Digits & Dragons: A Wild Story of Science & Magic
May we introduce to you Rawa Amin, and his Café / Roast-salon the Bohnerie. Chris Lee, the veritable ‘Wizard’s Apprentice’ writes to tell us how together with Rawa and team - they’re building a business that brings a little bit of science together with whole lotta magic… and what ROEST means for them in this context.
The article is dedicated to the coffee fanatics who enjoy a good story with their cup. So get ready to join Chris Lee on a journey into Science and Magic.
Setting the Scene
You and your party of bold adventurers seek the comfort and refuge of a tavern or perhaps a cafe... and low and behold: nestled beneath the eaves of a nearby tower clad in shining stone, you spy a most welcome sight. Opening the wide glass door you are greeted by the sounds of rambunctious music and cheerful merriment.
A wild-looking creature with long black hair, large spectacles and a neat beard springs out and greets you with a firm handshake. He springs on the machine and begins brewing your beverages. Towards the back of the room you spy a slightly ruffled looking fellow smiling out amid a stack of tools and machinery. “Hiya, you must be new here!” he announces cheerily “I’m Chris Lee, and if you see smoke coming out over there uh, don’t worry, I’m already working on it!”
Are you ready for coffee? big Thanks to the very talented Chierit (https://chierit.itch.io/) for the lively NPCs!
…Well, at least that is what visiting our little shop in the heart of Frankfurt looks like in my imagination! In reality it’s probably quite different depending on when you visit and what time of day. What you will always find are at least 4 different types of coffee in rotation, about 15 different ways to drink said coffee and an array of light snacks to compliment your caffeination. In my opinion, keeping the balance between fun and functional is something we do pretty well. Let me tell you how we make that all possible: come with me, Chris Lee, on a journey into Science and Magic!
The Science and the Magic
So let’s start with the Chris Lee side of things: the science. As you might have already guessed from my terminology or turn of phrase, I’m a ex-pat Australian, a bit of a nerd and quite passionate about the why and wherefores when it comes to just about anything. Before my career in coffee I completed two degrees in International Relations and began a PhD in the same field, so an ‘appetite for deduction’ is something I brought with me.
If I could put a title on my position in the Bohnerie, it would probably be something between MacGyver and a Mad-Scientist. Since neither of those are really appropriate titles for my official email correspondence, If you’re writing to our ‘Roasting Manager’, then you’re writing with me.
Tough Nut hanging out with our other sweet machine, the Steam X from Slayer.
Since about mid-last year, firing up our sweet little sample roaster Lutnes ‘’Tough Nut’’ the S100 has been a major part of my procedure. I would like to consider myself an amateur Australian version of Bill Nigh the Science guy, and ‘’Tough Nut’’ is my science-sidekick.
In end effect, this puts me in the position of the ‘wizard’s apprentice’ to Rawa himself, who is not only the head of our operation but really the heart of it too. I love data and research and pulling things apart and subsequently fixing them again… but if you’re asking Rawa he’s probably telling you I’m the one who asks too many complicated questions! Mostly he’s right about that too, but it is my humble opinion that information without inquiry is like having a bike with no wheels: you can carry it a while if you must but you won’t get very far! Luckily I share this opinion with many pioneering people like Scott Rao, Anne Cooper and Rob Hoos (to name a few of my personal heroes), leading the way towards if not data-driven, at least data-conscious coffee. Even better, we've got companies like ROEST making it easier and more efficient to get a hold of this data.
When I first started out roasting, I was literally writing down time signatures and events per hand in my notebook. Tasting notes, turning points and entire profiles: everything per hand on paper. Given my inclinations to information, it didn’t take me long to move into spreadsheets and side-graphs to interpret the meager data that I was collecting and generating on a daily basis. Nevertheless, compared to the possibilities that our little ROEST machine ‘Tough Nut’ gives us inherently, getting any kind of parity of data from our other roasting devices seems a chore - Needless to say I’m just one of the many who are patiently waiting on a production ROEST device with these capabilities! / P2000.
