Snip
In wake of founder’s death, family decides to close business
It’s just before noon and Roman Baltram doesn’t have time to chat. As soon as he takes a seat, the phone rings or a customer strolls into Sivetz Coffee.
One caller orders a 50-pound supply of roasted Sumatra coffee beans. Baltram haggles with another over his price for coffee roaster parts.
“Well, you take a few days to think about it,” he says as he hangs up. “We’ll still be in business until the end of the month.”
Sivetz Coffee Inc. founder Michael Sivetz, a renowned coffee expert and inventor, died in March at the age of 90, and his family has decided to close the shop. Baltram has managed his father-in-law’s business with his wife, Martha Baltram, for the past five or six years as Sivetz progressed in age.
Locals know Sivetz Coffee as the place to buy roasted beans or to order the perfect cup of coffee.
However, since opening its doors in 1981, the bulk of the business has been in the back — where coffee roasters, invented and patented by Sivetz, are assembled and shipped to wholesale coffee distributors all over the country.
Sivetz’s roasters use a technology that maintains a more precise temperature level, which Sivetz has credited with improving the taste and roasting the beans in about half the time as traditional roasters.
Housed in an old church on Southwest Fourth Street and Adams Avenue, the business has grown in fame in the coffee world, which can only be traced back to Sivetz’s intense — and sometimes militant — taste for perfection. The man had precise procedures for everything. And he had very little patience, Baltram said, for those who couldn’t follow his directions.
KK
My web site > koffeekosmo.com.au I home roast and I like it :P
Blog - http://koffeekosm...gspot.com/
Bezzera BZ40:Bezzera Strega: BNZ MD74 Grinder: 6 Box hand grinders: Pullman Tamper Convex: (KKTO) Turbo Oven Home Roaster: CONA Glass Rod Syphon: Pyrex Brewer:
Sivetz lovers and Gurus in general: I mean no offence with the following:
I wonder sometimes if some people like to be the 'only ones' to know some things, and therefore won't share them. I know zero zip nada about Sivetz personally, only watching a few of his seminars online. Did he hold too much information too close to the chest, and the family couldn't run the business without him?
My grandfather invented and patented a specific solar cell. I've read through his patent info, and it's way technical. However, he did say that he wasn't allowed to patent the synthesis - they precise way the chemical reactions need to happen - which was 'the real secret'. (as a side note, everyone wanted a $5,000,000 full scale model before committing to take the cells further, even though the original cells he made in the late 1970s were still working in the 1990s in plastic baggies)
He didn't write that synthesis down, didn't share it with anyone for fear that someone would steal his idea. Well, he took the secret synthesis information to the grave and grandma has let all the patents lapse.
Bless you Sivetz for your significant contributions to the roasting world!
The roaster-building side of the business has some value. The patents certainly do. I wonder if another mfgr hasn't made an offer that they family can't say no to?
The roaster-building side of the business has some value. The patents certainly do. I wonder if another mfgr hasn't made an offer that they family can't say no to?
If so, I hope that Mfr actually makes some air roasters, instead of taking Sivetz roasters out of the picture entirely.
CHAD
Don't put the cart before the horse. Put the horse in the cart and listen to him say "weeeee" all the way down the hill.
Did Sivetz still hold patents for the roaster design? To my knowledge the only patent still valid is the coffee preservation patent. There are Sivetz type roasters being built by Heis and an outfit in Australia and I believe also a Sivetz knock off in South America. Not the same as one with the name I know.
Rob
VBM Minimax 2gp, 1gp Reneka Techno, 2 gp la Pavoni Pub, la Cimbali M28, SJ Maz, FB 6kg HM roaster and other stuff
I can attest to folks being out and about. Me and Julie were out hitting the garden centers for loading flower pots all day. Nice weather! Tomorrow the Kamado/egg gets fired up!
ginny
05/18/2013 17:32
Jack, it is quiet today, I think the lovely day has folks out and about.
ginny
05/18/2013 17:31
sbonder
thanks for joining us...
JackH
05/18/2013 15:28
Quiet here today.
zombie coffee
05/17/2013 11:02
ricksroasters
thank you for taking time to join us...
Marco.....