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.

" Kiflu Hussain July 7 at 9:09am Â· Surprise! surprise! I have never received a personal or official letter through my employer's mail box. This morning, the mailman came as usual and left a package on the table near the entrance to my office. I assumed that it could be something to do with the Institute I work for and addressed to our boss or the Coordinator as usual. When our Coordinator arrived, she said this is for you. Suspicious, I looked up the sender's name which is totally unfamiliar to me. Also checked from where it was sent. It's from Portland, Oregon. Although, I know two persons from Oregon, one living in Salem, the other one I don't exactly know, the package was not even from these friends. Meanwhile, I was sort of hesitant to open the package from a total stranger. But my colleague encouraged me, thus I opened it. It's from a guy who listened to my interview on NPR, The Takeaway. He told me that he's touched by the passionate discussion I had with John Hockenberry. Thus he sent me Ethiopian coffee imported from my country, as he has been in the business of roasting coffee since 2000 which inspired him to know more about Ethiopia. Well, it would be an understatement for me to say that I am encouraged by this person's kind gesture. I am also touched and humbled to have one more rich connection with a fellow human being."

KHussain, Dallas, TX

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Waldos: Don't let them ruin your coffee!