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Educational Primer: Degrees of Roast |
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Thursday, 28 July 2005 |
by Mauro Cipolla
Today's specialty coffee choices, made available by the many different
roasting companies, are vast both in types of blends and in degrees of
roast. This presents an opportunity for retailers to educate their
customers on the different roasts and brewing requirements of the
whole-bean coffees they offer. The retail shop-owner and every one of
his or her employees selling whole-bean coffees must be knowledgeable
about each offering and happy to pass this information on to customers.
In order to properly guide consumers in their choices, retailers must
address three very basic issues. The following information can help
consumers make educated choices when purchasing coffees for particular
home-brewing applications.
1. Whenever purchasing choices must be made among light-, medium- and
dark-roasted coffees, one must consider that the degree of roast by
itself does not constitute a standardized answer about the coffees
flavor profile.
Thus, when comparing similar roasting degrees, consider that any
individual coffees flavor profile will be dictated by a myriad of
factors. These factors include the botanical species used by the
roasting company, the type and quality of heat used in the roasting
process, the speed and timing of the roast and the final blend (if any)
employed by the roaster.
2. A retailer must also advise the consumer on certain general flavor
profiles found in a particular roast, and should explain some of the
basic reasons behind the expected flavor profiles. Here are some ideas:
Darker roasts generally equate to:
• Less fiber content of the bean and thus less viscosity and body in the cup.
• Less caffeine in the cup,
resulting in slightly less bitterness and slightly less strength.
• More organic losses and,
therefore, a loss in complexity of flavors and density of the coffee.
• More sucrose will be lost, but
more caramelization will be present, resulting in a more liqueur-like
and sugary, caramelized flavor.
• Less volatile aromas, less
acidity and less aroma will be present, thus the loss of aromatic and
acidic flavor components.
• Less chlorogenic acids resulting in a silkier, smoother texture.
• More dissolving properties of
the beans, thus more extractability of flavors from the particular
blend.
• More oils on the outside of the
beans, causing more problems with oxidation and/or concerns associated
with extra smoke created in the roasting process. These elements could
contribute to faster staling of the coffee and/or a more pungent flavor
profile.
3. Coffee (and espresso) extraction takes water-soluble
substances from the coffee beans, and emulsifies insoluble oils present
in the roasted coffee. Because each degree of roast (light, medium,
dark and everything in between) and individual roasting styles create
different and unique coffees, one must marry the set up of the brewing
and grinding equipment to the general taste expected from any coffee.
Most consumers will be limited by the type of adjustments that will be
possible on non-professional home brewing equipment. Therefore,
retailers should focus on four, easy-to-understand elements of
fine-tuning for taste: Water, temperature, grind setting and amount of
coffee used, and storage and purchasing patterns.
For example, taking points a through h above, one can say that,
generally, the darker the roast the more pungent the coffee. One can
try to minimize this pungency by fine-tuning the temperature in the
brewing equipment to a few degrees lower than where it would be set for
a less pungent coffee.
Another example may be the darker the roast, the more brittle the
beans, the less moisture content and the less density in the bean
itself. This requires a slightly coarser grind setting and possibly the
use of more ground coffee per brew cycle. Finally, changes may also be
advisable in the frequency of purchasing, since darker roasted coffees
will tend to oxidize faster and thus have a shorter life cycle of
freshness.
In any case, the whole-bean retailer must ensure the product delivered
to the consumer is of the standard he or she would expect when serving
a coffee beverage in his or her shop. Quality, in every aspect of this
business, is what the specialty coffee consumer expects and deserves. |
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