Coffee roasting terms

If you get the chance to see us roasting our Java (a secret recipe you know) then you will need to know the Terms Used in green Coffee bean Roasting

Baked A taste or odor that gives coffee a flat taste. May be caused by the coffee being roasted at too low a temperature for too long a time. One cause in popcorn popper or Fresh Roast Plus 8 roastings may be that too few beans were roasted at a given time, resulting in the inability of your roasting device to achieve the temperature necessary to produce the desired roast profile.

Chaff The papery stuff that comes off the coffee during roasting. It is actually the innermost skin, or silverskin, of the coffee bean that remains attached to the bean after processing. What ever your roasting method, chaff must be dealt with in order to avoid a mess, or in extreme situations, a fire. Popcorn popper roasters, just catch it in a bowl under the chute. The Fresh Roast SR 300, SR500 and iRoast 2 come with efficient chaff collectors. Just empty it between roastings.

First Crack This is a distinctly audible "popping" or cracking sound the beans make during the roasting process. It is generally accepted as the point where pyrolysis begins (around 465 degrees internal bean temperature) and due to chemical changes inside the coffee bean, they begin to emit their own heat, thus raising the temperature inside the roasting chamber. This is the first point where your coffee is "coffee"—the very lightest roast profile—though it's probably not very good at this point. The first crack obviously occurs early in the roasting process.

Second Crack This is the stage during the roasting process where your coffee enters the "dark roasted" realm. After the First Crack noise subsides, a few moments pass. How long depends on your roaster, how big your roast batch is, the type of bean, and a lot of other things and then the Second Crack begins. At this point the woody matter in the bean begins to change. The Second Crack is more rapid, (kind of like Rice Crispies). The Second Crack is a major reference point for roasters. They often speak of roasting "just short of the second crack; just into the second crack, well into the second crack, etc.

Quakers Unripe, blighted or underdeveloped coffee beans. These beans sometimes "refuse" to be roasted equally with other beans in the roast batch. Generally, with washed or wet processed coffee, these should be culled after roasting. With dry processed coffees, (Brazil Cerado, Ethiopian Harrar, Yemen Mocca Matari and Sumatra Mandheling for instance) these are usually left in the batch because of the complexity they add to the cup. Rule of thumb: Look at your beans after you roast them. If some are obviously defective, pitch them. Just be aware that roast batch size, roast profile, and roast time can all affect the consistency of the roast. Some variations may be expected in all batches.