Oily Dark Roast Coffee Beans Are Correct_Dark Roast Coffee Bean Roasting Experience_Which Dark Roast Coffee Bean Brand Is Good

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The Definition of Coffee Roasting

Coffee roasting refers to the process of transforming green beans into dark brown beans through heating, which triggers a series of physical and chemical reactions inside and outside the coffee beans, creating various flavors such as acidity, bitterness, and sweetness, while forming body and color.

The Importance of Roasting

Among the factors affecting the taste of a cup of coffee, green beans account for 60%, roasting accounts for 30%, and extraction accounts for 10%. Good roasting can maximize the personality of green beans while minimizing the appearance of defective flavors. Conversely, improper roasting can completely ruin good beans. Since controlling heat, time, and temperature during the roasting process is extremely difficult, roasting technology is a very complex technique, making the importance of roasting even more prominent.

Roasting Degrees

From the perspective of roasting degree, the deeper the roast, the stronger the bitterness; the lighter the roast, the stronger the acidity. The choice of roasting degree depends on the characteristics of the coffee beans themselves. For coffee beans with inherently stronger bitterness and lighter acidity, a medium to light roasting degree is generally chosen.

Light Roast

Green bean flavor

The lightest roasting degree, with no discernible aroma or concentration. The beans are not yet mature and unsuitable for grinding and brewing. Generally used for testing.

Cinnamon Roast

Strong acidity

Also known as cinnamon roast, this is a common roasting degree.

The color of the beans is quite close to cinnamon, hence the name cinnamon roast, with enhanced acidity. Preferred by people in the western United States.

Medium Roast

Delicious light-medium roast

The color deepens, making it easier to extract the original flavor of the coffee beans, with mellow aroma and pleasant acidity.

High Roast

Balanced acidity and bitterness

The coffee flavor becomes stronger, acidity becomes lighter. This is the roasting method for general coffee beans.

Suitable for coffees such as Blue Mountain and Kilimanjaro. Loved by Japanese and Northern European people.

City Roast

No acidity, unique aroma

Also known as city roast. Suitable for Colombian and Brazilian coffees, deeply loved by New Yorkers.

Full City Roast

Quality sweetness in bitterness

Also known as full city roast, suitable for brewing iced coffee. No acidity, mainly bitter taste, with increased bitterness.

Used for iced coffee, preferred by people in Central and South America.

French Roast

Bitterness with oils

French roasting method, with a slightly black color, strong bitterness, and oils seeping out. Both bitterness and concentration deepen. Used for coffee made with steam pressure machines.

Italian Roast

Carbonized - Extremely strong bitterness

Also known as Italian roast, the deepest roasting degree. The beans are jet-black and shiny, with oils seeping from the surface, and very strong bitterness. At this stage, the coffee beans are already severely carbonized, making it difficult to distinguish the taste of one coffee bean from another.

Used for Italian steam pressure coffee.

Why Does Coffee Color Change?

Coffee green beans are light green and turn brown after roasting.

This unique brown color from roasting mainly comes from brown pigments produced by "oligosaccharides, amino acids, and chlorogenic acids."

The so-called brown pigments "do not refer to one color or component" but are general terms for various components that make coffee different colors.

Brown pigments can be classified by molecular size.

Light roasting mostly produces small-molecule pigments. As the roasting degree deepens, the total amount of pigments gradually increases, and the proportion of large-molecule pigments also increases.

Light roast beans mostly contain obvious yellowish small pigments, which are products of chemical reactions in the early stages of roasting, created by the reaction of heat-decomposed oligosaccharides with chlorogenic acids.

Continuing roasting, oligosaccharides will caramelize, producing caramel pigments.

After oligosaccharides react with amino acids to produce molasses pigments, slightly larger reddish-brown pigments will appear.

The reaction that produces molasses pigments is called the Maillard browning reaction, which is one of the most important food chemical reactions.

The color of toasted bread, miso, soy sauce color, etc., are all results of the Maillard browning reaction.

"Becoming black-brown pigments with molecules hundreds of times larger"

If roasting continues, proteins and polysaccharides also join in.

This pigment is actually one of the elements that constitute coffee bitterness.

It is generally believed that the larger the pigment molecules, the stronger the coffee bitterness and the heavier the mouthfeel.

Therefore, the intensity of bitterness and mouthfeel changes with the coffee's roasting degree, influenced by these pigment changes.

What are the Flavor Characteristics of Light, Medium, and Dark Roast Coffee Beans?

Generally, light roast beans tend to highlight refreshing flavors with very rich flavor expressions.

Floral aromas, fruit acids, and certain tea-like notes are all flavor expressions of this type of bean.

Medium roast, on the other hand, shows a more "balanced" performance, having both refreshing flavors and a heavy mouthfeel.

Dark roast coffee beans mostly express their mouthfeel, and their flavors are generally richer.

Smoky, chocolate, and woody notes are the flavor expressions of this type of bean, accompanied by a heavy mouthfeel.

This classification of the three roasting methods is just a very general division.

In reality, many factors such as bean origin, variety, and roaster's style will affect the roasting depth.

This answer is just a general statement. Baristas will adjust the roasting curve according to the characteristics of each bean.

But do you know that "a difference of one degree in temperature or 2 seconds in timing can result in different flavors?"

Five Stages of Coffee Roasting Process Tips

1. Drying

When green beans are heated, water vapor inside the beans begins to evaporate. At around 135 degrees, the green beans start to turn white.

2. Dehydration

As heating continues, the green beans turn from green to light yellow. When the temperature reaches around 160 degrees, the aroma of roasted grains is emitted. Continued heating turns the beans light brown.

3. First Crack

At around 190 degrees, after dehydration is complete, cell walls rupture due to internal thermal expansion, forming the "first crack." At this time, a series of thermal decomposition reactions occur inside the beans. The caramelization reaction brings sweetness, dark brown color, and body to the coffee beans. The first crack lasts for about a minute and a half.

4. Second Crack

As heating continues, it enters the "second crack," when more intense reactions occur inside the beans. A large amount of heat is also released. As the second crack ends, the green beans have basically turned black, the bean body expands to 1.5 times its original size, oil appears on the surface, and weight reduces to about 12%-20%.

5. Stopping

Generally, the roasting is stopped within one minute after the second crack ends, when the temperature reaches 200 degrees. This will be a deeper French or Italian roast. If the temperature exceeds 230 degrees and heating continues, the coffee beans may spontaneously combust.

Dark Roast Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted dark roast coffee beans: Honduras coffee, Brazilian Red Bourbon coffee, Indonesian Mandheling coffee, etc., all have full guarantees in terms of brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high cost-performance. A half-pound (227 grams) package costs only around 80-90 yuan. Calculated at 15 grams of powder per cup of pour-over coffee, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each single-origin coffee costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to the price of dozens of yuan per cup sold in cafés, this is extremely cost-effective.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small storefront but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online store services: https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473