Rabbit Hole 2.0 or down a new Rabbithole!

As many of you know by now, we are finally all set up with our new space and new roaster in Montreal! But it was a wild ride to get there. It was always our goal to move back to the city. We initially set up our roastery on the South Shore of Montreal (Delson) during the pandemic, because it was too much of a hassle to get approval for roast in the city of Montreal. Unfortunately, the place we had been roasting at unceremoniously booted us out with 5 months notice!

Moving a roaster is no joke! And having to find a viable spot on such short notice sent the stress levels through the roof. But luckily, we were able to find a few suitable spots, and better yet, they were all on the Island of Montreal. Buuuut… there was a problem: none of them had an adequate gas line to accommodate our Loring roaster. It was time to finally consider an electric roaster. 

I had tasted a lot of coffees roasted on Strongholds in the past and all of them were delicious! So it seemed like the stars were aligning, it was a perfect time to get a new machine to begin a whole new chapter in Rabbit Hole’s story. Even though logistical hangups and tech upgrades delay its arrival, we are still glad we decided to switch. Now we have the first Stronghold S9X model in Quebec, and the very first upgraded machine in Canada!

As experienced roasters, our head roaster Beau and I agree that this is the machine that offers us the most control. We are still experimenting with some recipes, but we are really happy with the results. Side by side comparisons with roasts from the Loring and the Stronghold, we preferred the latter. Even when we are only half dialed in with the Stronghold. So after months of waiting and testing, all of our production is now roasted on S9X.

My initial thoughts on the coffees coming from the S9X is that they are more complex and offer a more balanced acidity. Why is this? Simply because we have many more control parameters when roasting the coffee. 

For example, the halogen heating is one of the most significant features of the new machine, and one that we were most excited about. Halogen allows for more inner bean development early in the roasting process. What this means for the drinker is that one can have a highly developed light roast. One that retains the sweet, subtle flavours of a lighter coffee, with the benefits of better mouth feel and the richer texture of darker roasts.

Drum temperature is another controllable parameter in the new roaster; which is not possible in traditional drum roasting machines. We found a setting that we like and usually don’t play with too much so we can maintain consistency. But it is a parameter that we will explore in the future and create some crazy profiles!

As a last note on the geeky side of this machine, let’s talk about the cooling tray. It is truly great! It cools down the coffee incredibly fast. But why is this important? A while ago, I read a paper about how cooling coffee faster than 4 min might increase sweetness. The S9X can completely cool the coffee in about 2 min. Compared to the other aspects of the roaster, perhaps it is not the most significant aspect, but it’s a nice feature that ensures the coffee doesn’t continue roasting and developing after the roast is done. Another level of control!