This brings us neatly to considering Rawa’s side of things: the magic. What use is all this frantic fascination with data if we are spending most of our time and energy just collecting it all - let alone interpreting it. These days, I have my ROEST to do the hard leg work, but in many ways I still have to admit to finding myself unable to see the forest for the trees. To paraphrase Anne Cooper, “Are you roasting the software or the coffee in the roaster?”. If I was quoting Rawa at this point he’d probably be saying ‘’Chill out Chris - just take it easy and trust your gut!’’
Here comes the Magic
Now, as you might imagine based on the aforementioned section, I’m not the shoot first, ask questions later type. I’m the ask-a-lot-of-questions write it all down guy. I’ve been working with Rawa for about 3 years now and while there are many, many things I’ve learned from observing his success, the one component that I view as really key to his approach is this: to shoot from the hip and trust in your instincts. This skill has been honed and developed through his many years of experience as a roaster and many more in the coffee industry at large. No doubt this is a useful ability for our business, dealing with people and problems, or even life in general, but I especially find it crucial in good roasting and how we run our business.
Needless to say there are days where we do not agree on everything or anything - but in the end really it’s the interaction between Rawa’s funky freestyle and my own fastidious Frankenstein approach that keeps things interesting and innovative in the Bohnerie. While I can’t really wax lyrical on the mightiness of Magic on Rawa’s behalf, based on our combined dynamic I have boiled things down into a two key examples on our recipe to success in the Bohnerie:
1. Science is important but magic comes first.
A bit of science and a lot of knowledge goes a long way to producing good coffee, but in the art of enjoying it, you can’t get anywhere without a feel for magic or the ‘vibe’ of things. I know that sounds trite coming from a nerd like me but near everybody has been to one of those coffee shops which has great coffees on the board but when you find yourself drinking it alone and awkward in a strange and sterile environment in a shop full of strangers, well, yeah, you probably didn’t find yourself experiencing a lasting feeling of enjoyment from that cup. At least 50% of what makes an awesome cup of coffee is what is happening around that cup while you are drinking it. There are probably also about 20% points for how the person serving it explained it to you. Do you feel comfortable? Are you with good people? Are you in the Bohnerie? Awesome, let’s do this!
2. Magic makes it happen, Science explains it.
If there is one thing I love most about my role at the Bohnerie, it is talking shop with our customers. Their wants, wishes and experiences in relation to our coffee is what fuels my search for delicious. When it comes down to discussing recipes gone awry or problems dialing in an espresso set-up, a bit of understanding and empathy goes a long way – it is easy to forget when your day-to-day job is coffee, how complicated some of these processes are for people who just want to drink a good coffee and get on with the rest of their busy day. The science part is being able to understand and explain what is going on or going wrong, but the real magic happens when you make that connection between understanding the problem and understanding the person. There is nothing more satisfying than that ‘aha!’ moment of realising you’re on the same wavelength with someone and have a functional solution to a problem.
Digits and Dragons!?
Alright, I hear you asking, ‘what does any of this have to do with digits and dragons and what about the ROEST?’. Fair enough - well, aside from the fact that our ROEST does it’s specific job with such efficiency and efficacy that I’ve got way more free time to do mine… I’d further like to assert that anybody who has had the pleasure of using one will know what I mean when I say the ROEST basically finds the golden-ratio between the concepts of ‘science’ and ‘magic’ as I have illustrated them in this article. I personally use the ROEST to determine the data: the whys and wherefores of our coffees. It is doubtlessly perfectly equipped to do that kind of work on a daily basis. Yet, at the same time it makes the whole process so easy, I can just about put any one of our customers on the machine and let them do the math! That is really where the magic is at, since all the science in the world won’t save you, if you forget how to have a bit of fun. As my favourite cartoon dog Jake once said “don’t let the dragon drag on, man!”.
Article written by Chris Lee, Roasting manager at Bohnerie.
References
Cropster 2021, Using Rate of Rise to your Advantage in a Production Setting, https://www.cropster.com/news/article/using-rate-of-rise-to-your-advantage-in-a-production-setting/