The Art of Roasting
from a Roaster & Green Coffee Importer’s Point of View…
Roasting Profiles & Parameters
What is a Roast Profile?
To be able to offer very good coffee of consistent quality, a lot of experience and a relentless thirst for knowledge are required to find the perfect roast. Coffee roasters are therefore constantly experimenting with different ways to improve the overall quality of their product. That means a lot of creativity, the will to fail, and a lot of notes. It takes discipline, but no one will argue with the end result. Roasting coffee is a real craft.
The roast profile is the recipe for roasting a certain green coffee, and influences to a large extent which taste properties of the coffee are emphasized. It contains all the important parameters of a roasting process. The recording of these parameters enables the roasting master to refine the coffee beans from the same batch with an identical result the next time they are roasted.
Key Roasting Parameters
A premium coffee roasting profile includes the batch size, the temperature of the green coffee before it is poured into the roaster drum and the preheating temperature, as well as all parameters that are important during roasting, such as the temperature profile.
In addition to the roast profile, the origin, variety, and processing of the bean also influence the taste.
The goal of a roast profile is to offer consistency in flavor and enhance the good characteristics of the premium coffee beans.
Why & When do Green Coffee Importers Roast ?
Daily quality roast
At Cuprima, we roast every day, this equates to a few thousand batches a year. As a specialty coffee importer, roasting is our daily routine but not our core business. Roasting is part of our daily quality control process and limited to the main objective of having the best view on the organoleptic profiles of our coffees.
To hit that roast degree consistently, we have an important tool in our arsenal: the Agtron spectrophotometer, which analyzes the roast value. This small device measures how light or dark a coffee is by measuring the wavelengths of what is soluble in a cup of coffee. This little agricultural superhero robot then outputs an easy-to-read number that represents the degree of roast. The smaller the number, the darker the roast, while lighter roasts show a wider range. According to the SCA, the roast for cupping specialty coffee shall meet Agtron gourmet colour scores between 55 and 60* (± 1 unit).
This analyser helps us to have better consistency and fixed parameters at the time we compare coffees. The idea is to be able to have the widest range of descriptors available for a specific coffee but not meaning the best potential of these descriptors. This slight difference is important for the roaster, because this is where he/she can make the difference by enhancing the flavours of the coffees.
Tailor-roasted samples
We do not only roast for quality and benchmarking purposes, we also roast special batches of green coffee for promoting purposes. Upon request, we can provide roasters with commercial samples.
When we were roasting commercial samples exactly according to the ‘SCA-Agtron recommandations*’, the feedback we got from our roasters was basically stating that this roast is too dark for them. We started to analyse quite a few roasts in the market (of clients and non yet clients) so we could better meet their expectations. And indeed, lately ‘medium-to-light roasts’ are more fashionable. The average Agtron scores of the roasts from our market survey were 72.15 , a lighter roast than SCA is recommending*.
We tend to follow the same requirements for commercial samples, but we can easily adapt or finetune to meet your expectations and preferences. We are always open to comments and suggestions, we love to discuss roast profiles or give you tips and advice.
Roasting is a real craft, and requires a lot of devotion and knowledge. Roasting is an art, a real passion. Our passion as a specialty coffee importer is green coffee, so we surely can provide you with the ultimate green coffee qualities that are perfect for you, so you, dear Roasters, can do your magic !
Paris Coffee Show, here we come!
Baristas, latte artists, coffee experts and coffee aficionados will gather in Paris from 10 to 12 September for the new and long-awaited edition of the Paris Coffee Show.
In addition to a full calendar of events, the main stage of the Paris Coffee Show will host the Latte Art Championship and the finals of the French Roasting, the latter which we are proudly sponsoring with our specialty coffees. We are very excited and looking forward to the comments and feedback from the enthusiastic roasters and coffee professionals.
You can find us in Hall 3, at stand D 17. Our team is available on Saturday, Sunday & Monday. If you are around, and you want to secure some quality time for a proper chat or meeting with our coffee experts, please get in touch.
Don’t be shy, please pass by to say ‘hi’!
Credits & References