Courier Coffee Roasters

Three work at Courier Coffee- Matt, Alex, and Joel.  Here we are heating up some water and citric acid. Matt stirs with a screw driver .

We mostly taste, sample, roast coffee, but we also supply equipment, keep inventory on parts and replacements for our accounts. Much of what we do is learning, and staying tuned to our coffee friends.

Our location is normally referred to as just 40th and Hawthorne, Portland, Oregon. What we really mean to say is that we are in a converted garage building in the back corner of the parking lot of a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant.

We roast coffee on a 25 pound, gas fired, SanFranciscan roaster, manufactured by Coffee/PER, a small company once located near San Francisco and now operating in Fallon, Nevada. Sherman Dodd started Coffee/PER after 25 years working/rebuilding Probat roasters, because he decided that he could build a better roaster. One of the main differences is that the SanFranciscan is made from mild steel, not cast iron. This is a much more forgiving, and less brittle material. A second difference is that there are four identical motors operating the roaster, instead of one, or however many a Probat has. Anyway, the drum of the roaster rotates against the front plate. The drum itself is solid steel, except the very far back of the drum, which is perforated steel. The flames are below the drum and the hot air, from the flame, gets drawn through the back of the drum, and out through the front plate by means of an artificial draft created by a hot air exhaust impeller.

So, basically, our roaster is awesome! The instructions say it does 25 pounds, but we normally drop 18 pounds in, yielding us roughly 15pounds roasted coffee. Our average roast time per batch is 12-13minutes.

Oh, and we deliver all of our coffee by bicycle! Our accounts span from 72nd and Flavel (deep southeast Portland for some), all the way to the base of the St Johns bridge. We actually loop around Portland a ton. Add on top of this that we move espresso machines, coffee brewers, grinders, and all sorts of things all on our bicycle, sometimes even three bags of green coffee on one bike!

We are super dedicated to keeping our work hands on, local, and awesome. Currently we are wholesale only, working with our coffee friends, but we totally sell coffee to individuals. Of course, it is our friends, and our friends friends, and the people who keep up with our clients that keep us going. Welcome to team Courier Coffee!!!

It is Saturday afternoon and I am roasting only the coffee I need, plus a little extra. I have deadlines to hit. I must get to Selgris before open, and Two Tarts and H&H before they close. Midway through this run additional orders come in.

This morning was difficult. I knew and was planned for Hash Restaurant and 72nd avenue pub, but the phone call alerting me that Toast would need coffee before 9am was unexpected. I receive the call at 750am.

The cargo bike has a 35pound box of stainless steel airpots, plus the coffee I was delivering to Hash. I am at my house leaving when I get the call from Toast. Planning to skim some of Hash’s coffee for Toast when I receive phone call number two alerting me that Toast is completely out of decaf coffee. At this point I am in Sellwood and things are radically altered. I now have an hour to skim coffee from the H&H and gather what little decaf I have at the roastery- 72nd Avenue Pub is placed on the backburner.

As I make my way from downtown to the roastery streets that I did not even know were part of Sunday Parkways start to be blocked off. My route is shifted as streets start to close. I could of course bike through, but I am weary of Sunday Parkways. Arrived at the roastery, switch to a faster bike and book to Toast.

Now I am back at the workshop, having taken coffee from the H&H cafe I must now roast them more and travel back. The following is a map pulled from the Sunday Parkways site. It looks great for family’s with small children who would like to get out and ride their bicycles. Also today is Portland Century, who I crossed paths with multiple times this morning.

Yesterday at three I was hastily packing tools for a trip to Vancouver, Washington. I wanted to travel light and fast, but needed large adjustable wrenches, open box wrenches, and some beautiful screw drivers. Threw some rain gear in bag, extra tube, bike map clipped on porteur rack, ready to go, no fenders.

I zigged over to Vancouver Ave, following it as it turned into MLK, and over the bridges into Vancouver, Washington. The bike/pedestrian route is by no means clearly laid, and I did lose my way, but made it before the doors locked at my destination.

My project for the afternoon a three group Synesso Cyncra espresso machine, property of Clark County. On the phone reports were about the middle group not activating the water. When I arrived the middle group was operating, except with minimal flow. Upon removing the front panel I notice all three brew group seals failing, definitely a lesson here. Quickly removing two of the brewvalves I cleared the corrosion, remounted them, trimming the surface with a knife, and tightened the bolts mounting the valves so tight one wonders if it was too tight. Time was definitely my enemy last night as I only had one hour, and lack of proper surfacing supplies.

At least the ride was pretty. I must confess, I installed each of these valves a month ago, having resurfaced each group, and with brand new o-rings, careful to properly tighten. It truly baffles me, how all three of my installs failed, and of course I must go back to rework the fittings now. This troubles my sleep, and it probably will until I can get back and be assured that my seals are tight, and my work area clean. It helps that the ride is nice.

The sky had begun to darken with clouds as I left Vancouver. The bridge was tight, and I passed for the second time that day the Custom Gold Teeth sign. Getting lost, I found a new way back. For about ten blocks I was paced, on a residential street, by an ice cream truck that was mixing its ice cream truck music. Tools heavy on my back, I stopped to get some tortillas, and then cut home to sleep.

Last week I had a chance to daily sample our espresso at the Half & Half, and often to compare with our espresso made at the Little Red Bike Cafe. At the same time back in the workshop we are learning a bit more , specifically on the control valves that allow water to flow from the group heads and thus make espresso.

Almost all espresso machines in use today have a 3-way solenoid valve, made by Parker, that is connected to a switch/button/paddle, for each grouphead. The Solenoid is basically a gate for the water, its natural position being closed. A coil of wire in a black box surrounds the mechanical part of the valve. When a current is run through this coil it creates a magnetic field that pulls the core of the valve down, opening the gate for the incoming hot water, closing the lower opening, and allowing water to run through the valve to the shower screen of the group.

The newer style of valve cores utilize synthetic ruby seals. These are superior to the older Viton seals because of their longevity and resistance to corrosion. Inside the core, and pushing behind each of the two ruby seals are two springs, making sure each ruby will seat evenly. Synthetic ruby is grown in a laboratory, and it is very rigid with just enough give on its surface to seal nicely.

The downfall of synthetic ruby versus Viton, is that inadequate rinsing of detergent may lead to residue temporarily gluing the ruby to the seat, causing temporary valve failure.

What we are really learning about this week is what happens when seals and seats do not perfectly match up, and also what happens when switches go bad, since the sign of these problems may often be the same. All week long we will be exploring seats and seals at the workshop. We know that we have some valves that are not working nicely, and so we are going to see if we may flip the ruby discs and clean the seats.