As a coffee company first and a cast iron restoration company also first, what tools do we use when it comes to roasting coffee and testing our cast iron and carbon steel care products? A lot, actually.
The company was founded in a modern Lodge 10” cast iron pan. That pan is in service to this day if we have a small, specialty order in which a 10” pan would be perfect. We’ve expanded, however. Our first major upgrade was to a 12” Lodge Blacklock pan that serves most of our orders and this pan has been a dream to work with, but there’s more.
While we would love to roast our coffee in vintage Wagner and Griswolds, we can’t just replace these pans in the event of a droppage or some other kind of damage. With that in mind, we have to look to readily-available, currently produced, cast iron. What are our options? Stargazer, Field, Lodge, Smithey, Butter Pat, Camp Chef, Victoria, Fredericksburg the list goes on.
We want options here, because no two people will roast the same in the same pan. This is the nature of hand roasting. So where did we land? Lodge Blacklock, Fredericksburg, Field, and Smithey. Why did we choose these brands? We feel they offer the widest swath of variety for roasting coffee. We may add a couple of others later, but we really wanted to narrow the list down starting out.
We look for a few things. A, roughly, 12” pan that is made in the Americas that we can replace tomorrow. A range of pans with different properties so that our roasters have some options. A quality product that we can believe in.
So let’s talk pans. The Lodge Blacklock is our top producer, but this might just be down to time. It’s our second longest standing pan. It has thinner side walls than a standard Lodge which allows it to change temperature much easier. This makes it very user friendly and is perfect for testing new coffees in. Average roast times are around 13 minutes per round which is perfect.
The Field Company pan is also a thin walled pan, but the surface is much smoother than the Lodge. Many of the benefits carry over here, but some meaningful differences would be the handle heating up much faster and the small helper handle. Now, given that it’s the slightest pan we use, we often don’t need the helper handle when we pour at the end. Roast time averages right around the 14 or 15 minute mark.
The Smithey is our second heaviest pan. This thing is remarkably stable, but it can definitely run away from you. You need to really know what you’re doing with this pan because if you find that you’re roasting too hot, it’s too late. That being said, some of our most uniform roast profiles come out of here. Average roast time is right around 12 minutes, but it doesn’t need to be that fast.
The Fredericksburg is a galleon of a pan. We nicknamed this one our Man-o-war. Being so heavy means it does what the Smithey does but more so. It’s extremely stable and requires an absolute expertise to use effectively. It’s quickly becoming my favorite pan to roast in. Average roast times are around 14 minutes, but this is a matter of being extremely careful not to pour the heat in very fast.
