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Well sadly coffee isn't a get rich quick scheme so we quickly became busy but it takes real scale to start replacing income. My day job is as a consultant specialised in frontline worker productivity BUT I'm just going on an unpaid sabbatical over Christmas to help support things as we grow!

That's kind words thank you and very happy that you find it useful! I think it's a wonderful hobby, craft and business and everyone should get the opportunity to learn about how wonderful the product is that so many of us consume on a daily basis. I'm learning more every day myself!!

Heya 👋 welcome to the channel! If you check out one of my earlier videos I covered all our startup costs with a breakdowm too!

Where's the faith?! 😅 We'll get it done, stay tuned! 💪💪

You are very welcome 🤗 what do you want to see next?

Thank you 😊 it's overwhelmingly exciting to have a crack at the shop side of things just 🤞

Haha yes sink is in and it's huuuuuge 😅 I edited out me talking about it for over a minute! Chocolate recommendation noted!

Thank you so much! 🙏 I think we will probably need all the help we can get 😅

Love it thank you I'll check it out!! More updates coming soon on the inside!

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Heya thanks so much! When we opened we just did local deliveries and markets and so dodged a lot of complexity like boxes and shipping (we did get a custom stamp made online though) and we printed our own labels at home. For someone else just starting what I'd recommend doing is coming up with a prioritisation of what's 'Must Have' vs what's 'Should Have' or 'Could Have'. I think there is a risk that when starting something big and new we get wrapped up trying to make it perfect on day 1 but in reality it's going to evolve and change no matter what you do!

@@ForgeValleyRoasters Thanks for great advice. Take care! Best luck for your business. Greetings from Norway.

Thank you so much!

That's awesome!! I wish I'd started much younger so more power to you and I wish you the absolute very best. Let me know if you've any questions and you are always welcome to visit if you're up in the area!

Heya for the roasting course I went down to Winchester Coffee Roasters and took their course. There are others out there too though and it's important to note that the Winchester one is not SCA certified, I think there are a couple in London that are. The Winchester one was a bit broader and included the practicalities of running a roastery, it also used Roastmax roasters (which is what we are using at time of writing). The SCA ones are a bit more on the techincal side and follow a globally standardised structure to content so just have a think about which you think would be more useful for you!

Thank you so much 🙏 I'm afraid I can offer no guidance on Ugandan economy and business 😅 but you've certainly got access to some fantastic coffee!! ☕

Thank you so much! 🙏 Even though we are excited it's incredibly scary to make the leap as it's certainly not cheap opening a coffee shop!

Wow that's nice margins!! For the UK we might get our Brazil's between £5-£8 but the retail would only be £10ish for a 250g bag where we are (more if you are in London)

Heya I made a video to answer this, check it out and let me know if you've any other questions! th-cam.com/video/hrmHDuZbpI0/w-d-xo.htmlsi=555KYM7vIWQVj8H4

Thanks Chris!

You bet!!

I use Sony's software to render the videos off my camera and then I use a mix of clipchamp and capcut! Tbf I really should start editing my audio mix too as you suggest just always a matter of time available 😭

For me a lower charge temp inevitably leads to a longer roast time. Is it different for you on the Giesen?

@@ForgeValleyRoasters it is different…but also if you do a decaf and then go to the next batch quickly without too long in between batches…you will be working with a hotter roaster and can roast quicker. Or reduced batch size makes the roast go quicker for me also.

Yea reduced batch size has the biggest impact for me by far but I've a feeling the Roastmax is underpowered for its size, it shouldn't struggle at 70% capacity

Ahhh I'm so glad you found it useful! I thought this would be a popular one but apparently it's a bit niche 😅

@@ForgeValleyRoasters maybe youre ahead of the times

Thanks for the feedback, can you share what are you interested in specifically around roasting?

Yea can do, at least where I have answers anyway 😅, fire me over your questions?

Haha so both then 😅

@@ForgeValleyRoasters from someone who enjoys the view from the fence …. Yes I used to be indecisive but now I’m not so sure …..😇🖖🏼

Thank you very much 🙏

Thank you!! I think there will be some videos to make once we are in the space setting up!

Thank you! Going to be your new home away from home? 😀

Thanks so much!

That’s Great news! Congrats guys! Enjoying your videos from Canada. It would be interesting to follow you guys on your journey of opening a coffee shop. Really looking forward for the upcoming episodes.

Thank you so much! Do you roast?

@@ForgeValleyRoasters yeah my wife and I started CoffeeSnobs Australia 20 years ago which was a group of home roasters that would decide up the bags of green beans but we sold it to the guy who owns it now and he has done amazing things with it. I have only just gotten back into making decent coffee at home and roasting my own after 20 years. I used to use a heat gun and colander and how I am using a bench top convection oven with a rotisserie drum in it. So I have a tad more control and it’s more repeatable . I can’t tell the temp of the beans just the chamber temp and I can hear the cracks with the beans I have Ethiopian Gambella which is tiny. It’s a really nice coffee and I am having fun playing with roast temps and times just to see what happens. I have just about got it right I think. I am also working on “She Who Must Be Obeyed” who is also the “ Keeper of the Coin” to allow me to buy an actual coffee roaster. She is warming to the idea. It will probably for me just be a serious hobby but who knows where it will lead.

