Before you brew a cup of coffee, the coffee itself has to go through many steps in the roasting process. Coffee beans come from South America, Central America, Africa and Asia. Because of the difference in climate and environment, the fruits of the cacao tree can smell and taste different. Raw coffee beans smell earthly, pealike. Green coffee beans have only a dozen of aromatic and flavor compounds, but when they are roasted they get between 700 and 900 compounds. This huge disparity can define the type of the coffee (for example medium roasts taste different than dark roasts). Green coffee beans are picked by hand, and then packed in large sacks. They travel a long distance to local roasteries.

How does the process of coffee roasting look like?

Green coffee beans don’t smell nor taste good. In order to get the flavor which everyone knows out of coffee, you should roast it. The most important thing is to create a blend that is going to meet your expectations. The aim of coffee roasting is to change the flavor of the raw coffee tree fruits into a flavorful and aromatic beverage. The roasting process is quite complicated and requires conscientious planning. You need to take care of the environment, where you store the green coffee beans, and where they transform into final product. Measure the humidity and temperature with useful analyzing tools, because even small changes can influence the beans. In order to roast coffee, you need a high quality roasting machine, which is the heart of every roastery.

Coffee roasters heat the beans (with an open flame or hot air) – the temperature in the roaster can reach 419 degrees F (215 degrees C). The drum, where you load the coffee, spins for about 20 minutes (it depends on the type of roast you want to get). Coffee roasting is quite similar to roasting corn – when the water in the coffee beans changes into steam, the pressure inside the beans rises and the brans crack. If you hear the first crack, it means that a light roast is ready. You can wait until you hear a second or a third crack, to make a medium or dark roast. When the beans are roasted, it is time to cool them. The coffee beans should be cooled right after the roasting. It is extremally important to cool them as soon as possible after the roasting! The approximate time of cooling the beans is 4-5 minutes. After that time the process of roasting is complete. Please notice that the whole roasting process may take more time, depending on the coffee type, your environment where the beans are stored and roasted, the size of the batch, and the roast degree you want to develop.

Flavor development

As you know, the roasting process gives the coffee beans hundreds of aromatic and flavor notes. The final taste of your freshly roasted coffee depends on the temperature you used, humidity level of the beans and in the room where the coffee roaster stands, and many smaller factors. Even after cooling the beans, their flavor can change in a process called foe de-gassing. 15 to 24 hours – this is the time, when your roasted beans should rest in a breathable container. Flavor develops, while the gas is escaping.

There are many coffee roasting profiles, which are defined by the temperature. The higher the temperature in the drum, the darker the roast. For example: the lightest type of roasting is the so called City Roast. To develop this degree, you need between 400 and 415 degrees F in the drum. Light roast has many fruity notes, it is fresh, and contains the highest amount of caffein (that’s why this is the most popular roast in Scandinavia, where people have to live in the darkness for a certain number of months in the North). The Full City Roast has a medium brown color, which is more popular than the light roast. You need between 410 and 445 degrees F to achieve the medium roast. The darkest roast is the Spanish Roast, and the recommended temperature is from 520 to 530 degrees F.

You can experiment with the roast degrees and create your own coffee with unique aromas and flavors. But to make it happen, you need good equipment. You can visit cmsale.com, if you are looking for a trustworthy retailer.