week, to be exact. the last things to get done are the cooling tray, the trier and setting the rpm's correctly for the drum size. because we're basically short on time, my father-in-law is setting up a rudimentary but functional cooling system that will incorporate a regular box fan (separate from the roaster) and a lift type system to dump them into a bin once the beans are cooled. the trier will be fashioned out of stainless steel and will have a replaceable handle so i can use wood or something else in the future. i am seriously thinking about getting one of those custom reg barber triers seen at right (hat tip: geir oglend's flickr account).

the changeability of the cooler also highlights one of the great features of this roaster: it is easy to add, change, move and otherwise alter stuff on it in the future. tweaking will be a necessity, i'm sure. thank goodness it'll all be done under the watchful eye of my good ol' dad-in-law.

next item on the agenda: finalizing discussions on my new roasterie/warehouse. more on that soon (i hope).