Summer Cold Brew Coffee Making Method! Super Simple Iced Coffee Tutorial with Illustrated Steps

Introduction to Coffee Bean Roasting

Recently, more and more friends have been consulting FrontStreet Coffee about roasting coffee beans. It seems that everyone is no longer satisfied with just brewing a cup of coffee, so the idea of roasting coffee beans has emerged!

This is a good thing! Because learning to roast allows you to understand coffee from another perspective, thus gaining a deeper understanding of coffee! However, we need to know that roasting coffee beans is just like cooking vegetables. While cooking vegetables until they're done is simple, making them delicious is not an easy task. Therefore! FrontStreet Coffee will share with everyone how to "stir-fry" a good batch of beans! But before we actually start roasting coffee beans, we need to first understand the equipment for roasting coffee beans and some professional terminology of coffee roasting! Because this is very important foundational knowledge for roasting coffee beans!

Coffee Bean Roasting Equipment

To be honest, coffee bean roasting equipment is not as complex as everyone imagines. Just as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned at the beginning, it's no different from cooking vegetables. The process of transforming coffee beans from raw to cooked is simply achieved through chemical reactions and physical changes produced by high temperature! Therefore, most cooking utensils commonly found in our daily lives, such as iron pans, microwave ovens, popcorn machines, etc., can be used for roasting coffee beans.

However! They find it difficult to distribute heat evenly to all coffee beans, so it's very easy to encounter: undercooked or burnt situations! Therefore, in order to allow coffee beans to heat evenly, professional coffee bean roasters were born! (Hand nets are an exception)

Direct Fire Roasters

Direct fire roasters, as the name suggests, transfer heat directly to coffee beans through flames! The drum of a direct fire roaster will have a certain number of holes, allowing flames to come into direct contact with coffee beans through these holes. When properly roasted, they can give coffee beans excellent flavor performance and more intense aroma. The disadvantages are also obvious - since flames come into direct contact with the bean surface, control is difficult! Burning and undercooking are common accidents with direct fire roasters, so this greatly tests the roaster's skill!

Semi-Direct Fire Roasters

Semi-direct fire roasters are also known as semi-hot air roasters. Their biggest difference from direct fire roasters is that the drum has no holes, so flames cannot directly contact the bean surface, greatly reducing burning situations. The heat transfer of semi-direct fire roasters is mainly through a diversion hole on the inner side of the drum. This diversion hole can introduce heat into the drum interior, while the continuously heated metal drum also provides heat energy, making roasting more stable and beans heating more evenly. Therefore, most roasters currently use semi-direct fire roasters.

Hot Air Roasters

Hot air roasters use heated air to blow coffee beans until they're cooked! The specific principle is to draw air through a blower, then pass the air through a hot coil to add heat, allowing it to serve as a heating source for roasting coffee beans. The advantage of this type of roaster is better control over the color of coffee beans, fast heating efficiency, and more even heating of coffee beans. Therefore, it has become the preferred choice for many roasting studios to customize roast curves.

Professional Terminology in Roasting

Next, let FrontStreet Coffee introduce you to some common terms in coffee roasting! That is, professional terminology. These terms correspond to different nodes and stages that occur during the coffee bean roasting process, and each node brings different changes to the coffee beans. Therefore, before learning to roast coffee beans, understanding these terms is very important! You can use them along with the roast curve chart~

Drop Point

This drop point refers to the time when raw coffee beans are put into the roaster. Just like baking a cake, you need to preheat the oven to a certain temperature before putting in the cake batter for baking. The same applies to coffee beans! Different roasters, different roasting quantities, as well as different bean densities and moisture contents, will all have different drop points! And this drop point is also the beginning of the roast curve chart measurement.

Turning Point

When we put coffee beans into the roaster, the beans will absorb heat from the machine, causing the temperature to drop significantly. When it drops to a certain point, the temperature inside the machine will start to rise again! This turning point is what we call: the turning point.

Yellowing Point

When raw coffee beans are roasted in the machine to a certain degree, their color will start to turn yellow (initially mostly blue-green, light yellow), and wrinkles appear on the bean surface. This stage is called: the yellowing point.

First Crack

When coffee beans have absorbed enough heat energy, the bean body can no longer suppress the energy trapped inside, so they will release energy through cracking. When beans crack, they make a crisp sound: "pop"! This is the first crack of coffee beans, commonly known as first crack. After first crack begins, it means the coffee beans are already roasted, so we can stop roasting at any time and let the beans out. The determination of when first crack begins is made by hearing three crisp sounds during the roasting process!

Second Crack

If after first crack begins, you still don't plan to release the beans, then within two minutes after the coffee bean sounds gradually quiet down, they will sound again. At this time, it's the second crack of coffee beans, commonly known as second crack. Similarly, second crack is determined by sudden sporadic sounds! The difference is that the sound of second crack will be more muffled, not as crisp.

Special Time Periods

Between these nodes, there are also some special time period names!

Drying Phase

From the moment coffee beans enter the roaster, they continuously dehydrate - this is something that happens throughout the entire process. But there is one phase when the bean dehydration rate is highest, which is the period from the drop point to the yellowing point. Therefore, this process is called: "drying phase."

Development Phase

The beginning of the yellowing point means coffee beans begin to enter the Maillard reaction. During this time, coffee beans continuously deepen in color, emit aromas similar to toasted bread, and prepare to release stored energy. Therefore, the period from yellowing point to first crack is what we call: the development phase.

Development Time

As mentioned above, the beginning of first crack means coffee beans are physically "cooked," so we can decide the remaining time the beans stay in the roaster. This period is the development time, and the amount of development time determines the flavor direction of the beans. If you want deeper beans with less acidity, then the development time should be longer; if you want more acidic beans, then the development time should be shorter! But it's important to know that there are countless beans in the roaster, and the "cooking" time of these beans is different. If our development time is too short, it's very easy to let some beans come out without being fully cooked, leading to undercooking and insufficient flavor! This is what people call: "underdevelopment."

Conclusion

Alright, that's all we'll learn for today! After all, learning to roast coffee is a long road, and accepting too much information at once can have the opposite effect. So let's first solidify the foundational knowledge and take it step by step! And when we have completely absorbed the basic knowledge, then "stir-frying" a good batch of beans will be an easy task!

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