The Coffee

We Cook a Better Coffee

Why Red Whale Coffee is “cooked” instead of roasted?

While most coffee roasters’ talk about roasting their beans, Boyd treats coffee like food and prefers the term cooking coffee beans to roasting them.  In fact, he uses a whole different cooking methodology.  He has an extensive culinary background and brings his food experience to cooking coffee.

"Cooking coffee is like caramelizing crème brule - If you over carmalize the crème brule it becomes burnt, bitter and acrid, it’s the same for roasting coffee.” 
- Sean Boyd

Red Whale Coffee takes pride in the craftsmanship of roasting and maintains a high attention to detail with every coffee roast.  Roasting coffee requires a balance of science, art, food, and community.  Master Roaster Sean Boyd spent years perfecting his craft of cooking coffee and even had his roasting equipment custom-made. His custom equipment enhances his own very special and unique coffee cooking technique; he strives to ensure that his coffee never tastes bitter, acrid or burnt. 

Boyd cooks all coffee with one goal in mind, to achieve the best flavor from each bean.  Each bean variety is unique and Master Roaster Boyd takes great care not to over or under cook them, he roasts for flavor as opposed to color. For consistency, he creates a unique roasting flavour profile for each coffee bean lot, ensuring that each roast is consistent to that flavor profile, much like a chef creates a recipe.

Stop by our Red Whale Tasting Room in San Rafael, California and we will show you in person how we meld the science, art, food and community of cooking coffee.