Welcoming the Loring S35 to Tradition Coffee Roasters

A Great Machine That Served Us Well

Since the beginning, and for the past few years, we’ve roasted on a Diedrich IR-12—a 12 kg coffee roaster that has been an absolute workhorse for us.

Technically, it’s capable of roasting about 25 pounds at a time, but we typically ran 20-pound batches because that was where it was happiest. It was incredibly consistent, mechanically reliable, and in all the years we owned it, there were very few things I didn’t like about it.

If someone asked me to recommend a small commercial coffee roaster, the Diedrich would absolutely be on that list.

But eventually, every business reaches a point where what got you here won’t get you where you want to go.

We Knew We Were Reaching Capacity

Over the last couple of years, our wholesale program has continued to grow. Every year we’ve roasted significantly more coffee than the year before, and we could see the writing on the wall.

By the end, we were roasting five days a week, nearly all day.

Could we have added a second shift? Absolutely.

But that wasn’t the direction we wanted to go.

We wanted to stay efficient, keep production to a single shift, and create room for continued growth instead of simply squeezing more hours out of the week and exhausting our staff.

About eight months ago, we made the decision that it was time for a new roaster.

Choosing the Right Machine

There are a lot of excellent coffee roasting machines on the market.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that a skilled roaster can produce beautiful coffee on almost any well-built machine. Every roaster behaves a little differently, but experience matters far more than the logo on the front.

That said, every machine has strengths.

For me, there were a few things that were non-negotiable:

• More roasting capacity.
• Automation that improves consistency.
• Energy efficiency.
• The ability to grow with us for years to come.

On the Diedrich, I averaged roughly 60 pounds of roasted coffee per hour.

I wanted to double or even triple that capacity—and we did.

Automation Doesn’t Replace the Roaster

One thing I hear quite often is that automation means the machine does all the work.

It doesn’t.

Automation doesn’t tell you how to roast coffee… yet.

It doesn’t know how to roast a washed Kona peaberry versus a naturally processed Colombian coffee. It doesn’t know whether you’re trying to highlight bright citrus acidity, achieve a rich, chocolatey, balanced espresso, or take the flavor deep into robust roast profiles.

That’s still the job of the person roasting and the team around them.

Every coffee has its own sweet spot depending on the origin, elevation, bean density, processing method, moisture content, and ultimately what you’re trying to highlight in the cup.

Finding that sweet spot is certainly the challenge and the reward.

Automation simply allows you to more easily repeat it with the same coffee.

When I develop a roast profile, I’m making hundreds of small decisions:

• When should I increase the heat?
• When should I reduce it?
• How much airflow should I use?
• How long should the coffee progress through different stages of the roast?
• How long should the total roast take?

Those adjustments dramatically affect the flavor of the coffee.

Once we’ve found the ideal profile, automation allows the machine to repeat those adjustments with incredible precision every single roast.

Take our espresso roast, for example:

Our Espresso is our most popular coffee, and on the Diedrich we’d roast it 30 to 40 times every week. That’s almost two full days of roasting the same profile over and over.

Every batch required our head roaster to stand beside the machine making the exact same adjustments at the exact same moments. It’s monotonous surgical precision… without the whole life-and-death thing.

Now, the Loring can execute those adjustments consistently while our head roaster and team focus on all the other jobs that require actual people and their decisions.

That’s the kind of automation I wanted. It’s not the automation that replaces craftsmanship—it’s the kind that supports it.

Why I Chose Loring

I’ve known about Loring for many years.

I’ve attended global industry events like Roasters Guild, World of Coffee, and many others. It’s events like Roasters Guild where I’ve had the opportunity to roast on more than twenty different commercial roasting machines and engage with their technicians. This was where I first tried it on my own.

It’s one thing to read specifications online or talk to a sales rep; it’s another to actually roast coffee on different machines and then taste the results.

Every time, I kept coming back to Loring.

I love the way it applies heat, relying primarily on convection rather than conduction to create an incredibly even roast.

I also appreciate how efficiently it uses energy.

Instead of exhausting all of the hot air after it passes through the coffee, the Loring recirculates much of that heat, adding only the energy needed to bring it back up to roasting temperature before sending it through the coffee again.

It’s simply a smarter system.

Another feature I really value is the ability to transfer roast profiles between Loring machines.

As we continue to grow, if we ever add another Loring at another location, we can use the exact same roast profiles with the same coffee, creating consistency no matter where it’s roasted.

That’s a huge advantage and a predictive peek into our future.

Installation Week

Buying the roaster was only part of the project.

We also had to decide whether to keep the Diedrich for smaller batches or sell it and invest those resources into the new machine.

For us, selling the Diedrich was the right decision.

We chose the Loring S35, which roasts approximately 75 pounds per batch—a significant increase over what we were doing before and the right size for where we see the company heading.

Fortunately, we were able to reuse one of the existing ducts from the Diedrich.

The Loring is unique in that it uses two separate ducts:

• One dedicated to cooling the coffee after roasting.
• One that manages the hot air circulation throughout the roasting process.

Reusing part of our existing infrastructure reduced waste and cost while also simplifying the installation.

Sustainability Matters

Sustainability has always been an important part of our business.

Whenever possible, we look for ways to reuse, recycle, upcycle, and minimize waste throughout the roastery and café.

On a global scale, our impact is admittedly small.

But we believe meaningful change happens when enough people make small, intentional decisions.

If more businesses looked for opportunities to reduce waste instead of simply replacing everything, collectively we’d have a much larger impact than any one company could achieve alone.

Bringing It All Together

Installing a machine like this isn’t a DIY project.

We brought in a technician from Loring to commission the roaster, and I’m grateful we did.

Some jobs are worth learning yourself, while others are worth paying someone who’s spent years becoming an expert.

The same was true for our electricians, plumbers, and duct installers.

Having experienced professionals involved gave us confidence that everything was installed correctly, professionally, to code, and on time. That gave me peace of mind leading up to the installation and every day since.

Today, I’m excited to say that the Loring S35 is officially part of the family ('Ohana).

It’s up and running.

It’s already producing exceptional coffee.

Most importantly, it’s giving our team more freedom to spend time doing the things people do best, while allowing the machine to handle the repetitive tasks it was designed for.

What’s Next?

This is just the beginning.

Over the coming months, I’ll share more about roasting on the Loring, how the automation performs in day-to-day production, what we’ve learned, and whether it’s lived up to our expectations.

If you have questions about the machine or about coffee roasting in general… leave them in the comments below!

I’d be happy to answer them.

Brian