Shaun Aupiais is certainly no stranger to coffee, and while their coffee roastery is still a spring chicken, obviously his experience shines through in their first year entering the comp, they’re in the Top 10 right off the bat! Congrats Shaun!
Name of Roastery: We Roast Coffee
Name of Roaster: Shaun Aupiais
Where did you learn your roasting skills? And how long have you been doing it?
It's always been a love and passion of mine to be able to control and manipulate flavour before I would receive it in a coffee bar or training session. I've been contract roasting and dabbling in roasting for 10 years but officially on our own roaster with our company for nearly 18 months now.
What roasting equipment do you use?
Genio 6 Pro
Do you use software to help you create profiles for coffees? What is your process when you get a new green coffee in the roastery?
Yes with Genio's software. There are many factors I look at with each and every coffee that comes in, generally continent, screensize, processing, Altitude, soil and varietal. Age of crop comes into play especially with expectation of moisture content. I would roast and cup a coffee at least 3 times before I settle on a profile that I will log as my core profile. Thereafter we re-evaluate a profile on a monthly basis as there are ambient & environmental changes that take place that impact the consistency of the roast profile.
How did you find the Preliminary Round Tanzanian coffee, was it interesting to work with? And in what way?
So I've had the privilege of working with a few Tanzania single estate coffees and also specifically the same screen size too. The one thing I found very different was the freshness of this coffee, it was very moist. The moisture loss was only extremely low at 13% therefore the drying phase on the coffee a little more challenging. Similar to previous ones I've roasted but I had the ability to hit this coffee with a higher charge and alot more energy over the entire roast. After my second roast and cupping I was happy so I submitted that as my sample.
Do you have a ritual when you roast? (Ie Listen to music, specific days or times of day)
Generally I roast mid-late afternoons during winter as its cool and I get super relaxed and zone out when I roast. I find it a great way to end off my day as its extremely therapeutic. I also love manually sifting through the coffee and eating the Quakers!
What is your favourite thing about being a coffee roaster?
The simplicity and solitude of it all. Having the ability to experiment & experience a coffee to its full potential.
What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you in the pursuit of delicious coffee?
We were experimenting with a Brazil specialty coffee and pure CBD isolate a few months ago. I messed up the formulation and put in 3 times the amount of CBD in the infusion process and forgot to also put gloves on my hands during the mixing process, needless to say after an hour or so I was super chilled and slept like a baby that night. Let's say I've enjoyed CBD coffee more than one way, with and without coffee!
Please tell us a little know fact, completely un-coffee related, that will give readers some insight into who you are as a person.
I absolutely love the outdoors. I'm a run director of a Parkrun in Port Elizabeth at a nature trail venue and I enjoy trail running as a full time hobby. Family and friends mean the world to me too.
SEE THE FULL TOP 10 AND SCORES HERE
