Have You Heard?

WICHITA — A fire in the Spice Merchant’s longtime coffee roaster last year has led to a new roaster this year.

“Since that happened, we . . . made a decision to order a new roaster that is modern and up to date,” says Bob Boewe, who owns the store with his wife, Sue.

The new roaster, custom manufactured by the U.S. Roaster Corp. in Oklahoma City, is supposed to arrive today.

The Spice Merchant’s other roaster is about four decades old. Before being at the store downtown on East Douglas, it had been at a coffee roasting company in Barcelona, Spain.

Coffee residue had gotten built up in the exhaust venting.

“It got hot enough that it ignited,” Boewe says.

“It’s one of those things somewhere in the back of your brain (that) says you ought to clean the flue,” he says. “That’s what we hadn’t done. Luckily we were back in business the next day and had the roaster running the day after that.”

Boewe says the new roaster is environmentally friendly because it recycles the wasted hot air that goes through the roaster and cleans it up by getting rid of the smoke in it.

“Instead of having to reheat the air from room temperature, it takes that hot air that you already have and runs it back through the roasting chamber,” he says. “All that hot air now just goes up the chimney, so to speak.

“It’ll save us on utilities.”

That’s a good thing, Boewe says, because “it’s quite an investment for us.”

He says the roaster is “very programmable” and makes great coffee.

“It just does a beautiful job.”

Boewe taste-tested it in Oklahoma.

Customers can have their first tastes Friday if all goes well.

“We’re hoping.”