After selling my wholesale coffee roasting business in Sydney and returning to Orange NSW where I grew up, my business partners and I decided it was time to light up the roasting fires and produce roasted coffee in Orange. This was in no way an original idea as Bills Beans had originally started roasting years before our light bulb moment.
Once Bills Beans sold to a much larger Sydney based company, we made the leap to bring local coffee roasting back to Orange. The problem? We didn't have a roaster!
Having roasted on a Probat (beautiful German made drum roasters) and a few other not-so-great roasters, I asked a few people I trusted in the coffee roasting industry on their opinions about our next roaster purchase. The verdict overwhelmingly and unanimously was a Loring, a US built, technologically advanced hybrid drum and convection roaster.
With giddy excitement, we placed our order with Loring in the US. Our s15 was now in the production queue. The production queue however, thanks to covid, had blown out to almost 24 months!
8 months in, while sipping what was probably the 4th coffee for the day. A little miracle notification popped up on our computer screen. Someone in QLD was selling the exact roaster we had ordered as they were upgrading to a bigger one. Right in front of us was the opportunity to grab this beautiful beast of a machine, and bring our roasting dreams forward by 12 month.
Decision made, Nick and I started planning logistics. This thing was in 3 wooden crates and we couldn't get a truck to take the whole lot. Road Trip!!
A few planning meetings later and with help from the boys at Kennards, we had the trailer hitched and we were on the way to Brisbane
Up through Coonabarabran , Narrabri, Goondiwindi, Moree, Toowoomba and back with 3 tonnes of coffee roaster on the tray - there were some white knuckle moments!
A couple of fork lifts later, and with the help of some legend locals, the roaster settled into its working position on the factory floor!
