Since 2019
A drum roaster, a cupping table, and not much else.
Red Twist started in a shared unit off Weston Street with a second-hand roaster and one wholesale account. Seven years on there are four of us and about twenty accounts. The roaster is the same one.
Sourcing
Where the green comes from
We buy through three importers rather than direct from farms. It is the honest answer: at 12 kg a batch we do not move enough volume for direct trade to mean anything to a producer, and pretending otherwise would be marketing.
What we can do is buy whole lots instead of blending scraps, pay above the market reference on every purchase, and print what we paid per kilogram of green on the bag. When a lot is gone it comes off the list.
Roasting
How it gets dark
Every new lot gets three sample roasts on a 100 g machine and a blind cupping before we commit a production profile. Once it is set, we log every batch — charge temperature, turning point, development time, end temperature — and check the curve against the reference before the coffee is bagged.
Batches that drift outside tolerance go to staff coffee. It happens maybe twice a month, and it is the reason we do not sell what we would not drink.
The room
Open on Saturdays
The roastery door is open 9–1 on Saturdays. There is a brew bar, whatever is fresh off Friday's roast, and usually someone happy to talk through a recipe. It is not a café — there is no food and there are four stools.
- Saturday9:00 – 13:00, brew bar open
- WeekdaysCollection by arrangement
- CuppingFirst Saturday of the month, 10:00
- ParkingStreet, unrestricted on weekends
Come and taste something
The monthly cupping is free and takes about forty minutes. Six coffees, no expertise required, no attempt to sell you a subscription at the end.