In early 1990s I was lucky enough to meet Orville Redenbacher. And he asked me why I wanted to try roasting coffee in a microwave.

Ok, so I wasn't expecting a real conversation about it, and didn’t expect the idea to lead to actually doing this. But….

The conversation lead me to explore the idea. Orville was my inspiration. Had I not had this conversation with him, I would have never tried.

My daughter Rachel is my business partner at Thornton Family Coffee Roasters. One day she asked what drove me to want to learn so much about coffee roasting. And I asked her what made her so smart.

Part of it was the people we surrounded ourselves with. We had the same main answer.

My next answer: I was surrounded by other people in coffee who had similar interests in learning and exploring coffee roasting. Like Orville was in the popcorn industry.

While exploring heat transfer through coffee roasting in the 1990s it was nearly impossible to find true experts on this topic.

I had such a deep interest in understanding how heat transfer….radiant….conductive…convective…. affected sensory impact. The taste.

How can I insert heat quickly, to roast coffee without tipping, scorching or facing and at the same time, roast beans at a fast pace while transferring heat evenly into the center of the bean. And make it taste good.

A day with Orville! The heat transfer genius. “Microwave” he says, ‘now why would you want to try that with raw coffee’. I think I replied, why did you want to try it with popcorn? We had the same answer…because we could and nobody else thought it would ever work so they never explored it to any depth.

I never did find a way to roast coffee with a good outcome using a microwave. I’m not afraid to say I tried!

My best result was using very old dried out green. There was still too much moisture remaining inside the very brittle coffee bean cells.

I did learn a lot about heat transfer that day. And how to nearly catch a microwave on fire. I don’t recommend trying this at home.

That day I learned not to be afraid to go against the grain and explore with ideas even though others thought it was crazy. I’m a sucker for going against normal. Almost faction like.

Orville Redenbacher was a true entrepreneur. He said his biggest mistake was underestimating the demand for microwave popcorn. This resulted in disappointed grocery store buyers who could not keep their shelves stocked.

RIP Orville, thank you for taking the time with little young me. It was people like Orville who aspired my interest. The people I surrounded myself with.