By SAORI KURODA/ Staff Writer
March 6, 2022 at 08:00 JST
AGEO, Saitama Prefecture--Akira Yamanaka uses his sense of hearing to gauge the roasting process of coffee beans.
The taste of coffee varies greatly depending on when the fire in the roaster is turned off, and the degree of roast is usually determined by the color of the beans.
However, Yamanaka, who is blind, uses his ears.
On one day in January, the coffee beans started making subdued and light sounds that echoed throughout the room measuring four-and-a-half tatami mats.
“I hear the cracking sound,” Yamanaka, 31, said.
He said the roasting process for those particular beans should stop “immediately after the intensity of the second cracking sound reaches its peak level.”
He and his colleagues are in charge of roasting beans at Ryoke Green Gables, a sheltered workshop here mainly for visually impaired people. It opened in April 2020 and started roasting coffee two months later.
When the dark brown beans were taken out of the roaster on that day, a fragrant aroma filled the room. The brewed coffee had a mellow and bitter taste.
The packaging art for the product read, “We roast by ear.”
Yamanaka has been a roaster for about a year. He couldn’t distinguish the cracking sound at first, but he improved his skills through tasting sessions and sharing feedback with his colleagues.
“It’s fun to improve the taste through trial and error,” he said.
Ryoke Green Gables’ coffee has grown in popularity among community residents.
“Eventually, we want to make it Ageo’s specialty," Yamanaka said.
The sheltered workshop sold about 50,000 yen ($433) of coffee a month at the beginning of 2021. But sales have since increased nearly fourfold.
At the end of 2021, the workshop was flooded with orders for “oseibo” winter gifts, and staff had to work hectic hours.
They had received a monthly wage of between 5,000 yen and 6,000 yen, but they can now earn about 15,000 yen.
“We break down tasks,” said director Koji Katogi, 49.
Four staff members with different disabilities each have their own role in the roasting process.
A blind man who has been attending the workshop since its opening and has accumulated experience now serves as facilitator of the whole process.
A woman who has limited sight uses a stopwatch to fill the role of timekeeper.
A man who has paralysis in the right hand pours coffee for tasting.
“It’s good because we complement each other and work as a team to do things one of us can't do alone,” said team leader Kento Ikuta, 26.
Orders can be made online from the official website at (https://event.ageo-minori.or.jp/).
Their coffee products are also sold at the Ageo Tourism Association’s tourism center near the East Exit of Ageo Station.
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A fragrant aroma fills the air when coffee beans are taken out of a roasting machine at Ryoke Green Gables in Ageo, Saitama Prefecture, on Jan. 7. (Saori Kuroda)
