Roasting and Freshness
The freshness of the coffee and how it is roasted plays a major part in creating the perfect espresso.

The roasting process is where green beans are turned into the brown beans that you see in your local coffee shop.  Green coffee is a natural product and will differ in country of origin, plant type, growing and harvesting conditions and moisture content.  The biggest challenge for a coffee roaster is to produce a consistent, saleable coffee at the end of the roasting cycle.

Roasting
During the roasting process the green beans are traditionally roasted in a spinning drum over a heat source.  This process can take between 14 to 25 minutes, depending on the type of beans and the roaster.  The spinning action of the roaster allows the beans to be roasted uniformly.  Different times will also determine roast profiles. 

Roast profiles are determined by the end use of the coffee as a beverage. If the beans were
to be used for an espresso (short black) then the roast profile would be medium/dark or dark roast.  A milk based coffee would usually use a light to medium roast profile.  Different roast times will determine the taste profiles of the bean and a roast master has to use their knowledge to know when to pull the beans out of the roaster and drop them into the cooling tray. The beans will not only give an indication of readiness by their colour change; they will also give off audible “cracks” during the roast cycle – this is when the bean expands in physical size.  The second crack will start at around 200 degrees Celsius.  At this time, the coffee roaster determines the roast type by the colour change in the bean.

After the bean colour is chosen, the beans are tipped into a cooling tray which extracts the hot air, smoke and small parchment via a vacuum fan.  The tray has mechanized arms that rotate the hot coffee beans to help with cooling.  This cooling process must be done at a rapid pace to halt the roasting cycle.

Blends
Roasters design the blends you experience at home or in cafes. Coffee blending takes a lot of experimental tasting called cupping and profiling, to come up with a workable blend that has a full bodied taste experience.  There are two ways of blending; one is to roast all the different single origins together, which often gives inconsistent colour and taste.  The other, preferred method is to roast individual origins and blend the beans together after the roasting process.  For home use, we recommend a blend that contains at least four different origins of coffee to give a complete taste synergy.

Roast Profiles:
Light – Mild beans that are good with milk based and brewed coffee.

Medium – Most common or normal roast. The coffee has slightly acidic qualities.

Med/Dark – Viennese roast or full roast.  Dark in colour, becoming bitter in taste. Suits the espresso and long black beverages.

Dark – Italian or espresso roast.  Very dark in colour and showing oil on the beans. This style of roast suits espresso drinks without milk.