Ia Tanskanen

Coffee roasting and its complexity is intriguing. It can be considered both as a handcraft skill and physics. The third wave coffee movement treasures the origins of the coffee beans and how they are roasted. In this article, I will present a person who possesses the know-how of turning green coffee beans into a coffee product that consists of a vast amount of exquisite flavours.

Alan Grosvenor, born and raised in Seattle, Washington, USA, works as a roaster at the Kaffa Roastery in Punavuori, Helsinki. Before moving to Finland in 2014, Alan used to work for Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland, Oregon. Stumptown Coffee Roasters was founded in 1999. One could say that it’s one of the most famous third wave coffee roasting companies and a key player in the field of roasting quality coffee.

IA
Hi Alan! How are you? How did you come up with the idea of moving here, to the cold and dark North?

ALAN
Well, I am a coffee roaster by profession and my friend Svante from Kaffa Roastery offered me a job. We’ve known each other for ten years. We originally met  in 2007, when Kaffa was founded.

IA
Did you meet each other in Finland, in the US or elsewhere?

ALAN
We met here. Before that, I had been in Finland in 2001. I came here to visit Ruisrock Festival and to see my Finnish friend, Joni.

I loved the city and the culture and spent some time here in Finland. Afterwards I kept coming back. So actually I came to Finland for rock’n roll before coffee. Coffee came afterwards.

…actually I came to Finland for rock’n roll before coffee. Coffee came afterwards

IA
When did you get interested in coffee?

ALAN
It’s funny actually. Because I grew up in Seattle everyone would think, at least the people who know me, that I got into coffee in Seattle. Seattle is kind of phenomenal with coffee and Twin
Peaks and Frasier and you know, McDreamy and all that stuff. But that is not the case, I didn’t get into coffee until Portland, Oregon. I moved there in 2002 and 2005 I started working at Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

IA
Did you work there as a roaster or as a barista?

ALAN
I have never been a barista. That is actually one job in coffee I’ve never done. I started working in the roasters, in Stumptown in Portland, but that just involved pretty much crap work. You are filling coffee bags, cleaning the roasters, cleaning the chaff that comes after roasting, grinding coffee, getting it ready for shipping, just packing and throwing 70 kilo coffee sacks on your back. Over and over all day. It was excruciating work, I mean. We still do it that way at Kaffa. It can be exhausting and hard on the body. So, that’s how I started.

IA
When and how did you start learning roasting?

ALAN
It was after. After being in that sort of environment, being surrounded by coffee roasters and a coffee roaster itself, you get the hang of it. Because you are around it all the time, you learn a lot about it. But I didn’t really start roasting until years later, in 2011 when I moved back to Portland after trying to move to Finland a few times. Brandon Smyth was a roaster in Stumptown. He left Stumptown and started his own roaster, Water Avenue. His wife was eight months pregnant and he needed somebody to fill their shoes. So he came to me and asked if I wanted to learn how to roast. I was like “Jesus Christ, finally”. So that’s how I started roasting and that’s also how I started learning how to source coffee on sourcing trips to El Salvador.

IA
Where or how is it possible to learn roasting coffee? Is it that you go somewhere and work there for a certain period of time, and then, at some point you are allowed to step in? Or is there any kind of “schools” were you can learn it?

ALAN

See, that is the hard thing about the trade, like roasting coffee. There is really no school for roasting. Either you start on your own; you buy a small roaster and learn to roast at home on your own time and at your own pace. But usually you start like a tattoo artists who wants to work at a shop. You are on the ground level for a very long time. You clean the tubes, scrape blood, clean up the table, you do all the hard work, the dirty work for the tattooist.
The best way to get into roasting is to kind of start from the bottom. You shovel shit for a while and work your way up. And then hopefully, someday, the head roaster comes and says “Alright, come on kid, get in here”.

…that is the hard thing about the trade, like roasting coffee. There is really no school for roasting

IA
It sounds like an interesting and a bit of an old fashioned way to learn craftsmanship.

ALAN
Sure, I guess. Whenever someone asks me what is the best way of becoming a roaster, I just say  “Be around coffee”. If you really want to work here, just start wherever you can. Just express
interest, cup coffees, ask a lot of questions, show some initiative. Be involved and surrounded with it. And be patient, I guess.

IA
How does your average roasting day look like?

ALAN
There is a list of coffees to be roasted, packed and shipped out for that day.
We only roast to order. So, the roast list is made the night before from the previous day’s orders.
The closing crew makes me a list. I get in there at 6 am every day that I roast. I turn on the roaster.
That involves turning on the gas. Because it is an old cast roaster, you have to warm it up slowly. It
takes about half an hour, so that gives me an opportunity to first make a cup of coffee and second,
to put on some good music. Those are the two most important roles in roasting. I always drink coffee
and have a fantastic soundtrack.

IA

What do you usually listen to when you roast?

ALAN
I have to give you a disclaimer. Pretty much everything I listen to, is based on seasons. Being so nostalgic, I really rotate my playlist with the seasons. The autumn is my favourite season.

It comes a little earlier in Finland, so then I listen to everything from the TV On the Radio, Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, Miles Davis… This is when jazz starts coming back. For me summertime is not a jazz-mood.

IA
What would be inspirational music for summertime?

ALAN
For the summertime maybe Phoenix, the Refused, Tangerine Dream, Slayer, Bananarama, Eighties kind of party hits, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, things like that. Maybe more dance-around-music, but in the autumn you got to slow it down.

IA
How does it differ to be a roaster and working here in Finland than in the States? Are there any differences, for example in terms of working culture or so on?

ALAN

One of the main things I have noticed is, that the specialty coffee scene is still pretty young here in Finland. If you compared it to the States, like the West Coast, Finland is like ten years behind. That is the big thing. I don’t really notice big differences in the types of coffees that people like. In the field of speciality coffee, people from the West Coast are craving lighter roasted coffees. But traditionally the Finnish coffee is quite lightly roasted.

I heard one theory that Finns consider the darker coffee more “special”. Maybe some Finns crave or search out for something darker because they are used to Presidentti. Presidentti is really integrated into Finnish coffee culture and has a big market share. Presidentti is really lightly roasted coffee. Maybe that is the big difference, in addition to that the scene is young and vibrant. It is coming alive – which is great.

One of the main things I have noticed is, that the specialty coffee scene is still pretty young here in Finland. If you compared it to the States, like the West Coast, Finland is like ten years behind.

IA
Would you consider roasting coffee more as science, handcraft or even art? Or a mixture of the three?

ALAN
Of course, it is a mixture of those. I would like to categorize it as a handcraft of the earth trade. I love the combination of science and art involved in it. Those are the elements I personally enjoy. I
like calling roasting a trade or handcraft. It makes more sense because it is tactile. It is a physical interaction. Of course, there are scientific principles happening, that I appreciate.

I would like to categorize it as a handcraft of the earth trade. I love the combination of science and art involved in it

IA
Thank you for the interesting interview, Alan!

Find out more on Kaffa Roastery