Roasting, Blending, Tasting

Roasting

"The term roasting refers to the green beans being heated between 180 - 230°C, a process, which is characterised by the creation of flavours and water-solvable taste particles following the reactions which take place during the roasting."This is how an experienced professor, who focuses his research on "Heat and tissue transfer" at the University Hamburg-Harbur, describes the roasting of coffee in his book "Coffee-The future", published by Behr`s Verlag. Subsequently he writes: "The arot of roasting consists of increasing the temperature in such a way that all parts of the coffee bean receive a equal  amounts of heat and, when the desired roast grade is reached, to discontinue the roasting immediately using intensive cooling. Thanks to this roasting method, the coffee is supposed to reach its full flavour, become very suitable for grounding and develop to an invigorating and good tasting drink thanks to the high amount of substances solvable in hot water. Hence, the goal of a good roasting is definintley product focused; while the sensory demands of the consumers clearly also vary regionally and individually."

Good roasting is an important component of a good coffee. Coffee is often roasted in the consumer country and thus refined. A good roaster ha a keen sense of the right combination of temperature and time, a profound knowlegde of the product  and a wide experience  in handling raw and roasted coffees. We roast our coffees in a gas driven drum roaster at temperatures between 160° C and 180° C for 12 - 20 minutes and thus bring out the intensive flavours. The slow and gentle roasting reduces unwanted acids. After the roasting has been stopped, the now roasted coffee is cooled by clear, cold fresh air for 1 - 2 minutes. We consciously do not use water (so-called spray cooling), because the coffee loses its flavour too quickly during storage.

Blending

We roast our different coffees separately to emphasise the aromatic characters of the respective coffees. Why are roast coffees blended? Thear are two answers: on the one hand, different provenances are blended to geat a certain price. Almost every coffee you find in supermarkets is a blend. Within the coffee industry there is a hard price battle. Every cent, which can be saved for a coffee blend, helps to increase the profit. Robusta coffee plays an important role since prices are generally lower on the world market. Many roasters blend steamed Robusta with a bit of a more expensive Arabica and thus get the desired "cheap blend". On the other hand, a well-defined coffee flavour and a constand quality are offered over a long period of time. Since coffee is a natural  product, each raw coffees changes in the course of time. To obtain a coffee that has a constant character, you have to balance the portions of the blended coffees each time. We do include Robusta beans in some blends to obtain the desired spicy character. By the way, our Robusta coffees comes from Indonesia and costs exactly as much as an Arabica coffee!