Uncle Zhang’s turn point on his 40th

 

Editor | A grass eating designer

What is the power source for communication?  

Maybe you can’t find it on Baidu, because I made it.

This time I want to talk about communication.

I really don’t like keep talking with people for a long time.

This is like smash my own sign,

Are all the previous conversations fake?

I have met and talked with so many people, but I didn’t like it at all?

No, no,no

Actually I can only say that I am a person that lack the communication power supply.

For example, I probably only use 20% of my power to communicate,

I like to stay away from people to charge myself, get along with myself.

(Yes, I like to stay at home)

Constant communication is a platform of exchange for many coffee drinkers.

Exchange of ideas are important to build your network of friends.

People who are open to communication will enjoy it.

Through each communication we will improve our communication skills

They are always full of energy, and even can be healed through communication.

Unfortunately, I am just the opposite.

Every time I have a communication, my"communication power" drops.  

When it is over, there will be a whole bunch of things need me to do.

You might even get a collapse state.

I wonder if anyone has the same power supply like me?

This time we visited a TV professional who is also engaged in film and TV.

He may spend all his time on communication every day.

Why did he end up in the coffee industry from TV professional industry?

This time let's take a look at the turning point of our coffee voyager Zhang Lei 

 Kunming’s “Heirloom”

As a native from Yunnan province, I have been living in Kunming-the capital city. It’s a laid-back city with a slow pace of life and a very livable climate all year round.

This is the "Treasure" of Kunming. You don't have to be rich to live comfortable here.

Such a slow pace of life enables me to know about coffee and learn more about coffee then falling in love with coffee.

Media Student

I was majoring in media in university, and after graduated I worked in a television station for six years. After that I also worked in advertising for a few years. There was a day that I have learned a little about coffee, and it was at that time I came into the coffee industry.

The TV station will give you many opportunities to get in touch with friends from all walks of life. However, after six years of working in this industry, although I have memories,I have lost my love for it. Being away from home almost the whole year, I couldn’t stay with families and friends made so sad and really wanted to go away.

And coffee brings me a different lifestyle, so that I have more time to share love and happiness with my friends. After I have learned more about coffee roasting, I couldn't help learning more about it. Although some friends did not understand why I was doing such a boring job, they could feel it after they tasted the coffee that I roasted.

Now, every time I see my friends drinking the coffee that I roasted, it's worth it!

 The chance of coffee 

Actually, it was one of my friend wanted to open up a cafe. I just followed my friend and the designer to visit places. "Do you need a busboy?" I joked. She said, "Yes, I do!” This kind of joke, brought me to the coffee journey, for my whole life.

Beijing, cognitive, go back to ‘school’

After that joke, I started my first coffee trip. Like many of my friends who want to open up a café now, it was a cool thing to do for me, open up a café, and to be a popular Barista. But I there were so many difficulties that I didn't expect after I tried it.

Although our café was hot in Kunming at that time, when the business went good, they needed to book a table in advance to get a seat. Because of that, I was so busy that I did't have any time for myself and my family. I felt like I was just a robot, didn’t have time to learn how to make the best coffee.

So that I decided to leave coffee industry three years later, didn’t want to touch any coffee cup, didn’t want to find any job that related to coffee because it is totally different from what I imagined.

By chance, I met a foreigner in Beijing. In his café, I had my first real taste of specialty coffee – the flavor of fruit, flower, brown sugar, tea feeling… Perfect! At that moment, I found that I fell in love with coffee again!!

After that, I often went to drink coffee with that foreigner and I have learned a lot about coffee that I did not know before from him. It turned out that coffee was much more profound than I had known before, I felt like I know nothing about coffee!

I had read a lot of books, but many of them were repetitive, for the other part, each author has their own understanding of coffee, this make me very confused.

 Turning Point on my 40th

When I was 40 years old, I began to learn the best and newest coffee knowledge overseas in a formal and systematic way. Not only I want to be a good barista to make a nice cup of coffee for my friends, but I also want to be adisseminator for coffee culture and spread the best, newest and most practicalcoffee knowledge to everyone who loves coffee.

Sometimes this makes me feel tired, but every time I share delicious coffee with my friends, every time when I share my knowledge of coffee to students or friends around, all the exhaustion is gone!

Coffee has now brought me not only the enjoyment of taste and smell, but also the great motivation to keep learning.

Why do I want to learn roast? 

The most important thing was because of the light roasted beans I have tasted in Beijing! Although I have been making coffee for a few years, I know a little about roasting, I only know about Italian espresso, subconsciously, I think all roasted beans are almost the same as espresso!

It was the very first time that I felt something completely different! That’s why I loved to drinking coffee with that foreigner, because I wanted to know more about the flavor things, wanted to listening him describe them by different roasts levels. At that time I didn't have the chance to try roasting by myself! But I also learned a lot about roasting that I didn't know before.

When’s my opportunity to roast?

After I came back to Kunming, I got to know a teacher who had many years of roasting experience here, and then I started to learn from him. I also had the opportunity to roast a batch of coffee by myself. In retrospect, it was very ordinary, but I did baked beans.

I was extremely exciting! After that, I decided to start my roasting life. I wanted to use my knowledge to express the awesome characteristic of coffee. I want to be the important part to connect coffee farmers and consumers.Therefore, I will try harder to learn about coffee roasting and share my experience with you.

 Change one-sided understanding of coffee 

What I really want to change is the one-sided understanding of coffee from the people around me, which make many people misunderstand coffee!

