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Hugh Mooney

Male

Lake Mathews

United States

Profile Information:

What is your position in the coffee industry?: coffee roaster, home barista, coffee enthusiast, industry professional
Where are you located? ( City and Country ): Lake Mathews, California, USA
How many years have you been in the industry?: 1.5
If you are a barista or shop, are you interested in a barista exchange with another coffee shop/barista?: no
Tell us more about your coffee shop or barista skills.: I am a home roaster and amateur Barista and operate a website called The Coffee Corral (www.thecoffeecorral.com). I'm also a catering representative for a specialty coffee house called Jazz-n-Java (www.jazz-n-java.com) in Riverside, California.
What cities or countries are you interested in traveling to?: Darlington, South Carolina for the NASCAR race; Daytona Beach, Florida for the 500; Churchill Downs, Kentucky for the Derby; Saint Martin (Netherlands), for the sunshine; The 'Big Island', Hawaii, for the coffee and because it's, 'Mo betta, bro.'
About Me:: I'm 65years old, semi-retired and live with my wife, Mary Jo, our seven Arabian horses, six dogs and three cats on our 4-acre ranch in Riverside County, California.
About My Company:: The Coffee Corral is a website where my friends and customers go to order coffee roasted 'just' for them. My coffee is never roasted in advance of the order. The Coffee Corral slogan says it all: "We Don't Roast It 'Till You Order It." Orders are processed using my Diedrich HR-1 or my Gene Cafe' roaster. It's then individually packaged displaying their name, then signed and dated by Hubie B, and shipped via USPS Priority Mail - My customers enjoy the individual attention and show-off their bag of coffee to friends, "Look, this coffee was roasted just for me." I have a fun time.
What is your favorite thing about the coffee industry?: Suprise. Intrigue. The excitement of the roast. Ahhh - the aroma of the cup.
Website:: http://www.thecoffeecorral.com

Comment Wall:

Kerry Laird

Hi Hugh,
Welcome to Barista Exchange. Are you going to make it to the WRBC? www.wrbc2008.com - great speakers and the SCAA's sensory skills class too. Check it out.

Feb 26, 2008
Kerry Laird

You can just come to enjoy, spectate, no pressure. Enjoy the free espresso and capps. from regional roasters all over California. Hang with coffee people.

Feb 26, 2008
Pablo Castaneda

Welcome, hope we can be friends. How is the weather in CA????

take care compadre

Pablo

Feb 27, 2008
Hugh Mooney

Pablo; The weather right now is great in So Cal. Warm and clear.

Kerry; Don't think the WRBC is going to be on my schedule. We're saving up to make our first Kentucky Derby in May.

Feb 28, 2008
DeWayne

Hey hugh,

I am currently roasting on the iroast 2. I have had it since september when my zach and dani went out on me. I have been roasting religiously since 02' whether it be on the stove, zach, iroast, or whatever. Infact, yesterday I roasted my first batch on a commercial machine. Good fun!

Feb 29, 2008
DeWayne

well, even with over a hundred years of experience, I still tend to come close on some batches. The power surges are what I worry about the most.

Mar 4, 2008
Hugh Mooney

Sorry, DeWayne - my typo put you in an OLD time zone (2002 vs 1902). My experience is much limited, but I haven't seen "power surge" problems with my Gene Cafe. I don't know if it's the wiring in our home (which was built in 1997) or the machine. Most of my roast times with the Gene Cafe are in the 16-17 minute range and it's easy to add/subtract temp and time as you go along. Don't know a lot about the iRoast, but isn't the roast time much shorter? I would think, but don't know, that power variations on fast roast cycles might have more of an effect on the outcome.

One thing I have read about the iRoast that I like is the ability to save roast "profiles", something I can't do with my Gene Cafe. I rely on my roasting log sheets to re-create the roast for a specific bean.

Mar 4, 2008
DeWayne

The problem that I have noticed is that, besides the obvious variables of volume, bean, and ambient starting temp; there seems to be surges within both this and my other machine that, depending on what all is running in the house, will roast either quicker or slower.

The iroast takes about 8 minutes for a fc (which is where I like my espresso), followed by a 4 minute cool down. You can save roast profiles which is a very useful option.

At the moment I am playing with my new mother load of coffee. I order one years worth at a time to save on shipping and bring down the per lb price.

