Minneapolis-based coffee roasting equipment company Mill City Roasters this month officially launched RoastPath, a software package and community-focused platform for coffee roasters that’s six years in the making.
Core features of the RoastPath (styled by the company as RoastPATH) software include importable and exportable roast profiles, local storage of roast profiles, real time “live roast” sharing between users and green coffee data. The software is augmented by a peer-reviewed community forum.
Additional features — including tools for production planning, sensory analysis and inventory management — are being prepared for a rollout in 2024, according to the company.
“We funded and developed RoastPath as a way to aggregate data to advance roast science,” Mill City Roasters President Steve Green recently told Daily Coffee News. “Along the way, it has helped us understand how operators actually use their machines, allowing us to build better roasters.”
According to Green, the current version of RoastPath is compatible with roasting machines from 37 different manufacturers, while a forthcoming update will add compatibility with more than 30 more brands of machines.
Naturally, the software is compatible with Mill City machines, which are available in a broad range of sizes, from a 500-gram sample roaster up to 60-kilo-capacity production models.
RoastPath launched with tiered membership options, including a free plan, a $9-per-month “small” plan, a $79-per-month “medium” plan, and a $129-per-month “large” plan.
All tiers allow for some duration of saved roast profiles. The three paid membership levels unlock the live shared roasting feature, while the top two tiers unlock RoastPath’s Roast Replay, which automates roasts based on established profiles.
The company said it can also customize membership plans for events or specific organizational needs.
In addition to the software, RoastPath opens a community forum for open-ended questions and other other portals for shared knowledge among coffee roasting professionals.
“Sustainability in coffee happens when we respect the work done at origin by doing a better job with every seed,” Green said. “Our goal is to allow like minded coffee professionals to share their love of coffee in a way that inspires everyone to do a better job.”
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Nick Brown Nick Brown is the editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.
