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Sightseer Coffee’s multiple roast blends are all roasted on-site at their facility, the Rising Tide Roast Collaborative. They also roast beans for other big names in Austin’s coffee scene like Radio Coffee & Beer and Creature Coffee. Each bag bears art designed by Sightseer co-founder Sara Gibson. Read James Scott’s profile. -
Unroasted coffee beans in their still-green state, held by Gibson. These beans each have unique flavors based on their origins – places like India, Brazil, Nicaragua, etc. – and will be mixed post-roasting to create the taste profiles of Sightseer’s packaged coffee. -
Sightseer co-founder Kimberly Zash measures out the green beans into the hopper of their biggest roasting machine -
Note the lavender bins Zash is scooping beans from: When Sightseer first began, Sara Gibson says their choices of bucket colors were safety-cone orange, bright red, or a pretty pastel purple. The choice was obvious: “That was the first thing we bought, five lavender buckets.” -
Zash monitors the roasting process. Each chart onscreen is made from data pulled from the thermal couples in the roasting machine. That information helps her make decisions about how best to bring out characteristics of the beans. For example, the batch Zash was roasting in this picture was soft, buttery, and with a little bit of caramel to it, so she extended the length of time the beans spent in the hopper before “first crack” (aka when the coffee beans get that signature split down the middle) in order to accentuate those caramel notes. -
After they’ve hit the right temperature, Zash drops the beans into a double-walled stainless steel drum to be spun through heated air. Through a small window, the beans can be seen “faffing around,” as Gibson says, for their 10-to-15-minute journey. -
Zash takes a sniff of the beans from a trier, which allows a small sample to be extracted from the larger batch. At the start, the beans will have an almost wheatlike smell, but as they reach a deeper caramelization, Gibson describes their smell as more like baked bread. -
Zash watches and waits for both color and scent to match what she’s looking for in the final product -
Zash watches and waits for both color and scent to match what she’s looking for in the final product -
Inside the drum, the once green beans have now reached a more familiar look: brown with their signature crack down the center -
Zash takes a sniff of the beans from a trier, which allows a small sample to be extracted from the larger batch. At the start, the beans will have an almost wheatlike smell, but as they reach a deeper caramelization, Gibson describes their smell as more like baked bread. -
Once Zash decides the beans are where she wants them, she drops them from the steel drum into a cooling tray. Inside the tray, air is pumped, which helps bring the beans down in temperature quickly, and paddles churn the many bouncing beans. -
Once Zash decides the beans are where she wants them, she drops them from the steel drum into a cooling tray. Inside the tray, air is pumped, which helps bring the beans down in temperature quickly, and paddles churn the many bouncing beans. -
Zash takes a bite of a well-roasted bean. Yum! -
At the point that they’re cool enough, Zash sends the coffee beans through the spinner. Gibson explains that the coffee producers Sightseer purchases from, as happens in pretty much all coffee production, dry their beans out on patios. The process results in little rocks being lost in the original coffee batches, which are then sifted out by the spinner. -
The spinner utilizes a “density gravity thing,” Gibson says. The lighter coffee beans get sucked out into the big lavender buckets while objects of heavier density like pebbles stay down in the tray. -
The spinner utilizes a “density gravity thing,” Gibson says. The lighter coffee beans get sucked out into the big lavender buckets while objects of heavier density like pebbles stay down in the tray. -
With all the beans now roasted to her specifications, Zash can consider utilizing them in a coffee blend. These combinations of various different batches of roasted beans are made for myriad purposes – a crowd-pleaser like their medium roast Dad Bod, or fruit-forward funk like their peachy Space Cowboy. -
A cupping setup: Cupping is part of the testing process for any bean blend before it gets officially sent to market. The blended beans are ground, placed in multiple cups, and steeped in hot water that Gibson and Zash then taste in a sommelier-style slurp. -
Gibson and Zash taste each coffee blend three times to account for any variables. Their goal is to create approachable flavors that customers won’t be intimidated or bored by. As evidenced by the thoughtful looks on their faces, Zash and Gibson take cupping very seriously. -
Sara Gibson and Kimberly Zash pose with two of Sightseer’s coffee blends: Sunshine Daydream, with milk chocolate and orange marmalade notes, and Las Viudas, with Fig Newton and honeysuckle notes.
Inside Sightseer Coffee’s Roasting Operation
