Our coffee is air roasted

Air roasted coffee beans are smoother, cleaner and healthier than traditional coffee beans. The process involves roasting beans on a fluid bed of hot air as opposed to the traditional method of tumbling in a hot steel drum. The coffee is freshly air-roasted in small batches in West Linton upon order. All beans are 100% Arabica speciality. Origins change regularly depending on stock availability and freshness.

air roasted coffee
photo by Isla Davidson
Bar

  • Taste

It has a purer taste that is less acidic and bitter than drum roasted coffee. This is due to the chaff which is the outer skin that comes off the bean during air roasting.

  • Chaff

In traditional roasting, there is no mechanism for removing the chaff so it usually remains in the drum. Sometimes it burns and smokes, releasing carcinogens that affect the flavour of the coffee, particularly in dark-roasted coffee.

  • Roasting

Air roasting is a lot quicker than drum roasting. A longer roasting time leads to more true flavour loss and the formation of acidic compounds that can cause stomach irritation. With air roasting, this is greatly reduced.
Belgin by Irene

A quick history

Some twenty years ago a young barista spent two years learning the trade of coffee making in a Convent Garden coffee shop, where Irene, a customer, made a portrait of the young student (above). The trade was noisy and fun with well known actors from Drury Lane and its busy theatre going public.
A fascination for the coffee trade  remained, so that when years later in West Linton a close friend and neighbour had to move, she offered Belgin her small scale coffee roasting business, BrawBeans. 
As a result, the drawing of the young barista still keeps a close eye on the coffee roasting!