May 2019

Drop by your local café on a sunny, spring morning, and you may very well find the employees behind the counter roasting beans while chatting up the early risers. Boutique café roasting is growing by leaps and bounds nationwide, as popular demand for artisanal coffees and advances in roasting technology continue to intersect. But Orinoco Coffee & Tea master roaster Juan-Carlos Ramirez believes this fad may ultimately fade. Visiting a coffee house where beans are roasted on-site is a novelty for the public, he says, particularly for those who have never experienced the process firsthand. There’s a certain nuance to the café roasting scene;