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!!!

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