The Relationship Between Roast Level and Flavor When Roasting Costa Rica Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Mozart Coffee Roasting Profile

Before roasting a new bean, we start by learning everything we can about it — the origin information and the flavor notes provided by the green-grader supplier — then roast a few trial batches and adjust based on cupping results. Recently we got our hands on a Mozart from Costa Rica, a bean already known for its unusual processing method and complex aromatics.

The Mozart is a blend of Caturra and Catuai, both commonplace among Central American coffees. The green beans are yellow-green — typical of honey-processed coffee — and smell of fresh orange acidity with a light fermented fruit note.

This lot comes from the 2018 harvest. Its moisture content is relatively high, it was grown at roughly 1,950 meters, and the beans are dense and hard. We therefore began by gently reducing heat and extending the drying phase, roasting three trial batches and cupping each one.

The roaster is a Yangjia Feima 800N. Given our daily production needs, we chose a 550-gram batch size.

The charge temperature was 200°C, with only the drop temperature and development time varied between batches:

First Batch

Yellowing point: 151.2°C, at 5:15. Dropped at 193°C, with 1 minute 50 seconds of development after first crack, which occurred at 8'38".

The first batch shows a light fermented aroma and complex florals. Slurping reveals citrus, sweet orange, berries, sweet melon, and raisin.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Roast level is the single biggest lever on the final cup: the deeper the roast, the more bitterness and body; the lighter, the more acidity and delicacy. For drinkers chasing balance, medium roast is the sweet spot — and several FrontStreet Coffee beans are built around it. If you dislike both sourness and bitterness, the Brazil Fazenda Rainha Yellow Bourbon, medium roasted, delivers a quiet, sweet cup with creamed-peanut, chocolate, toast, and sugarcane notes, equally happy in a pour-over, moka pot, or espresso machine.

For a sweeter medium roast, try the Strawberry Candy Geisha blend, which marries a Costa Rican honey-processed coffee with washed Panamanian Geisha: orange-blossom honey aromatics and a rounded sweetness, excellent as cold brew, pour-over, or espresso. The 2013 Yunnan natural Typica — a flagship of Chinese specialty coffee — is medium roasted to show its balanced, gentle character of nuts, brown sugar, black tea, and dried apricot, at a very friendly price. And Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1, grown on Typica, is medium roasted so that its acidity, bitterness, sweetness, and body fuse into one elegant whole: chocolate, roasted nuts, cream, and caramel from the very first sip — a balance no other coffee quite matches.