When you wake up each morning, you know your day cannot get started off right until you have that first cup of coffee. But as you know, not all cups of coffee are alike. To have coffee that tastes just the way you want, it all comes down to how the coffee beans themselves are roasted. Considered to be the most important influence on a coffee’s flavor, roasting involves a complex combination of how long the coffee beans are roasted at a certain temperature. To make sure that first sip of coffee each day tastes great, here’s what you need to know about coffee roasting.
City Roast
When referring to a City Roast, you are talking about the style of roasting that is most preferred in the United States. When you opt for this roast style, your cup of coffee will have its strongest possible flavor, since it will be at full acidity. Also, any particular characteristics of where the coffee bean came from will be enhanced. For example, should your favorite coffee be of Ethiopian origin, this type of roasting will help enhance the dark chocolate flavors found in such coffees.
French Roast
While you may like your coffee to be robust yet somewhat sweet, others may instead go in the opposite direction and prefer a cup of coffee that actually tastes bittersweet. In these instances, they will use their coffee roasters to perform what is known as a French Roast. When this is done, the coffee’s acidity diminishes, its natural flavors tend to recede, and you are then left with the bittersweet taste that goes with a rich, dark coffee.
Roast Date
When you are in the process of selecting a bag of coffee beans for your roaster, don’t just pick up the first bag closest to your hand. Instead, pay close attention to the roast date displayed on the bag. As with anything else, the fresher the better in these situations. If you can, try to get a bag that has a date that is no more than one month old, since coffee beans tend to start losing their peak flavor quicker than most coffee drinkers realize.
1000 Different Compounds
Believe it or not, when you are roasting coffee beans, you are actually roasting as many as 1,000 different aroma compounds within those beans. As a general rule, if you want more flavor in your coffee, roast the beans at a quicker pace, since this strengthens the aroma compounds.
Now that you know everything involved in roasting coffee beans, you can use your coffee roaster to develop the absolutely perfect cup of coffee for your mornings.