The new roaster arrived in pieces

The 15 kilo roaster came on a pallet with a note that said "some assembly required", which turned out to be an understatement. The drum, the cooling tray, the afterburner and the control cabinet each arrived in a separate crate. The door to our workshop is eighty-six centimetres wide. The roaster body, we found out at nine in the morning, is eighty-eight.

Joost took the door off its hinges, then the frame, and then, after some discussion, a thin strip of the plaster beside it. The neighbours from the bakery next door came to watch. One of them fetched a trolley, another brought coffee, a gesture we appreciated and which was slightly ironic. By noon the machine was inside, upright and level.

The rest took two more weeks. An electrician reworked the supply line, and the flue had to be rerouted through the roof and approved by the building inspector. Our first test roast was green coffee from the shelf that we did not mind losing. It came out burnt on the outside and raw inside, and we were thrilled, because it meant everything worked.

What changes for you

Not much, at first. The old 5 kg roaster stays and takes the small lots and the samples. The larger machine takes the Huisblend and Huila, which make up most of what we sell. The batches are bigger, the roast is steadier, and we no longer have to run the same coffee three times on a busy Tuesday.

If you pass by on a roasting day, the smell reaches the corner of the street. Come and have a look through the window.