Galaxy Girl Coffee is three and half years into its roasting journey, though The Galaxy Girl has been roasting for herself for almost 20 years, off and on. The decision to roast for others was born from the disappointment in the coffees available where she lived. The knowledge that she’s gained in the time since starting Galaxy Girl Coffee has given her an explanation as to why she was always disappointed.
Building a new approach to coffee roasting has been hard, but it is worth every bean. We offer almost exclusively specialty grade coffee beans, utilize a fluid bed air roaster, and allow our customers to decide their preferred roast level. These elements have moved what we do as far from the mass-produced coffee beans as possible. It also focuses the entire process on customer satisfaction.
Specialty grade coffee beans are grown with more care than commercial grade beans. Specialty coffee beans are known for having more complex flavor profiles and must grade out above 80 on a 100 point scale by certified coffee graders. There is a lot more to specialty coffee than just the name and grade. It is akin to fine wines with its processes and heritage. There will be a dedicated post about what makes a coffee bean specialty later in the year (2025).
The fluid bed air roaster has been mocked by some traditionalists in Kansas and other areas. We’ve found it to roast coffee beans that need less time degassing to make a great cup of coffee. It also gives us a consistent roast and our particular roaster gives us the means decide our roast rate. The roast rate decides how the flavors and other attributes develop during the roasting process. Our goal is to provide a smooth cup that highlights each beans distinctive attributes.
While we do have pre-roasted coffee beans available, they are the only time we ‘large batch’ roast. All customer orders are roasted individually. This allows us to roast the coffee beans exactly how the customer requested, down to a potential target temperature. We never want to fulfill orders for our customers that aren’t within the target parameters.
We want to ensure that each customer loves their cup of coffee, whether it is at home or at our café. We use our love of math, science, and coffee to do this. We do consider our processes a blending of the art and science of coffee, thus the term artisan roasting. Try for yourself and see if you agree.