Achieving consistency in coffee roasting requires more than just experience and intuition — it demands precise data tracking and analysis. In this interview with Minho Kim, the owner of HOWW coffee, we dive deep into how professional roasters are leveraging technology to maintain quality, improve communication, and scale their operations without sacrificing the artistry of their craft.

Let’s start with the fundamentals. How do you approach achieving consistent roasting results?

When I'm designing a profile for a specific purpose, I break the roasting process down by events and set clear time distribution goals for each phase. Then I continuously roast on the machine, monitoring whether I'm hitting my target points at the desired times.

Of course, you can't apply the same time distribution to every roasting machine. Each one has its quirks. So I first try various approaches based on the machine's mechanism and heat delivery method. After completing my base profile design, I run multiple sessions to verify that specific events fall within my desired time ranges.

How do you define consistency, and what's the most critical factor in maintaining it?

Consistency means creating the same flavor profile every single time. To maintain this, the most important thing is continuously recording and reviewing roasting data.

The temperatures from your thermocouples aren't absolute values — they're relative measurements influenced by environmental conditions and machine settings. But when you roast consistently in the same environment, data accumulates. Through those patterns and differences, you can determine what's normal and spot anomalies before they become problems.

Given your emphasis on data, we are curious if you’ve ever roasted without using roasting software? If so, how did you manage consistency?

Absolutely. I think most roasters went through this phase when they first started roasting — printing out temperature sheets on A4 paper, manually writing down temperatures every minute with a timer.

The real problem with handwritten records is organization. When you accumulate months of data, finding that one specific roast becomes nearly impossible. And when your temperature development starts drifting, it's hard to catch it in real-time. You're too focused on writing numbers to notice what's actually happening to the coffee.With software, temperature curves are drawn automatically. You can see where temperatures rise quickly or slowly and respond immediately. The visual feedback is invaluable.

Was there a specific moment when you realized that you needed roasting software?

To be completely honest, if you're working alone, I’d say software is somewhat optional. Roasting can be quite intuitive, and you might keep up with subtle changes through careful observation.

But the moment you have multiple people working together, you absolutely need software. When clients I consult for have issues with their roasting, I can remotely access their profiles and pinpoint problems immediately. We make adjustments based on the data, and the results usually improve right away. That level of precision just isn't possible with handwritten notes.

As someone active in both commercial production and competition roasting, we’d love to learn about your perspective on these different contexts.. How do you see the difference between roasting standards for competitions versus coffee you provide to customers?

I don't think there's a huge difference in purpose. In competitions, you're trying to avoid roasting defects to achieve high scores. For customers, you're trying to avoid defects to create great-tasting coffee. The goal is essentially the same — clean, well-developed coffee that showcases the bean's potential.

Shifting to your current workflow, can you walk us through the Firescope features you use most frequently?

The memo function is probably my most-used feature. Since I'm roasting different coffees daily, I jot down sensory notes from each session. These become reference points for future roasts with similar characteristics.

I also track environmental variables constantly. Temperature and humidity affect roasting, so being able to record these variables and see their impact over time is incredibly valuable.

The section analysis is another favorite. As roasting progresses, I can easily verify whether my drying phase, Maillard reaction, and development phases are hitting their target time ratios. It takes the guesswork out of profile execution.

Has Firescope improved efficiency or reduced your work stress in any way?

Definitely. Instead of constantly opening the sample spoon to check color and aroma — which can actually interfere with the roast — I can monitor RoR and temperature curves and respond immediately to what I'm seeing.

Plus, all the data lives in the cloud. I can pull up any roast from anywhere, which is huge for troubleshooting and training. It's eliminated a lot of the guesswork and second-guessing that used to eat up time.

Given the collaborative nature of your roasting operations, let’s dive into how software impacts the team dynamics. Do you see Firescope serving as a common language between roasters and improving team communication?

It depends on the context. When multiple roasters work in the same environment with the same equipment, the data becomes our most reliable communication tool. But if someone's working with different machines or setups, you can't just copy numbers and expect the same results.

That said, since using Firescope, our team conversations have become much more precise. Before, we'd have different recollections of the same roast, which creates confusion. Now we can pull up the actual data and have objective discussions about what happened and why.

Could you elaborate a little further on how Firescope contributes to workflow standardization?

From a business perspective, we need production data for inventory planning and quality control. Firescope automatically compiles this information, which saves hours of manual work.

More importantly, it helps verify whether our established profiles are being executed consistently across different roasters. That's crucial for maintaining quality standards as we scale.

Taking a step back, let’s talk about your broader perspective on the craft itself. Do you think roasting is closer to art or science?

I'd say it's fifty-fifty. The process follows scientific principles — heat transfer, chemical reactions, moisture loss. But the evaluation and decision-making? That's still very much human. We decide what tastes good, what expresses the coffee's character best. Software can measure and track, but it can't make those qualitative judgments.

Does using roasting software like Firescope allow you to express your roasting philosophy more precisely?

For sure. You can have the most elegant roasting philosophy in the world, but if you can't execute it consistently, it's worthless. Software gives you the tools to validate and refine your approach. It's not about replacing intuition — it's about supporting it with reliable data.

Now, last question, who would you recommend Firescope to? Do you think beginners or more seasoned professionals would benefit more from it?

I'd actually say beginners benefit more. Learning to work with data from the start creates better habits than trying to retrofit them later. It's educational — you develop pattern recognition faster when you can see the visual feedback.

I also encourage anyone still using handwritten logs to make the switch. Let's be honest — how often do you actually go back and review those paper records? Almost never. It's not about being lazy; the tool just doesn't facilitate that kind of analysis.

For larger operations, it's essential. Communication between team members relies on having accurate, accessible data. Everything I consult on now uses Firescope because it enables remote collaboration.

As the coffee industry continues to professionalize, the integration of roasting software becomes less about convenience and more about maintaining standards that customers and competitors demand. Whether you're a beginner building foundational skills or an established roaster scaling operations, the message is clear: data-driven roasting is the path to consistent excellence.

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