Roasting Coffee
The degree to which C are roasted is one of the most important factors that determine the taste of the coffee in the cup
Green coffee beans are soft, with a fresh “grassy” smell and have little taste before roasting. The coffee roasting machines transforms green beans into the aromatic, flavorful, crunchy beans that we recognize as coffee.
Coffee flavor can be tuned during the roasting process. coffee roast levels can be determined by the color of the roasted beans, ranging from light to dark. Coffee is roasted according to requested final product in cup. Roasting causes chemical changes to take place as the beans are rapidly brought to very high temperatures beside changing color. When they reach the peak of perfection, they are quickly cooled to stop the process. Roasted beans smell like coffee, and weigh less because the moisture has been roasted out. They are crunchy to the bite, ready to be ground and brewed. Roasted Coffee needs about 4 days to finalize chemical reactions. Fresh roast flavor begins to diminish immediately, therefore they should be used as quickly as possible.
Roasting is both an art and a science. It takes years of training to become an expert roaster with the ability to “read” the beans and make decisions with split-second timing. The difference between perfectly roasted coffee and a ruined batch can be a matter of seconds.
Most roasters have specialized names for their favored roasts and there is very little industry standardization. This can cause some confusion when you’re buying, but in general, roasts fall into one of four color categories — light, medium, medium-dark and dark.
Light roasts
Light roasts are light brown in color, with a light body and no oil on the surface of the beans. because they are not roasted long enough for the oils to break through to the surface. Light roasts have a toasted grain taste and pronounced acidity. The origin flavors of the bean are retained to a greater extent than in darker roasted coffees. Light roasts also retain most of the caffeine from the coffee bean. The beans pop or crack and expand in size. This is known as the “first crack”. So a light roast generally means a coffee that has not been roasted beyond the first crack.
- Light City
- Half City
- Cinnamon
Medium roasts
Medium roasted coffees are medium brown in color with more body than light roasts. Like the lighter roasts, they have no oil on the bean surfaces. However, medium roasts lack the grainy taste of the light roasts, exhibiting more balanced flavor, aroma, and acidity. Caffeine is somewhat decreased, but there is more caffeine than in darker roasts.
- City
- American
- Breakfast
Medium Dark Roasts
Medium-dark roasts have a richer, darker color with some oil beginning to show on the surface of the beans. A medium-dark roast has a heavy body in comparison with the lighter or medium roasts.The beans are roasted to the beginning or middle of the second crack.
- Full City
Dark Roasts
Dark roasted coffees are dark brown in color, like chocolate, or sometimes almost black. They have a sheen of oil on the surface, which is usually evident in the cup when the dark roast coffee is brewed. The coffee’s origin flavors are eclipsed by the flavors of the roasting process. The coffee will generally have a bitter and smoky or even burnt taste. The amount of caffeine is substantially decreased.
- Continental
- New Orleans
- European
- Espresso
- Viennese
- Italian
- French