Spacy Launch
As many of you know by now, it was certainly a wild ride getting our shop set up in Montreal. As our new Stronghold S9X roaster sat patiently waiting for all the red tape of installation, Beau, our head roaster, said the machine looked like a rocket floating in our beautiful space. We had to jump on that brilliant analogy, so may we present to you SPACY!
Switching from the Loring to the Stronghold was certainly a practical decision. But I have to be honest: Rabbit Hole has always been about pushing boundaries–leaping down the rabbithole if you will–and the challenge of trying something new was just too enticing. Our Stronghold S9X is the first of its kind in Quebec, and the very first fully upgraded machine in Canada.
As of last week, 100% of our production is now roasted on the S9X. Beau and I couldn’t be more stoked. We both agree that this machine offers the most control of any other machine we have worked with–and that's coming from two guys with a combined 15 years of roasting experience. From drum temperature control to halogen heating to specific levels of agitation, the amount parameters we can manipulate are crazy! When transitioning machines, we did a lot of comparisons between the Loring and Stronghold roasts, and even with the machine only partly dialed in, all of us at the shop preferred the Stronghold roasts nearly every time. Real talk: the potential of this roaster is off the charts.
Beside the Stronghold being an electric powered instead of a gas powered roaster, the halogen heating is the most significant feature, and the one I was most excited to use. Halogen allows for more inner bean development early in the roast, which is helpful to have a lighter yet well developed roast. This also makes darker roasts sweeter.
With all that said, you know we couldn’t help ourselves and did a little bit of experimentation. We wanted to share the first two profiles we roasted on it that blew our minds–and palate ;-) . So we are releasing a pair of limited edition jars of coffee to celebrate this new chapter of Rabbit Hole–RABBIT HOLE 2.0.
But this is only the beginning of the geekiness. We are going to keep on pushing the limits and experiment with the Stronghold. We are excited about the unique possibilities that Spacy allows. Who knows what the future brings, but we do know our coffees will be ROASTED!
— — — —
We have much more to say about all of this, so stay tuned for a long one in the coming weeks. We will take a deep dive into all we had to do to choose a new roaster, find a new space and move the roastery in a ridiculously short amount of time.