The art of roasting

Richard Hazard stands next to the large coffee roaster. With a logbook in hand, he monitors the machine's progression and temperature, careful to not pull handles and press buttons before the exact second flashes on the clock.

Hazard, manager of Lodi's Java Stop, is all about the coffee. He isn't just picky about the cups he has every morning. He is obsessive from the beginning. He wants to know where the beans are from. Are they green or yellow? Were they grown in the shade or under the sun? He event went to coffee college to learn the intricate details of his java passion.

Java Stop started roasting its own beans three years ago, when they purchased the $25,000 San Franciscan — a huge coffee bean roaster that is shiny red, pristine and complicated. But coffee shop owners, Bob and Carol Casalegno, aren't about to follow the trend of large corporations.

"Over roasting is a trend with the big coffee chains who mass produce a hundred pounds at a time," Bob Casalegno said. "They roast all the flavor out of the coffee."

Hazard only roasts 20 pounds of beans at a time. And it only takes 15 minutes to roast each batch that is then used in house or sold to local businesses such Fiori's Butcher Shoppe, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Phillips Farms and businesses in Pacific Grove and Nevada.

The pre-roasted beans are stored in burlap sacks in a refrigerated room. The smell is strong, earthy and nothing like a morning's cup of coffee. Hazard pulls handfuls of coffee beans from the bags labeled Costa Rica, Guatemala, organic, shade tree organic and fair trade. He explains that the yellow colored beans were sun-dried, while the green were grown under shade trees.

The massive San Franciscan sits in a corner of the drive-through coffee shop, next to the tables, where laptop-users take advantage of free Wi-Fi Internet.

The machine is warming and Hazard has already poured the green coffee beans into the top — the first step in making a batch of Ethiopian Harar, a light blend.

In a red binder, he keeps records of each roast — the time the beans reach specific stages and their temperatures. Computer-generated graphs show the roasting progression and the marks he tries to reach each time.

With the temperature in the 400 degrees, he opens the afterburner to keep a billow of smoke from clouding the neighboring Lodi Avenue shopping center.

They learned about the afterburner early on. Once, they forgot to open it and the entire roaster caught fire at 2,500 degrees. Now, the bottom half of the red roaster is black and looks as if the paint has been removed intentionally.

"The fire department came tearing down the road," Bob Casalegno laughs.

Master Roaster Richard Hazard releases coffee beans from the roaster on a recent Tuesday afternoon at Java Stop in Lodi. The establishment roasts all of their own coffee beans. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

Now, Hazard knows this craft so well that he can monitor the stages by smell.

Using a tray-like handle, he pulls a handful of beans from the roaster's barrel. At 300 degrees, the beans smell like of warm, wet grass. Minutes later, he does another smell test. The beans smell of hay at 330 degrees and the color is changing. These are the milestones Hazard tries to hit with each batch.

"It's quality control," he said. "Our customers have really noticed a difference. We're more consistent."

Finally, at 380 degrees, the beans are dark brown and smell of baked bread — though Hazard is more excited by this than anyone else. This is the stage of the first crack — when the beans look like roasted peanuts but make light popping noises like popcorn kernels bouncing in a stove-top pot. The beans expand during the first crack and the oils are then released, he explains.

The less the beans are cooked, the more oil will remain inside. The oils are important to the caffeine, because the more oil a bean has — the less it is roasted — the more caffeine it will have. Bob Casalegno says many people think the strong-tasting coffee served at Starbuck's means there is more caffeine, when in fact, all of the oils have been burned out and less caffeine remains.

After twelve minutes the temperature reaches between 401-402 degrees. He is careful to watch for tipping — when the beans get so hot the ends blow out.

Hazard releases a lever and the once green beans flood into a tray, where they are sorted and cooled. These beans are dense, and it takes longer for them to cool. Bob and Carol Casalegno watch over as they help Hazard pick out the few burnt or bad beans. They stick their fingers in and fling them out as the beans burn their fingertips.

"One bean can ruin a whole pot," Hazard said.

Bob and Carol Casalegno wait for freshly roasted coffee beans to cool at Java Stop in Lodi on a recent Tuesday afternoon. The Casalegnos own the coffee shop. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

As long metal rods stir and cool the beans, the color becomes darker and the small dots of oil are visible.

