Roasting coffee beans: The pleasure from drinking it is the reward

By Joe Olvera ©, 2013

It’s known all over the world as Java, Cuppa Joe, Liquid Energy, Go Juice, and by other colorful names. But, these concoctions are often made the traditional way. However, did you know that there’s another tried and true method to getting the best cup of Morning Mud? That’s to roast the beans yourself. And there are many different ways to do it.

Paulina Salazar, lead coffee roaster at Bldg. 6, Coffee Roasters, 11385 James Watt Dr., B-6, says that the store with the unusual name is a locally-owned green coffee bean micro-roastery that focuses on producing small batches of crafted coffee that are selected by a number of techniques, such as “cupping” to ensure taste and quality in every single batch.

“Roasting is what sets us apart from other companies and coffees,” Salazar said. “Our passion for coffee is what made us open a business that would do coffee justice.” The business is relatively new to El Paso, but larger cities already have it. “We are what they call the third-wave in the coffee business. It is a new movement where coffee from different regions of the world is roasted by micro-roasteries, producing high-quality coffee and it is considered an artisanal production.”

Third-wave coffee include free-trade coffee, direct-trade coffee, specialty high quality beans, single-origin coffee – not blends anymore – lighter roasts of the beans, different methods of coffee brewing, including individual drip-brewing. As in the making of fine wines or in the production of 12-year-old scotch, for the coffee lover, the taste is the mother of invention. Salazar said that roasting coffee is a hand-crafted job. “It is similar to wine, cheese, beer, chocolate crafting, just to name a few. It takes a lot of knowledge, and love to the art of roasting coffee in order to produce great quality batches of coffee. This art form is very popular in the east and west coasts, but, it is still new to El Pasoans.”

The Bldg. 6 Roastery sells specialty, single-origin, freshly-roasted coffee either by the bag or by the cup. They also sell the required brewing equipment and they really promote the right brewing techniques in order for their customers to brew a high quality coffee at their home. They buy green coffee from various coffee producing countries and roast it at Bldg. 6. “Since we buy the raw green coffee beans and roast it in store, we are able to give our customers specialty, fresh-roasted coffee, which means better quality and flavor for better prices than other coffee sellers. Freshly-roasted coffee makes a difference,” Salazar says. “Know it and love it.”