Where's Waldo And How'd He Ruin Your Coffee?

What's a Waldo? (remember "Where's Waldo?" from childhood?) Roaster-speak for the usually singular burned-black bean which appears in the cooling tray after roasting a batch of coffee. It can result from a natural defect in the bean itself or a mechanical issue, i.e. somehow getting stuck in the drum from a prior roast and being re-roasted and hence charred.

Waldos can have a big impact on coffee quality and flavor, especially if you are grinding small amounts of beans for espresso or 4-cup brewers. Our precision roasting results in a very uniform profile and color, so Waldos are generally easy to spot, and we carefully scan each roast during the cooling cycle and try to remove every Waldo by hand.

Those of us who roast many natural-process coffees are always on the lookout for other bean defects which might result in cranky coffee cups. Just the sobriquets alone give us pause..."quakers", "stinkers", "broca", not to mention the occasional pebble which can appear in coffees which are dried on or near the ground. Large commercial roasteries which might be using massive amounts of marginal coffees go through a post-roast sorting process called destoning which will segregate non-coffee matter by its specific weight. Some very high-end producers also go an extra mile by laser-scanning for defective green beans and shooting them off the conveyor belts!

At Badbeard's we maintain a strict "No Waldos" policy to ensure the highest quality coffee experience, so if someone asks you "Where's Waldo?", you won't find'em here!

Meet Waldo's cousin "Quaker"--this little bean stands out in the crowd, and should never see the inside of a grinder. One waldo can ruin your coffee

Badbeard scans each roast carefully to keep Waldos out of your cup.

Unique S.O. Brazil espresso in house today! Welcome mat rolled out today for the biodynamically-produced, organic certified Fazenda Floresta from Bahia State in Northeastern Brazil. Doesn't get much better for single origin espresso cravers.

And the juicy Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Blue Nile back in stock, fresh crop just off the boat, ...more

HOT FLASH...Going out of town Thursday May 9...last chance orders shipping/roasting tomorrow Hey there Badbeardians, gotta chill for a few days and head out to lovely Chapel Hill, NC to witness my stepson's UNC Law School graduation...yay Maaatthew! Will be roasting and shipping any and all orders placed before Wednesday, May 8 but not again til Tuesday May 14. In the next life I'll try ...more

Yirgacheffe Blue Nile backorder, Sumatra Honey Mandheling Will be replenishing the outstanding Yirgacheffe Blue Nile in a couple of weeks with the new crop offering...sold out. Also hope to introduce the complex "honey process" Sumatra Mandheling, a pirated brief description from Royal Coffees info portal..."This coffee is processed in a unique style, ...more

"Sumatra Triple Pick Lintong There's a swamp mud jungle funk going on here. Aromatically, Doctor Livingston's cherries have fallen out of his knapsack and lie among the moldering leaves, next to a bog. An Irish peat bog. Lightly singed. In Sumatra. Go figure. That smoky peat-water thing carries to the body - ROBUST I believe is the word. Sweet, voluptuous presentation quickly yields to the gripping, chunky tannins wrapped in licorice that dominate the midpalate. Longgggg finish spiked with orange rind, cardamon,wood shavings, and leaf mould. This is potent stuff. Diane can't drink it. (She loved the Etheopian Mothership.) My inner orangutan, however, loves it. Thanks Badbeard!"

jJason, Dundee, OR

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Waldos: Don't let them ruin your coffee!