Mar 4, 2008
Hugh Mooney

A years worth at a time? How much would that be? I have about 75 pounds in my green bean "cellar", 12 or 13 varieties. Not all for me - I have a small website (www.TheCoffeeCorral.com) that I get four or five orders from a week. Most orders are from real estate agents (my wife is a Realtor) - they order it for gifts mostly.

My typical roast profile is something like this; I warm the Gene Cafe up by setting it to the highest temp (482), and as soon as it reaches that I switch it to the cooling cycle - it then stops when it gets to 140 degrees. I then load eight or 10 ounces of beans, set it at 350 and the timer to 17 minutes. When it gets to 350 (3 or 4 minutes) I crank it up to 482 and let it run until first crack (10 - 12 minutes into the roast). Then I turn it down to around 456 and let it cruise from there.

Once I get to where I want to be with the roast I hold down the temp button for a couple seconds and the machine will then turn off. I remove the drum and dump the beans into my home made cooler (there's a couple photos of it on my page), replace the drum and let it go through its cool cycle.

The video I have "Gene Cafe Final" was shot shortly after I got the unit last December. At that time I was letting the unit go through its normal cool cycle, which is fine if you're roasting the same bean and the same quantity each time. When using the full cycle it takes about 20 minutes to do eight ounces.

Its always exciting to get new coffee. My poor wife, she hasn't had the same coffee two mornings in a row since I started roasting.

Mar 5, 2008
Soren

Thank you. All I need is mmmmmmore money.

Mar 6, 2008
Ken Chappell

I've been following your posts on web building & checked your site out, nice. The questions I have for you follow. I want to offer something we do at our shop via the web, cake truffles. My questions are, how long have you been selling coffee via the web? Is it successful? Expensive? How did you get started? Your opinion on shopping carts/credit card transactions via the web. Thanks!!

Mar 13, 2008
Hugh Mooney

Ok, Ken, great questions. I'm new to the coffee world. My website is new - I've been offering "roasted to order" coffee for about three months. It is not yet what I would call successful - but haven't expected it to be. It doesn't happen overnight. It's a very tough road. I'll be re-evaluating my marketing program in three months increments. I only got involved in home roasting this past December.

Here is my take on setting up a website to sell, "whatever" - Go to GoDaddy.com, check out their Quick Shopping Cart program - it's very affordable. You'll want to set up a PayPal account - it's the best way to accept payments (from a cost standpoint). With the basic Quick Shopping Cart, which is what I have, you can offer 20 items for sale and customers can pay through PayPal with credit cards.

In my opinion, if you want to get your "feet wet", GoDaddy might be a reasonable option. There are most likely other options available but this one has worked for me.

Let me make this suggestion: Go to my website (www.thecoffeecorral.com), click on a couple of different selections, add them to your shopping cart and see how the system works. You might even want to process an order to see how the entire process works (shopping cart process, email order confirmation, shipping notification etc.) to see if it meets your needs. Click on the March Madness Special, you'll only pay for shipping and handling fees - $5.60. Hey, if you're a coffee lover - you'll really like this Kenya AA.

I invested about $100 in buying coffee, and related items, from other websites to learn how their orders were processed, how it was packaged, the communication etc. Spend a few bucks to see what others are doing.

Excuse my ignorance - what is a cake truffle?

Lot's of luck...
Hugh

Mar 13, 2008
Ken Chappell

Perfect! Thanks for taking the time to give a great answer, I will check all of that out. I did use Godaddy to host my site, so I'm not completely in the dark. Oh yeah, the cake truffle is basically cake & icing, in a ball, covered in some kind of coating like chocolate or white chocolate. I have used German chocolate, red velvet, lemon mist, about any kind of cake you can think of. I am amazed of how well they have been received in my little town, & have had folks buy them from me to ship to their friends. I figured maybe I could cut out the middle man.
Thanks again!

Mar 13, 2008
Hugh Mooney

Sean;
You're welcome for the time, not sure how great the insight was but, you asked for input and you got my two cents worth.

Mar 17, 2008
The GreenBean Coffee Espresso & Tea LLC

Welcome to the "My home Roaster is Hot and Ready!" group.

Mar 18, 2008
Hugh Mooney

Tim;
No big deal. All is well. I'm not a shop owner so my take on the Starbucks/Clover deal is considerably different from those that are.

Mar 20, 2008