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Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com
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gainesvilletimes.com
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
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Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Barbara Cole and husband Michael Caruso started the North Star Coffee Company out of their Lake Lanier home using an old Diedrich Roaster that she restored.
‘Built to last’
Roaster from St. Ives still being used to
roast another local company’s coffee beans
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
St. Ives Coffee Roasters used to sit on
the corner of Riverside Drive and Green
Street. It was one of the only coffee shops
and roasters in the area. Many Gaines
ville residents relied on it for their morn
ing cup of joe and it was where many met
with friends or did work.
St. Ives left that prominent location
across from City Park after the owner,
Don Wilson, left the business. It relocated
in Gainesville under new ownership but
ceased operation in August 2017.
Some of the parts that made St. Ives a
favorite around town have hung around
though, and still get use today.
“We bought their Diedrich roaster,”
said Barbara Cole, co-owner of North
Star Coffee Company in Gainesville.
That roaster, which was built in 1993,
was once featured on Food Network’s
“Good Eats,” when host Alton Brown vis
ited St. Ives to explain the coffee roasting
process.
Now, it’s the roaster Cole and her hus
band and co-owner Michael Caruso use in
their warehouse to bring North Star Cof
fee to places like Green’s Grocery and
others in the area.
But before they could start using it,
they had to search the country for parts
to get it up and running again.
“They stopped using it and it was aban
doned, kind of sitting in the corner,” Cole
said.
It looked like the machine hadn’t been
cleaned in years, so from the moment
Cole and her husband got it to their ware
house, they were committed to cleaning
it up.
After reaching out to Diedrich Roast
ers in hopes of getting help with parts and
advice on what to do, they were back to
where they started.
“Diedrich was like, ‘We’re sending you
the schematics of a machine and good
luck. Here’s the schematics and let us
know how that works out,’ ” Cole said.
Since it was such an old machine, they
couldn’t find many records and didn’t
have any parts readily available.
It’s a pretty big machine, too. The
roaster weighs about 950 pounds and can
roast up to 26 pounds of coffee each hour.
Cole said it’s a “beast.”
“They were built to last,” Cole said.
“We had to take it in pieces to put it in the
workroom to work on it.”
She said there was evidence of a fire,
which she said can happen when a cof
fee roaster isn’t maintained or operated
properly. Some pieces were broken, oth
ers didn’t work. Oils from the roasted
beans had coated the drum of the roaster.
“Coffee is very oily and it leaves a
layer, so we had to take oven cleaner, and
we had to take degreaser, and it was just
repetition,” Cole said. “I would get one
layer off, and then I’d get another layer
off, and I would just wash it and wash it.
One piece I know I did 20 times.”
She said she went through at least
seven or eight bottles of cleaner from
Sam’s Club, and she had to take a needle
and scrape out the “crud” from all of the
Allen screws so she could use an Allen
wrench to get them out and clean some
of the pieces.
“The brushes had turned black
because of all the oil and stuff, but now
they’re all bright and shiny,” Caruso said.
“It looks pretty good.”
The roaster has essentially been com
pletely rebuilt. Everything from the heat
resistant piece of glass used to peer into
the drum while the coffee is roasting,
to the lever used to increase the heat,
Cole said she spent more than 200 hours
repairing and replacing pieces on it.
“We had pretty much the guts removed
and new ones put back in,” Cole said. “I
mean, I had to go to many a hardware
store and I had to go source parts online.”
Eventually, everyone at the hardware
stores knew who Cole was. She had been
in so many times, showing pictures of the
roaster, looking for a screw or bolt, they
started asking how the repair was going.
They’ve gotten the roaster fully func
tional now and have been using it some.
They’re happy with the results. Caruso
said it’s nice because they can roast
larger batches.
“As the roaster ages, it will pick up dis
tinctive flavors of its own,” Caruso said.
“Right now it has almost the exact same
taste as the other roaster. ”
And for North Star, they don’t rely on
the high-tech capabilities of roasters that
are sold nowadays. Their roaster is all
manual, making sure each batch has spe
cial attention paid to it.
“You have to smell it, put your eyes on
it and adjust your temperature to what
you’re seeing, so it’s real hands-on,” Cole
said. “We’re custom roasting it.”
‘You have to smell it,
put your eyes on it and
adjust your temperature
to what you’re seeing, so
it’s real hands-on. We’re
custom roasting it.’”
Barbara Cole
Co-owner, North Star Coffee Company
Top: Roasted coffee beans cool as they are spun at North Star Coffee Company.
Above: Michael Caruso dumps a batch of roasted coffee Tuesday, Nov. 6, at his home.
Caruso and wife Barbara Cole started the North Star Coffee Company after Caruso fell in love
with making his own roast with a small coffee roaster that was a gift from his wife.
Left: An old Diedrich Roaster Cole restored herself, built in 1993, is the eighth roaster Diedrich
built.