Read This: Joe Johnston's Roaster Project Blog

By Michele Laudig Fri., Jan. 15 2010 at 3:39 PM

Categories: Chow Bella

If you consider yourself a card-carrying coffee geek -- or, as restaurateur Joe Johnston would put it, a "disciple" of the "true gospel of coffee" -- then you need to bookmark Johnston's excellent new blog, Roaster Project.

But even if you don't consider yourself a java expert or even drink the stuff, it's a fascinating read.

Johnston, who was one of the original founders of Coffee Plantation before selling it and going into the restaurant biz (he owns Joe's Real BBQ, Joe's Farm Grill, and Liberty Market in Gilbert), recently started the blog as a way to document his progress in designing and building his own commercial coffee roaster. He plans to spend the next year developing his ideas, conducting research, and ultimately building the machine.

Along with detailed information about coffee connoisseurship, Johnston muses about different types of coffee people, his creative process, and his collaborators.

His background information is intriguing, too -- the Roaster Project makes perfect sense when you learn that Johnston not only has an engineering background, but that his grandfather and great-grandfather were both engineers who designed food service equipment.