How Do Coffee Bean Flavors Develop? A Brief Overview of Coffee Bean Flavor Profiles

FrontStreet Coffee - The Source of Coffee Bean Flavors

In the coffee industry, roasting is one of the most fascinating stages. Raw coffee beans have almost no flavor to speak of, and tasting them directly would reveal a rather unpleasant vegetable-like taste. However, after roasting, they transform into incredibly aromatic and complex roasted coffee beans. The aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans is invigorating, and they taste absolutely delicious.

There has been extensive research on commercial roasting of relatively low-quality coffee beans, most of which focuses on roasting process efficiency and methods for producing instant coffee. Since these lower-quality coffees lack interesting flavors, there has been little research on how to develop coffee's sweetness or preserve the unique flavors that come from specific terroir conditions or particular varieties.

Fast or Slow? Light or Dark?

In simple terms, coffee roasting actually refers to how dark the final color of the coffee beans is roasted (light roast or dark roast) and how much time it takes (fast roast or slow roast). Simply describing a coffee as "light roast" is not enough, because this coffee could be either fast-roasted or slow-roasted. Different roasting speeds will produce completely different flavor profiles, even though the coffee beans may look very similar in color.

During coffee roasting, a series of different chemical reactions occur, many of which cause weight reduction and, of course, water loss. Slow roasting (completed in 14-20 minutes) results in a higher weight loss ratio (16%-18%), while fast roasting can be completed in as little as 90 seconds. For a relatively expensive cup of coffee, using the slow roasting method will result in better flavor development.

During the roasting process, three elements that determine the final flavor of the coffee must be properly controlled: acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. Generally speaking, the longer the total roasting time, the less acidity remains in the final product. Conversely, bitterness increases with longer roasting times, and darker roasted coffee will be more bitter.

The development of sweetness follows a bell-shaped curve, situated between the peaks of acidity and bitterness. Good coffee roasters know how to bring coffee beans to the highest sweet spot at each roasting level. However, whether using a roasting method that produces both strong acidity and sweetness, or another method that yields extremely high sweetness with relatively low acidity, if you're using poor-quality coffee beans, adjusting roasting techniques may be of no avail.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mission

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research specialty shop that enjoys sharing knowledge about coffee with everyone. We share without reservation only to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Additionally, we hold three coffee promotion events with significant discounts every month. This is because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends enjoy the best coffee at the lowest price. This has also been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past 6 years!

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