Hey there gang,
Van Halen quotes aside, I’d like to share at least a little bit of insight on the Roaster’s Supreme #1 Ultimate Passionate Struggle: finding the best roast for the coffee. There’s much to consider in such an endeavor, and while it can seem we’re largely nerdy Machine Operators using our knowledge of coffee to pretend we’re worldly and hip, most Roasters I know have an uncanny hunger for recognizing the finer points of coffees by origins and grades. Then they further that obsession at the helm of the drum, would-be alchemists that we are, to hit a religious balance of all things tasty and memorable. Determining the sweet spot in a roast can come down to so many factors.
THE GREEN COFFEE
The Green
Green coffee is what arrives to a Roaster’s shop. Depending on the time and energy spent sampling coffees from different importers, the coffee can have varying degrees of defects, moisture levels, density, and sizes. All of which impact the action during the roast. Using the cupping process, we figure out quite a bit about its potential and weigh these things to decipher a profile.
THE WEATHER
Cold beans change a roast. Rain and sun can change a roast. Barometric pressure can change a roast. Relative humidity can affect one’s roast. Wind can mess with one’s airflow. Weather is uncontrollable, relative to this discussion. Roasters have formulas, ideas, trials and errors that make up a host of responses to all these factors. In time a Roaster figures out that correct response to most situations to get the good stuff out of the coffee consistently.
THE MACHINE
The roaster (machine) one uses makes a world of difference as well. No two roasters are exactly alike. The Roaster (capital “R” is a person, lower case “r” is a machine) gets up close and personal with their machine and knows it inside and out and develops all the little tricks that make it perform just as it should. It’s like training a horse to ride or something like that. Care, love, stubbornness and trust are required.
PROFILING
Profiling is what happens during the roast, and in what ratio of time and temperature it occurs. If you graph a coffee roast, with time measured out horizontally and temperature vertically, you see a nice little curve when you plot out the process. A good Roaster has some version of this data in their mind at all times in the process — combined with smelling, listening for 1st and sometimes 2nd “cracks” in the roast when beans temporarily become exothermic (emit heat rather than take in) and thinking ahead about the application of heat with combinations of fire and/or airflow. The profile is likely the most essential element to a Roaster’s philosophy. The better of us can’t get enough of trying to unlock everything that happens here. We learn pieces of physics, chemistry, meteorology, engineering, agronomy and anything we can. We have knowledge of the thermodynamics of heat transfer (although we don’t mention this at parties, because it quickly clears a room right after eyes start to glaze over).
Picture of a Profile: A Roast Curve
Profiling also entails the nuances and styles that you might most recognize. Namely the roast level, or darkness of the roast, is part of the profile. The movement these days is in full support of getting the absolute best from the coffee itself, imparting very little, if any, hints of carbony, roasty flavor characteristics that might hide the floral aromatics or fruity acidity from a drinker. However, roast philosophies and traditionally-styled roasts like French and Italian roasts come into play often and ensure consumers a wide range of roasty- flavored coffees as well.
Profiling slightly darker can also help smooth out espressos, take funkiness or bite off of some coffees and longer, slower roasts near the end of a batch can build up a bit of body in a coffee where it was otherwise lacking. Whereas a quick, lighter roast can save sweetness and acidity in some coffee while leaving others tasting too green and underdeveloped. Profiling is the tricks and treats of roasting coffee, and I encourage everyone to try out different roasts with a mind wide open to all the tastes they can muster to really understand the potential of truly great coffee.
at the mill.
No roasting happens without coffee farmers, pickers, millers, exporters and importers, dock workers and the whole gamut of the globalized economy. Still most coffee earns people who handle it pennies a pound. All other passions aside, this is why coffee needs to be the best for us. The value we impart can prove critical to the benefit of countless others down the chain. As a Roaster I see this as the most important motivation and logic behind learning more and dealing in coffee up to my eyeballs everyday. Without that recognition, coffee and its people are just another commodity.
Thanks for reading and — if you do — buying coffee from us.
-Cheers, Ryan
