Coffee Roasting: The Essential Ingredient for Your Java’s Flavor
Let’s follow the journey from coffee bean harvesting to your aromatic cup of coffee!
Coffee beans are harvested by hand from coffee trees. Exactly when the coffee berries are picked influences the flavor of the coffee. The berries are red or purplish when they’re ripe; however, many plantations also harvest green berries. The red berries possess a higher concentration of aromatic oils and lower acidity, which results in more fragrant and smooth coffee. These berries are used primarily for gourmet or specialty coffees. The green berries, which are more bitter, are used in conjunction with the ripe berries for mass-produced coffee.
Once the coffee beans are harvested, a mechanical pulper removes the flesh of the coffee berries that surround the inner coffee beans. The coffee beans are then fermented for 10 to 36 hours, often in water. Afterward, they are washed and dried in the sun. At this stage, the raw coffee beans are green, and they’re referred to as milled.
The milled coffee beans are then sorted by hand or by machine to remove bad or misshapen beans. The milled beans are then sorted according to size.
Some coffee producers polish their coffee beans. This process removes their silver skin. But some coffee experts frown at this practice, because raising the bean’s temperature via friction alters is chemical composition–and its ultimate flavor.
Coffee flavor peaks within one year of being harvested, as the coffee beans still retain most of their essential oils. However, coffees from Indonesia and India with low acidity are sometimes aged for three to eight years.
Coffee beans aren’t roasted until they reach their destination country. When coffee beans are roasted, they expand to double their original size, and they transform to a luxurious dark, aromatic brown. They’re roasted in horizontal rotating drum at 370 to 540 degrees Fahrenheit anywhere from a few minutes up to 30 minutes.
There are eight gradations of roasting. From lightest to darkest, they are light, cinnamon, medium, high, city, full city, Italian and French. Full city is typically considered to be juuust right.
Lighter roasts allow more of a particular coffee’s “origin flavor” to come through. This is desired for famous regions such as Java, Jamaican Blue Mountain, Hawaiian Kona and Kenya.
Once the beans are roasted, they’re sprayed with water. Once they’re cooled, they processed with a destoner, which removes any final waste products. The coffee beans are then conveyed to a hopper, where they’re dried and stabilized; this stabilization process is called equilibration. Then the beans are either ground or packaged and shipped as whole beans.
Coffee roasting transforms coffee beans’ carbohydrates and fats into aromatic oils, burns moisture and carbon dioxide, plus breaks down certain acids and while building others. It’s the coffee roasting process that gives your cup of coffee its distinctive aroma and flavor!
I have just read this load of garbage on coffee roasting: cannot really comment on the commercial roasting process; but the writer has obviously NEVER visited a real coffee farm, and got involved with the picking and processing of “top grade” coffee.
I own and run a coffee farm, in the Jamaican Blue Mountains, and have been processing my own coffee for years: if processed as described in this article, the coffee would be “******ing awful”!!!!
I am more than happy to send you a very detailed description of how coffee, should be produced: from coffee seed, via coffee bush, to the finale, the nectar in a cup!
Thanks for your attention
Robin.