{"id":3444,"date":"2021-10-21T09:10:10","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T09:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blendly.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3444"},"modified":"2021-10-21T09:10:10","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T09:10:10","slug":"coffee-roasting-blendly-talks-about-how-coffee-roasting-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blendly.co.uk\/blog\/coffee-roasting-blendly-talks-about-how-coffee-roasting-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee Roasting \u2013 Blendly Talks About How Coffee Roasting Works."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The boom in the specialty coffee industry has been going on for several years. Baristas are tirelessly gaining experience, broadening their knowledge of coffee, honing their skills, and mastering modern techniques. However, the increase of professionalism is missing one of the basic coffee-related areas. Baristas know more about coffee flavours and blending than they do about roasting coffee. Roasting is still largely treated like a secret knowledge, a craft for the chosen ones. So, what is coffee roasting and what does it look like? Let\u2019s find out!<\/p>\n

The Secrecy Around Coffee Roasting<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"Lighter roasting of high-quality Arabica beans in craft roasteries is a new and, therefore, still underdeveloped area. Everything was trivial as long as all coffee was roasted dark and consequently, every brew tasted very similar.<\/p>\n

The famous third wave of coffee forced the roasters to significantly expand their knowledge, develop analytical and sensory skills, and gain a lot of patience and humility. Coffee roasting has its truths, half-truths, understatements, myths and incorrect assumptions. One person says one thing, the other says otherwise. Knowledge is largely passed on in closed master-student relationships or books, none of which has so far provided decent comprehensive knowledge for people to understand and share.<\/p>\n

Going forward you will now witness the foundations of roasting in a simple form and a picture will be painted of what coffee roasting is all about.<\/p>\n

Roaster<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"Coffee is roasted in specialized roasters. The vast majority of them are the drum roasters. They are usually powered by fuel in the form of flammable gas. The most important element of such a machine is the coffee roasting drum. It\u2019s a bit like in a washing machine, it\u2019s cylindrical and it spins. Inside the drum there are paddles, which scoop the beans to ensure an even, cyclical, rotational journey through the roasting process.<\/p>\n

The Flame<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The flame is located directly under the drum. It turns the fuel supplied to it into a flame, the intensity of which is controlled by the operator. The flame is a source of energy \u2013 it heats the drum to the desired temperatures, which roasts the coffee.<\/p>\n

The Cooling Tray<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"This is found directly under the exit, through which the roasted coffee is dropped at the right moment, thus completing the roast. The beans need to be cooled in order to stop the chemical reactions from taking place in them as quickly as possible. Therefore, just before the drop, the operator starts the mixer and a separate engine draws in the air, cooling the heated material. The mixer arms ensure even distribution of the coffee beans during the roasting process.<\/p>\n

How to Roast the Coffee <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/strong>Now that the introduction steps are complete, we can get into the actual roasting process of the coffee beans.<\/p>\n

Hot air roasts the coffee, it goes through the drum and has to get away somewhere. The chimney allows dust and particles from the raw material and the smoke generated in the final stage of roasting to escape. Air transported through a separate channel cools the beans. The panel is the roasting command centre. It allows you to click, start, change and switch when necessary.<\/p>\n

The Roasting Process <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"Coffee is a strikingly complex raw material. Even relatively small changes in the pool of substances contained in the beans will bring out completely different characteristics in the ground coffee, not to mention the brew.<\/p>\n

Here are some popular aromas in the specialty-quality Arabica and the chemical compounds behind them, formed during the roasting process:<\/p>\n