@@PubRunner honestly thats such a fun way to engage with the process though I think there is deep learning from going purely by the smell and the taste etc. The science of roasting helps massively but only when there is a solid foundation of experience to apply it to I think! Feel free to send me some beans, always up for a coffee exchange :D

@@ForgeValleyRoastersnow that does sound interesting. I currently only have some Ethiopian Gambella. I usually get my beans from CoffeeSnobs at 2.5 kg at a time. While I am kicking myself I don’t pursue coffee roasting and home espresso back then, I am kind of grateful for the 20 year gap as I really appreciate the new coffees and on the whole all the coffee we have tried has been sooooo much better than what we were drinking back then. Here I Australia Wood Fired roasters here have a Choc Berry blend that the aftertaste of Cherry Ripe. Really nice. I have been trying to figure out if it was the better coffee or the new Sage Oracle doing something different to the other coffee machine see have had over the years. So I brought down Illy Classico and while the family likes it I don’t mind drinking it but the aftertaste… shudder. So I I am pretty sure it’s the MUCH better quality coffee.

The best time was 20 years ago but the next best time is today as they say 😅 I think it's wonderful you are coming back to it!!

Thank you very much 🙏

Hey thanks so much! For labour cost we did rough timings for roasting, label/package design (with that cost spread across all bags of that origin/blend) and then packing up the order for pickup. We used an average salary number to come up with the per hour labour cost and that's what we built into the margin. Ideally at some point I'll hire a roaster to work with me and they'd take the labour cost and we'll pay ourselves through dividends from profit and not a salary. Does that help?

Much appreciated!

Yes!!! I did do an Amazon affiliate setup and later videos I've added links but I should retrospectively add them here given how many views this video seems to be racking up now!

This is a 5kg shop roaster but in reality the comfortable max load I've found is 3.65kg so in theory you could output approx 80kg in a day at a reasonable pace

@@ForgeValleyRoastersthe roaster you are talking about, the one you seem to be using, is that the Cormorant CR600 is a 600g roaster that costs around 2K? Your reply here talks about the 5kg shop roaster, which one is that and how much did that one cost?

🙌 thank you! We got a bit lucky tbh as we stumbled across the place and it hadn't been on the market in 2 generations! Basically put every single penny we had into it, we love it but my gosh a lot to get done! 🥵

@@ForgeValleyRoasters It's absolutely stunning, congratulations!

Tash is verry happy with this comment 🤣

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Hey Darren you are very welcome and glad you are enjoying the content!! Really helps to know it's helping! It's a tough question because I think it depends on personal circumstance and ambition/risk level. There's no doubt that you cannot run a production roasting business above even a few kilos per week on something like the Cormorant (unless you are extremely patient!). That being said I don't regret what we did and wouldn't change it if starting again because it's a great sample roaster now alongside our bigger one and it also allowed us to get started with practically zero risk attached. Also you have to get over the hump of learning the basics of roasting and it's easier to do that wasting only 500g a time rather than 3+ kilos 😅

This question is great! I'm torn between what to go for. Based in Cornwall, I'm considering the cormorant off your recommendation. I've mainly only looked at the Allio, but you've turned my head. 😅

Smells mega too 😁

Oh wasn't this just a bit of a mess 🙈 but I thought it a shame to delete stuff so left it up. I'm going to improve on it next time (have purchased some longer cables) so I can set up some better views and speed up the data connection too!

@ForgeValleyRoasters I'm glad you did leave it up. As I said, I'm finding it very useful 👍 Thank you

Thanks so much for the kind words really motivates me to keep going 🙏 A comparison roast could be misleading because the machines are different sizes and design so if I mirrored the power changes etc. the results are guaranteed to be different but not necessarily due to the fuel source 🤔 Anecdotally though I do think changes in the electric sample roaster are more gentle although I've always thought the roasted coffee coming out is very tasty and a different flavour to gas roasting. I'll think more on this!!

@ForgeValleyRoasters Thank you for your reply. Totally agree, a mirrored type roast would be a disaster!! Lol I didn't really mean a comparison roast, merely seeing a roast on the cormorant along with the artisan screen. I find it interesting that you can see a difference between the two heat sources 🤔

You're very welcome! I thought this one would be useful to folks but hasn't done so hot since I uploaded it 😅 still, I'm very glad if it helped you out!

Thank you so much!!

Ahhh such a simple but effective idea! Might struggle to observe the rotations through the viewing window but I'm going to try!

@@ForgeValleyRoasters might you be able to see it from either end of the shaft? Either on the front by door or on the back the drive mechanism.

Yes you are on to something I don't know why I didn't think of this 🤦 because the axel at the back I can just put a mark on that as you sugges

You are very welcome nick! I THINK you were my 1000th view on this video so thank you too 😁 feel free to post any questions on the vids too, happy to answer what I can!

Heya what is it you'd like to know?

@ForgeValleyRoasters like how yo market product at what cost to sell and how to convince cafes and other places so they would buy from us.