Roasting Coffee
Coffee roasting is a cooking process by which the seeds of the coffee cherry are
transformed from an inedible bean into a bean that when crushed and brewed produces
an incredibly complex and satisfying beverage. Until the mid 1800's Americans
roasted their own coffee at home in frying pans over a fire or stove. The
industrial revolution of the 1800's began the introduction of canned food and mass
produced roasted coffee that by the beginning of the 20th century had
all but replaced home coffee roasting. The next one hundred years would see
the convenience of prepared coffee replace the flavor and aroma of fresh roasted
coffee and today 90% of coffee consumers still drink coffee that is vacuum
packed in bags or cans.
With the appearance of relatively affordable home roasting appliances home roasting
is making a small comeback. The rewards of drinking fresh coffee with a flavor
and aroma impossible to find in a can of ground coffee have driven this rebirth.
But the appearance of small local roasters during the last few decades has been
the real story in the emergence of great coffee. The artisan roasters have
found that people will pay the premium price to have fresh roasted coffee again.
Once top quality fresh coffee has touched the pallet stale vacuum packed coffee
is no longer drinkable.
For the artisan coffee roaster the roasting process is where passion, knowledge
and skill come together to turn potentially great green coffee beans into great
roasted coffee. A cup of coffee is perhaps the most complex drink in the world.
Over 1000 possible flavoring compounds have been discovered to date and during the
roasting process hundreds of chemical reactions occur to these compounds.
At the hands of a skilled roaster the potential of the beans is transformed into
roasted coffee with such a satisfying flavor and aroma that for many Americans the
day has not began until they have had their cup.
How a coffee is roasted will determine the quality of the brew. A
wet-processed Guatemala high grown Antigua coffee will be roasted differently
from a Sumatra dry-processed coffee or a
Papua New Guinea coffee. Each different coffee possesses different flavor
and aroma characteristics and perhaps only one roast profile will bring out the
most desired flavor. The job of the roastmaster is to determine the optimum
roast profile through a series of roasting, cupping and refining steps until the optimum cup quality for that coffee is
achieved. At this point there is a balance of chemicals remaining in the bean
that best pleases the senses.
Each roasting method has their particulars and ultimately the cup quality is the
deciding factor as to which produces the best results. The
drum roaster and the air roaster or fluid
bed roaster are the two methods used almost exclusively today.
Each has their benefits and drawbacks. And during the roasting process the
roast profile and the
degree of roast will come together in the end to produce the flavor and
aroma most pleasing to the pallet.
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