Cracking good coffee!
Gordon Street Coffee next to the main entrance of Glasgow Central station is one of the few places in Glasgow roasting their own coffee beans (others being Tapa, Papercup and Coffee, Chocolate & Tea).
They roast four times a week and they now have free public roasting sessions taking place every Wednesday from 6:30 – 7:30pm, where you can see, smell & listen to the coffee roasting in action and even touch the coffee beans & of course taste the end results downstairs!
The beans start off white/cream or green and only turn brown once they’ve been roasted, and here are some virgin coffee beans…If I recall correctly the green ones on the left are Guatemalan.
The coffee is roasted on site, just upstairs on the mezzanine floor, and so we headed up to the “Roastery” to see some roasting in action…
We were introduced to John, the Master Roaster who introduced us to…”Deirdre” the Diedrich Roaster, we’d never seen coffee being roasted before so we had no idea what was involved.
Basically, beans are added to Deirdre & gas is inserted into this very expensive machine and a chemical reaction occurs. The beans turn brown but if you keep them in too long they burn, start turning black and you’ll get a bitter burnt taste in the final product.
So we learnt about the importance of listening, smelling and looking as the beans made it to the “first crack” and then the “second crack” and the beans do actually make cracking noises. Once the beans are ready the lever is pulled and out they fall like a coffee-scented waterfall of caffeine-laden goodness!
But the beans are too hot so they need to cool down and this is achieved by a swirl about in the rotating area here. It’s a bit like a coffee-bean tumble dryer sort-of.
And here are some freshly roasted beans, when they’re ready they are taken downstairs to be used.
You can read more about the Diedrich Roaster on the Gordon Street site here.
We were also shown how to make a coffee and learnt about the different milks that are required, consistencies needed and the difference between an (Australian) Flat White and an Australian Flat White!?
Cappuccino finished product with added cinnamon – et voila!
And Gordon St isn’t just about good coffee, the food is great too!
Mmm…
On the mezzanine/roastery level there are monitors listing train departures so you’ll never miss a train again!
And so to recap…free public roasting sessions every Wednesday from 6:30 – 7:30pm! Highly informative & recommended in pleasant surroundings with great coffee &food!
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