What does a batch of coffee actually go through when you roast it?
I used to think roasting coffee was simply putting the beans in the machine, waiting the right number of minutes and taking them out. The more I learn, the more I see how oversimplified that is.
A real roast batch is a whole chain of decisions: preparing the green coffee, setting a goal, charging the beans, watching how the roast develops, developing the profile, ending the batch, cooling, checking the result and recording data. Every step affects the next batch.
What stuck with me most is the question you ask before switching the machine on: what is this batch for? Coffee for espresso differs from coffee for a phin filter, and a base for milk drinks differs from one for black coffee. Bigger beans aren't automatically better either; uniformity, bean condition and storage have to be considered together. The roaster is only a tool and can't "fix" differences already in the raw material.
That's also why there's no "standard" temperature or time. Numbers taken out of the context of the machine, batch size and beans are easily mistaken for a recipe. Instead of asking "how many minutes makes it taste good", ask "with these beans and this goal, how should the roast develop?"
Two more notes for myself: cooling is part of controlling the batch, because the beans keep changing if they aren't cooled properly; and you can't judge two batches as identical by colour alone, since the heat development before that may have been completely different.
For a home roaster like me, the lesson is to log every batch carefully. A good batch is only really worth something when you understand why it was good and can repeat it.
Source: C&C Coffee
A real roast batch is a whole chain of decisions: preparing the green coffee, setting a goal, charging the beans, watching how the roast develops, developing the profile, ending the batch, cooling, checking the result and recording data. Every step affects the next batch.
What stuck with me most is the question you ask before switching the machine on: what is this batch for? Coffee for espresso differs from coffee for a phin filter, and a base for milk drinks differs from one for black coffee. Bigger beans aren't automatically better either; uniformity, bean condition and storage have to be considered together. The roaster is only a tool and can't "fix" differences already in the raw material.
That's also why there's no "standard" temperature or time. Numbers taken out of the context of the machine, batch size and beans are easily mistaken for a recipe. Instead of asking "how many minutes makes it taste good", ask "with these beans and this goal, how should the roast develop?"
Two more notes for myself: cooling is part of controlling the batch, because the beans keep changing if they aren't cooled properly; and you can't judge two batches as identical by colour alone, since the heat development before that may have been completely different.
For a home roaster like me, the lesson is to log every batch carefully. A good batch is only really worth something when you understand why it was good and can repeat it.
Source: C&C Coffee
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