The flavor of coffee comes from 60% raw beans, 30% from roasting, and 10% from brewing. It can be seen that there are many factors that influence the flavor of coffee. So, as a roaster, how do you decide the degree of roasting of coffee beans? Front Street today talks about determining the baking style.
We need to remind everyone to pay attention to two points. Coffee is a roasting degree that each roaster has a different understanding of coffee beans. It may not be absolutely right or wrong, it is just a choice of flavor expression. It is not a universal standard. The second point is that the degree of roasting is not subject to a strict standard.
Generally speaking, the degree of roasting is named based on the color of the coffee beans, which is a standard color palette. The names cinnamon, urban, Viennese, French, and dark French that we often find in textbooks come from this. This standard is just a general name in international terms, and there are often some exceptions in actual baking, and such exceptions are not uncommon. For example, beans from some production areas are not easy to color. If they are roasted further, they will produce a burnt and bitter taste. The roasting does not stop here. Although the color is very light, its flavor has already been formed. In other production areas, the beans may appear darker due to higher caramel content after roasting. In these cases, the color value is only a reference standard.
Some people will also use the oven temperature as the standard for roasting degree. However, in fact, there are some differences between roasters of different brands or technical routes. The comparison of oven temperatures between different roasters is also very different. This is why we often see 230-240 degrees in the baking curve in Japan.
Roasting is to transform the chemical and physical properties of green coffee beans into roasted coffee products. It takes ten to fifteen minutes and the temperature is as high as more than 200CelsiusAfter many chemical changes, the green beans will explode once and twice, making a sound like popcorn, and lose moisture, causing the green beans to expand and change their color, taste, smell and density. With the baking process, chloric acid will gradually disappear, releasing familiar and pleasant fruit acids, such as acetic acid, citric acid and malic acid contained in wine. Baking is just the right way to present these beautiful sour flavors in moderation. This produces the special flavor of coffee.
Theoretically, you can choose the right time to release it after the first explosion. However, in order to avoid taking risks, beans are usually not produced immediately after being cracked. They need to be developed for two or three times before the aroma can be fully developed. That is to say, from two degrees Celsius after the first crack to a little after the second crack, a total of only 10 degrees Celsius, we will roughly simplify it into three styles: light roasting, medium roasting and dark roasting. It can be seen that in fact, the difference in their exit temperature is not big. Sometimes there may be only a difference of two or three degrees, but the appearance is already very different. Therefore, we will combine the color, shape and taste to describe the roasting degree of a coffee bean.
From a baking perspective:
As Front Street mentioned in the newcomer assessment, light roasting means that the coffee beans are from the middle of the first crack to just after the first crack. In the early stages of the enzyme action and Menard reaction, the organic acids of the coffee beans have not been completely cracked, so the sourness will be more eye-catching and the bitterness will be so light that you can’t feel it. It is very suitable for friends who like sour coffee.
Medium roast usually refers to the end of the first crack to before the second crack. At this time, the roasting process caramelizes and reacts more with the Menard. Although it still has a sour aroma, it is obviously weaker than the light roast. At this time, the sourness and bitterness are more neutral, so the sweetness and sweetness are more prominent and very smooth, with caramel, chocolate, etc. as the main flavor. This type of roasting level often brings out the best characteristics of specialty coffee, and is also the roasting level most commonly used by FrontStreet Coffee.
Dark roasting often refers to beans after the second crack. The caramelization reaction is nearing the end, dominated by Menard reaction, producing resinous, spicy, carbonized and other smells.
So, how do we decide on these different roasting levels?
The first basis is history. In the past, consumers did not have high requirements for the flavor of coffee, and paid more attention to its functions. During that long period, the roasting degree of coffee was surprisingly consistent------depth. Therefore, during this centuries-long period, the styles formed in major coffee-producing areas were mainly mellow, such as Mandheling, Brazil, Colombia, or Blue Mountain. In comparison, Blue Mountain is mellow and not burnt and bitter. Perhaps this is also an important factor in coffee becoming the king of coffee in the old era. The influence of this roasting is so profound that even today, some consumers have the habit of asking for sugar and milk when ordering coffee. This is where the habit comes from.
Therefore, when it comes to roasting choices, we will try to keep the coffee beans from these classic producing areas as back to the era as possible and maintain the classic mellow taste.
Take Mandheling as an example. Mandheling's unique "heavy taste" makes it taste like a joy and a journey. There are not a few men who like it, and now many female friends also like it. Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world and is known as the Land of Thousand Islands. Indonesia’s higher altitude, volcanic ash soil, and its climateThe climatic characteristics are all excellent conditions suitable for the growth of Arabica coffee trees. Sumatra is known as the Spice Island. The coffee trees in the mountainous areas are close to wild animals, cloves, cardamom, and pepper. Coupled with the unique three-stage drying method (wet planing method), Mandheling has a unique flavor: unique herbal flavor, agarwood from the forest, appropriate acidity, mellow but like the sweetness and bitterness of life, and a strong aftertaste.
Mandheling coffee beans have larger particles and harder beans. To highlight its famous body, low acidity and native herbal notes, Front Street is roasted darkly. If Mandheling coffee beans are lightly roasted or medium roasted, the taste may not reach the mellowness that everyone likes, and the acidity will be more obvious, and it will no longer be the Mandheling coffee that everyone likes. Of course, if someone likes sour Mandheling, they can also try the medium roasted version. Having said that, if Mandheling does not have the Mandheling flavor, do we also call it Mandheling?
The second basis is the appearance and characteristics of the beans. For example, Yirgacheffe coffee beans are lightly roasted. It is not that this production area shows good acidity, but on the contrary, it is because of the extremely light roasting that it shows acidity.
In order to sell most of the coffee beans in Yirgacheffe, Ethiopian coffee farmers do not like traditional countries such as Brazil, Mandheling, and Colombia mentioned just now, which like to classify goods by size. Coffee in Ethiopia will be large and small. Only defective beans that bring bad taste will be excluded. For the phenomenon of different sizes, the native species [Heirloom native species] will usually be used to indicate the variety of green beans.
Front Street often mentioned in articles that Ethiopian beans come in different sizes. When roasting, the larger coffee beans should be roasted until they are cooked, and the smaller coffee beans should not be roasted or burnt. The safer way is to get them out of the oven as soon as possible. Some people say, wouldn’t it be possible to bake evenly with advanced technology? The intrinsic wooden structure of coffee beans determines that it conducts heat very slowly. If the difference between soybeans and adzuki beans is too great, the thermal conductivity cannot achieve even conduction. Although it is possible to slowly extend the roasting time by lowering the firepower after dehydration, this method of boiling frogs in warm water can make the beans look uniform. However, the aroma characteristics will inevitably be bland and tasteless due to too long roasting. This is also a trade-off. Ethiopian beans have floral aroma and fruity sour notes. Like most roasters, Front Street roasts them lightly.
For another example, the floral and fruity notes of Geisha are different from most varieties of coffee. Many reviews consider this feature to be a medium-light roast. One characteristic of the Geisha variety is that its long and narrow shape makes it larger than some varieties, especially the Ethiopian bean, which has been unanimously recognized as a light roast. Two or three small grains are often as big as one Gesha grain. Whether you are willing or not, its roasting takes longer. On the other hand, in terms of the principle of baking, roasting as much as possible without causing burnt bitterness will produce more aromatic characteristics and lead to more flavor changes. This is the pursuit of baking.
Whether they are roasters or drinkers, they all have different understandings and views on coffee. Sometimes there may not be a completely standard answer, just different choices.
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