While they never overroast their coffee, each roast varies in darkness.

Hazard compares the roasts to his second love: chocolate.

He roasts Colombian beans to the color of milk chocolate. Italian is more dark chocolate and Guatemalan beans are comparative of Hershey's chocolate.

When the beans are cooled, Hazard dumps them into large plastic bin. For the next 24 hours, they will sit and de-gas. At the end of the de-gassing period, the will be at their peak. Once ground, the bean's quality decreases 400 percent faster than if they were kept whole.

In the back room, where a thick wooden table is made of a wine barrel, Hazard is ready for cupping, the tasting of the brew.

Three glass cups sit beside dishes of roasted beans, each a slightly different shade.

He scoops from each bowl and grinds them into individual glasses. He pours hot water over the fine grounds until it looks as if the bubbling, chunky mix is going to run over. When each glass is full, it is time to wait. The water and grounds settle, and after four minutes, a crust forms on the top of each glass.

Hazard breaks the crust with a spoon, leans over the table, with his nose close to the coffee. He cups his hands around the top of his glass and his nose and breaths in deeply through his nose. He sounds as if he is describing wine, saying things like, "it's how leather would smell if it were in a cup of coffee."

Richard Hazard, manager and Master Roaster at Java Stop, shows the coffee beans before they are roasted. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

This is the cupping process. And they have done it with every roast they sell.

When he tastes the coffee water, his goal is to bring the entirety of the blends flavors to his senses. He is looking for a lingering aftertaste; is a coffee oily, buttery, gritty, is there a bitter or sourness?

With a forceful inhale, he slurps a mouthful of the coffee water. He makes a gargling sound before spitting it into an empty cup.

It's a learned skill, he admits. And the first time he tried, it came out his nose. Now, even Bob Casalegno, who sneaks whole beans into his mouth, enjoys the cupping process.

"You spend an hour doing this, you'll be as high as a kite," he said.

But to Hazard and Bob Casalegno, this is the only way to assure the coffee they sell is going to be good.

Hazard's history with coffee is deep, starting with childhood memories during stays with his grandmother.

"It started with my grandma. Every Sunday she would give me coffee — half milk, half coffee and sugar," Hazard said. "I thought I was a grown up."

His early experiences lasted thus far, and now he is even teaching Bob Casalegno about coffee roasting.

Brewing Tips

Beans must be heated to temperatures of 370 degrees to 540 degrees. Faster air currents permit lower temperatures.
The coffee beans must be in constant motion to prevent scorching ot uneven roasting.
The beans must be cooled quickly to prevent overroasting.
Roasting coffee produces smoke that must be vented properly.
The roasted beans shed the outer skin during the roasting process and the light weight skins can make a mess if not handled properly.
Source: Java Stop and www.breworganic.com.

"There's not a day that goes by that he doesn't come in, 'Try this, try this'," Bob Casalegno said.

Bob and Carol Casalegno opened their Hutchins Street coffee joint eight years ago and named it Java Stop to commemorate the Milk Stop business that operated in the same Hutchins Street building in 1957. It took 10 months and three wheelbarrow loads of pigeon droppings to get the new hangout in shape.

They insist they are here to stay and they are having fun with new coffee concoctions. They even invite customers to work with them to create personalized roasts with their favorite blends. They find out what people want to make — French Press, drip or espresso — and they do the entire cupping process with them.

It keeps them just where they want to stay: On their toes.

"It's a good business," Bob Casalegno said. "You can roast for 30 years and still be learning."

Contact reporter Lauren Nelson at laurenn@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

Richard wrote on Mar 8, 2007 7:58 AM:

" Java Stop is just south of Lodi Ave on Hutchins. It is the best coffee in the area. I was sorry to see the owner's son's Cafe Siena go out of business. "

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OregonInvestor wrote on Mar 8, 2007 7:18 AM:

" I love going there, the coffee is great,and a lot cheaper than Starbucks, but I wish they would get staff that knows how to make a simple coffee drink, and also know the right prices. I get three different prices from three different young girls who work there. "

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