Coffee : Roasting

Coffee Roasting

Grades of Roasted Coffee

Coffee roasting is an art which requires experience: during this process chemical modifications take place. These form the coffee’s taste and fragrance.

For the coffee roasting procedure, or toasting, the raw beans are first selected and then put in roasting machines.

Roasting is a heat process that turns coffee into the fragrant, dark brown beans with which we are most familiarHere they are heated up and constantly stirred until the temperature reaches 200-230°C.

During the roasting the beans lose weight (-20%), increase their volume (+60%) and are chemically modified; this way the coffee’s aromatic components develop. The coffee loses acidity and assumes the bitter taste. The more the coffee is roasted the more its taste is striking.

At the same time, the coffee acquires a dark brown colour called “monk’s robe”.

Roasting brings out the aroma and flavor that is locked inside the green coffee beans. A green bean has none of the characteristics of a roasted bean. It is soft and spongy to the bite and smells green, almost ‘grassy.’ Roasting causes numerous chemical changes to take place as the beans are rapidly brought to very high temperatures. When they reach the peak of perfection, they are quickly cooled to stop the process. Roasted beans smell like coffee, and weigh less because the moisture has been roasted out. They are crunchy to the bite, ready to be ground and brewed.

Before being roasted, the beans were stored green, a state in which they can be kept without loss of quality or taste. Once roasted, however, they should be used as quickly as possible before the fresh roast flavor begins to diminish.