Many friends who want to learn how to roast coffee beans are curious about how to determine the degree of roasting of coffee beans.
Should a coffee bean be dark roasted or light roasted? How light should it be? How dark should it be? How do the coffee beans sold on the front street determine their roasting degree? This is a common inquiry Front Street receives.To be honest, you don’t need to imagine how complicated coffee bean roasting is. Just like when we stir-fry, what kind of dish you want to cook a certain ingredient into depends on the chef's own ideas.In short, the degree of roasting of coffee beans should be dark or light, mainly depending on "what kind of coffee the roaster wants to use it to make" or "what kind of characteristics it highlights". Think around these two points, draw conclusions, then roast the coffee, and finally select the optimal route. This is the entire process of Front Street determining the roasting degree of a coffee bean.It’s okay if you find it difficult to understand. Next, Front Street will share some ideas for determining the degree of baking. But before that, we need to briefly understand what impact roasting depth has on coffee. And which level of coffee is light and which level of coffee is dark.The so-called coffee roasting, we can understand, is the process of heating the beans to release the charming aroma and flavor, which is not much different from roasting peanuts and nuts. Green coffee beans will stay in a high-temperature furnace for about ten minutes, during which time they will undergo multiple chemical changes due to high-temperature roasting.These changes affect the shape, moisture content, color, texture, flavor, density, and aroma of the beans. In general, the darker the roasted coffee beans, the larger they will be, the lower the density/moisture content, and the more bitter the taste; conversely, the lighter the roast, the smaller the expansion of the coffee beans, the higher the density/moisture content, and the more sour taste.There is actually no clear standard for the degree of roasting of coffee beans. Although internationally there are French baking, Japanese baking, Vienna baking, etc. based on the Agtron color value.(Coffee bean table/color value of coffee powder)ways to distinguish the degree of roasting, but these can only be used as a reference. In actual roasting, the color of coffee beans will be different in coloring difficulty due to different processing methods and roasting methods.For example, the Front Street Divide Manor Hija in the Front Street bean list is an anaerobic sun-dried coffee bean. Because there is a lot of sugar attached to the surface of the beans during processing, this bean is more likely to be colored than most conventionally processed coffee beans.The color value measured by Front Street is 59. If judged according to SCAA's Agtron color value card, it is already a dark roasted coffee bean. But in fact, it has a very rich sour floral and fruity aroma, such as grape, passion fruit, apricot, and floral aroma. So if it is defined as dark roasted coffee beans, then I guess many friends will have a wrong understanding of it, thinking that it will be a bitter coffee without acidity and burnt aroma.Therefore, our definition of roasting degree is more based on its taste and the roasting process of the coffee beans. For example, light roasting refers to coffee beans that are roasted in the range from the first crack to the end of the first crack. The coffee beans released at this time do not have much burnt aroma because the organic acids have not been completely decomposed, so the acidity will be the dominant flavor in the coffee, the bitterness is relatively less, and the taste is light;Medium roasting usually refers to the end of the first crack and the beginning of the second crack. The coffee beans released at this time have experienced more caramelization and Menard reactions, so the sourness in the coffee is not as much as that of light roasting, but it still retains a certain sour aroma. The taste tends to be balanced and sweet;Dark roasted beans refer to beans that are baked after the second crack. Because the beans have undergone a very complete caramelization reaction, the coffee itself will have a very rich aroma of caramel, chocolate, nuts, etc. The acidity of the coffee is basically broken down, and the remaining small amount of acidity will be covered up by the large amount of burnt aroma. The coffee will taste more mellow.Once we are familiar with the differences between coffee with different roasting levels, we can then roast the target coffee beans according to our needs.So, how to determine the degree of roasting of coffee beans?Usually Front Street will first determine the main purpose of the coffee beans, such as whether it focuses on making espresso coffee or is used for hand brewing. If it is espresso coffee, then the roasting degree of the roasted coffee beans will most likely be between medium and dark.After all, the making of Italian coffee will include milk coffee, and coffee with higher acidity is not suitable for making milk coffee, because the acid and the sweetness of milk will be too abrupt when mixed together. Therefore, the beans usually focused on Italian coffee are roasted slightly darker, with less acid to reduce the abruptness, and at the same time, more burnt aroma can be used to prevent the taste of coffee from being easily masked by milk. For example, the Front Street Esai Oiran in the Front Street bean menu has a medium roast option specially designed for Italian coffee.And if it focuses on the production of Pour over(V60) coffee and cold brew coffee, then Front Street will consider more about how to amplify its characteristics. But what everyone needs to know is that this feature is not just about flavor, but also people’s classic impression of coffee from a certain production area.For example, when talking about Mandheling from Indonesia, everyone’s impression of it is more of the rich caramel aroma brought by deep roasting. Unique herbal flavor, woody agarwood, rich spices, and a hint of slight acidity, a mellow taste and a strong aftertaste. And these require deep roasting to be able to express them. Therefore, like the Front Street Lindong/Golden Mandheling in the Front Street Bean List, Front Street uses deep roasted curves for cooking, so that everyone can drink the classic deliciousness that they remember.If it is Panama Geisha, then Front Street will want to highlight the unique flavor of this variety and the place of origin, the charming jasmine fragrance, and the round citrus fruity notes. In order to highlight the floral and fruity flavor, we need to prevent the coffee beans from being roasted too deeply to prevent the fruit acid from being consumed and the floral aroma from being obscured by the burnt aroma.Therefore, you can see that the Panama Geisha in the front street Tmall Taobao bean list, such as Front Street Panama Poquet Geisha, Jade Red Label/Green Label Geisha, etc., all use a medium-light roasting level.In addition to the final use of the beans, when roasting, we also need to combine various factors such as the particle size, appearance, processing method, and moisture content of the beans to determine what roasting method and degree of roasting should be used. There are many aspects involved, so roasting beans is actually not a simple matter.So, the above is all the content shared by Front Street this time. Again, the degree of roasting of beans should be dark or light mainly depends on what kind of coffee you want. We first envision the final goal, and then formulate the roasting method and degree according to the actual situation~
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
