Coffee Roasting

About Roasting: We begin with only the highest quality of hand-picked Arabica green beans, and perfect roasts – taking into consideration many things;
1.       The bean’s overall condition, its age, moisture content, etc.
2.       The region or altitude it was farmed at.
3.       The ideal roast to enhance each bean’s unique flavors and overtones.
4.       The retailers demand. We stay closely in touch with our retailers, learning the habits and preferences of their
       customers.

The Process: All roast cycles include periods of temperature and air flow increases/ decreases, which is a entire balancing act from the time they are dropped in the hopper. The beans must be carefully roasted to their prime, then immediately removed from heat and cooled to “fix” the desired roast – or they continue to perpetuate heat and “cook”. This is a very fast and complex process. The process is most complicated due to the nature of coffee beans. It is estimated that beans contain over 2,000 chemical substances that can be broken down or changed rapidly during roasting, producing thousands of varieties of “volatile aroma compounds”. Various acids, oils, proteins, vitamins, sugars, starches, and caffeine are altered: some are enhanced and some are diminished, some are burned away if over roasted. Again, a real balancing act.

Types of Roasts: This is much easier to explain, “types” of roasts actually refers to the degree of roasting by color as follows (with popular references): 1. Light – also “cinnamon” “half-city”, dry in appearance. 2. Medium – “city”, dry in appearance. 3. Medium/Dark – “full city” “Viennese” specks of oil on tips. 4. Dark – “French Roast” “European” oil appears on surface. 5. Near Black – “Espresso” “Dark French” “Italian” very oily surface.

The lighter the roast – the higher the acidity, lower in body and contains more caffeine.

The darker the roast – the lower the acidity, heavier in body and contains less caffeine.

Blended Coffee: Blending refers to combining different coffee regions and roasts. Some coffee companies blend to increase their profits, using cheaper beans to "stretch" the more expensive. We blend for the sole purpose of creating complexity and complimenting flavors of specific roasted coffees. Rather than one positive quality, blending can produce a much more interesting cup! We also roast each coffee to their perfection prior to blending.

Flavored Coffee: There is literally a thousand coffee flavors available, however our company chooses to only use the very best, high quality flavorings available. The flavoring process takes place shortly after roasting. We only flavor to our retailer’s specifications, as we do not use flavors to simply “cover up” inferior roasts. We also do not recommend flavoring certain varieties of coffee where desirable characteristics would be covered up or not complimented.

De-Caffeinated Coffee: Green coffee beans are actually de-caffeinated before their final importation. Caffeine will survive roasting, even at temperatures exceeding 475 degrees, but it is completely vulnerable to liquid, and will pass from green coffee beans very easily when soaked. There are two basic processes:
1)       European KVW Process – this process produces the best tasting and most aromatic decaffeinated coffee.
2)       Swiss Water Process – this process uses no additives to extract the caffeine, only pure water, but much of
       the desirable acidic tendencies are lost in the process.

Roasting Coffee