The Café Barra Story
Scott Maginnis
Using skills that I learned while cooking in Europe and America, I developed a roasting technique that relies on high heat to start, then progresses to a slow even finish. I worked in restaurants during my twenties, first in Paris, then in Los Angeles at the top rated Citrus, where I honed my technique of using smell, taste, touch and sight to create dishes. These techniques are the foundation of my roasting style.
Starting a coffee business has been a dream of mine for many years. My other career, working as a property master on such films as Inception and Girl With a Dragon Tattoo, kept me busy, but roasting coffee is my next adventure.
The Barra Method
Our idea of consistency is not the same beans and flavor profile every season, but instead consistent quality. Instead of trying to match roasts from previous seasons, we choose to bring out the unique character of each bean, depending on the current offerings.
Here’s how we achieve this.
We have developed several roasting templates that we use to decide if and how to roast each bean. Some of the templates are geared more toward larger, wetter beans, like the ones from Brazil or Mexico, while others work better with the smaller, denser beans like those from Ethiopia.
We start with three sample roasts, three variations of the templates. After judging those three tests, we decide if the beans are up to Cafe Barra standards. If so, we do more tests to dial in the ‘recipe’ that will be followed for each bean. It is in this last step that we lean heavily on instinct, paying close attention to the smell, look and taste of the beans as they are roasting while keeping careful notes on how to repeat this ‘recipe’.
Science meets art meets commitment.
This is the Barra Method.
