Many people are surprised when touring a coffee plantation because coffee beans aren’t brown and don’t smell like “coffee.” Ripe coffee beans are a beautiful, reddish color and are actually sweet smelling and tasting. The best coffee beans are picked when they’re a deep reddish color. In Colombia, only the ripe beans are picked – handpicked – making Colombian coffee one of the most solicited in the world. In many other coffee producing regions, the beans are picked mechanically, so there are both green, unripe beans and red, ripe beans mixed together. This makes a big difference in the quality of the final product.

After carefully selecting the beans, the ultimate, and perhaps most important, process begins – roasting.

 

Though the kind of bean used in the coffee determines how the coffee will taste, the way and amount of time the coffee beans are roasted directly effects the coffee’s flavor.

Roasted coffee beans double in size and turn brown. As you can imagine, the longer the bean is roasted, the darker it will get. Coffee beans are roasted from 10 to 20 minutes at 400 to 425 degrees F. When the oven reaches temperatures of 400 F, the beans crack. After the beans crack a second time, they are removed from the ovens and cooled immediately.

Roasting the beans brings out the oils to the surface. This is called pyolsis. The longer the roast, the less caffeine and less acidity the bean has – so dark roasted beans have less caffeine than lighter ones. (Contrary to what many people believe). Keep in mind, however, the amount of caffeine you ingest also depends on the preparation of your coffee. If you use a lot of coffee with little water, you’ll have a higher amount of caffeine and stronger coffee.

Moreover, a darker roasted bean might mask the flavor of a bean of poor quality or low in flavor. It makes sense, then, that beans of higher quality and better flavor are usually lightly roasted (cinnamon, American, or city roasted). Lightly roasted beans also conserve better as fewer oils come to the surface when the beans are roasted for less amount of time.

Let’s take a look at labels used on coffees to describe how they are roasted, the physical characteristics and taste characteristics each kind of roasted bean has:

 

Cinnamon Roast	Lightly roasted/light brown tone	nutty flavor and high acidity
American Roast	Medium roasted/medium-light brown color	caramel flavor
City Roast	Medium roasted/medium brown (no surface oils)	coffee flavor and lost acidity
Full City Roast	Medium roast/medium brown (a bit darker than city roast)	coffee flavor and balanced acidity
Vienna Roast	medium to long roasted/dark brown with surface oils	strong, bitter flavor -- deep coffee aroma
Italian Roast	long roasted/dark brown and oily surface	burned flavor
Espresso	long roasted/super dark color and used specifically for espresso machines	strong, sweet burned flavor

In Colombia, coffee beans are graded according to their quality. Supremo, Excelso, Extra, Consumo, and Pasilla are the five grades of Colombian coffee beans from the highest quality to the lowest quality. Pasilla beans are not used for the International market, but for the national market.

 

 

 

BULK COFFEE