If no one drinks coffee

 If this doesn't happen, as long as we have the passionate of coffee and working hard, the number of people will only increase and the quality of coffee will get better and better! I have every faith in it! So we need to work harder!!

What do you like to do in your spare time?

 One of my favorite sports is football, especially in Kunming!! As long as time permits, I will play it every week!! And also because of my media major, so usually I’ll watch movies after work, listen to music also!

Occasionally I will play phone games with friends!! Last but not least, I do not only drink coffee -- as a native of Yunnan, it is also necessary to drink tea with friends and chat!!

Click to read more articles by Zhang Lei : 

How to reduce smokiness during Coffee Roasting

Everyone has their own unique perspective to meet yourself, like and dislike. It's like my strange power supply of communication. It doesn’t mean that I hate everyone, but I do feel physically drained after spending time with people, even if I don't do anything.

Compared with communicating with people, I’d rather read books. Everyone has their own hobby, but what I want to say is, can you stand up to yourself? Too many work places force you to do what you may not like? But complaining doesn't solve problems. The first step to solve problems is to be honest, and then to find solutions step by step :)

So, stand up to yourself. Keep trying. Age isn't a problem, but is the problem that blinds you to your true feelings.

How to Reduce the Smokiness during Coffee Roasting

Author: Lei Zhang

Editor: Kelvin & Amir

---

How to Reduce the Smokiness during Coffee Roasting

When I began to learn how to roast coffee, I found that I would have the same problem as many other roasters—smoky flavors would always find their way into my beans.  

Whenever you roast, the silver skins burn off, and the result would be a smokiness in the coffee.  However, this smokiness can be reduced during the resting period after a batch is roasted.

( Credit Alex Jones )

This had always been my understanding, until I took a course by Dr. Manuel, one of SCI’s founding members.

Dr. Manuel emphasized the idea that unless you’re in second crack, there really isn’t any smoke.  There were some improper “standard” or “traditional” roasting methods that needed to be updated.

The other students and I couldn’t understand at first, but by the end of the SCI course, all of our question had been answered.  Following are some of the big questions I had, and the answers I found during my time studying with Dr. Manuel.

1、Silver Skin Burning will Produce a lot of Smoke

( Credit Square One Coffee Roasters )

In the early stages of the roast process, the silver skin inside the bean will not fall off so quickly, but the silver skin exposed on the outside will come off and get sucked into the silver skin collector.  

A small amount of this will combust, but the smoke produced will only pass over the surface of the coffee bean.

(Note: The silver skin inside the bean won’t burn away until the bean has reached medium or dark roast. These silver skins are what we find sometimes find among coffee grounds.)

And so we find that, actually, the silver skins burning off is not a major factor, and some of these smokey notes will disappear within a few hours after the roast.

2、Where Do the Strong Smokey Notes Come From?

But this answer only led us to more questions.

The structure of coffee beans are very fibrous, so at a certain temperature the bean will begin to burn and carbonize.  And so, if the silver skins did not burn out, how could the fibrous structure burn?

( Credit Killer Roasting Co. )

To answer this new question, we need to understand a bit more about “traditional” roasting methods.

Most roasters will use high temperatures during the roast, or start with a high charge temperature, especially when using beans with a high moisture content.  This is intended to accelerate the dehydration process so as to avoid a “baked”, dull flavor in the cup.

However, there are some problems with method, and one of the symptoms is the smoky flavor that we find in the cup.

However, this method is wrong and one of the main reasons for smoke.

3、How can we know that this is the problem?

We know that the heat transfer inside the coffee beans is conducted primarily through the free water between the cells.  

Consider the example of boiling water on a stove.  If the kettle is first heated up with a big fire, some of the water will immediately vaporize when added, but as more water is added, the temperature rise will not be as sharp.

This same principle can be applied to coffee beans.  When we set a high charge temperature and drop the beans into the drum, the water on the outside will quickly absorb heat, vaporize and dissipate.  

This will reduce the temperature inside the drum and delay the transfer of heat inside the beans.  This will have a few impacts on the roast：

( Credit Damian Krzywoń )

1，First, there will be a large difference in the temperature on the surface of the coffee beans and inside.  When a roast is completed, we may find that the surface has been roasted to the desired color, but the inside is relatively under-roasted, or underdeveloped.

2，This issue is further exacerbated by the heat from the steam acting on the surface of the coffee bean.  The fibrous structures of the bean also lose water content, burning more easily, resulting in a more carbon-like flavor.

The result is a smoky flavor in the cup, even in a medium or light roast coffee.  This smokiness will take a long resting time to fade, and it is nearly impossible to remove completely.

So how can we avoid this from happening?  During the SCI roasting course, we focused on one key principle: medium to medium-low heat will more evenly transfer heat inside the coffee beans, resulting in a more balanced roast.

We recommend trying a relatively lower charge temperature for your roast profiles—the results may surprise you!

( Credit Kris Krug via Flickr )

Of course, there are many other factors that can result in a smoky flavor in the cup.  These include the air flow, the timing of adjusting the heat, control of the Rate of Rise (RoR).  We will cover these topics later in other posts.

It is important to remind everyone here to also properly clean and care for your roaster, as this can also result in some unwanted smokiness.

Some people might ask, “what if my beans are not fresh?” or “if the moisture content is too high, or the density is too low, what problem might this produce?”  These and other topics will be covered in our SCI courses, as well as future posts.

I hope you all found this article useful and informative!  See you next time!

About the author