INTRODUCTION OF

ROASTING COFFEE
Hirofumi Yamamoto

Roasting
Roasting is the method
that makes green coffee
beans to be ready for
brewing by using manual
or automatic roasting
machine that produces
certain heat (Cal.)
Roasting dose not require
well-trained skills, it is
easy to roast coffee beans.
If you felt difficulties, that
would be because you do
not have any standard for
roasting
There are no royal road for
roasting

Roasting Machine
Roasting machine is that rotates or shakes to stir beans
in constant interval with several heat sources: pipe
burner, bunsen burner, etc.
Manual roasting tends to be inconsistent coloring, while
machinery roasting can be consistent in color
Among roasting machines, there are several types.
However, almost all machines is not so different in taste
and flavor, if the roasting machine is enclosed type with
ventilations.
The centerpiece in roasting is that being familiar with
the machine: heat source, temperature alteration, gas
pressure, ventilation and capacity, etc.

Machine Type
Types of heat
source
pipe burner,
bunsen burner,
gun burner,
charcoal fire,
infrared, etc.

Machine Type
Types of cylinders
Direct-fired cylinder, Semi hot blast cylinder, semi hot
blast dual cylinder, far infrared coated cylinder, etc.

Types of structures
Enclosed type that can control ventilation and open type
that can not control ventilation

Roasting Procedure
Roasting is consisting of sorting green beans, preheating, roasting, cooling and resorting roasted beans
Sorting Sort defect beans and uniform beans size.
Particularly, black and fermented beans should be culled
out (detail later)
Pre-heating Before start roasting, warm up the
container that confine coffee beans so that roasting
profile can be consistent
Roasting Roast beans up to decided roasting level
(detail later)
Cooling Cool down roasted beans immediately after
finishing roasting to avoid from over-cooked beans
Resorting Soring discolored and malformed beans
Recoding as numerical values in a profiling sheet should
be done at every batches

Roast Profiling Table

Roasting
Roasting dose not require special skill, everyone can do
There are no royal method
There are 3 major methods that are based on roasting
time
short-time roasting 10/min raising
standard roasting 5/min raising
long-time roasting 2-3/min raising
Short-time roasting is good for acidity and rich flavor
Standard roasting is good for sweetness, medium acidity
and flavor
Long-time roasting is good for tasting mildness and
sweetness

Premises
The temperature to put beans in machine should be
same every time
The volume for roasting should be same every time
The bottom temperature and duration up to bottom
temperature after putting beans should be almost same
The temperature raising should be almost same every
time
The timing of changing ventilation should be same
The temperature of beginning of cracks should be almost
same
Roasting should be finished at the pre-decided roasting
level
Write records as numerical values, temperature and gas
pressure, every minutes

Short-time Roasting
Pre-heating should take around 15min up to 180
Close ventilation during pre-heating
Put beans into the drum at 180
Open 1/3 ventilation at the timing of putting beans
Control gas pressure after reached bottom temperature so that
it will raise 10 in a minute
Open 2/3 ventilation immediate before the first crack
Open ventilation completely immediate before the second crack
Finish

Record the bottom temperature and duration up to it

Record the temperature of beginning and finishing of first and
second crack

Standard Roasting
Pre-heating should take around 25min up to 180
Close ventilation during pre-heating
Put beans into the drum at 180
Open 1/3 ventilation at the timing of putting beans
Control gas pressure after reached bottom temperature so that
it will raise 5 in a minute
Open 2/3 ventilation immediate before the first crack
Open ventilation completely immediate before the second crack
Finish

Record the bottom temperature and duration up to it

Record the temperature of beginning and finishing of first and
second crack

Long-time Roasting
Pre-heating should take around 25min up to 180
Close ventilation during pre-heating
Put beans into the drum at 180
Open 1/3 ventilation at the timing of putting beans
Control gas pressure after reached bottom temperature so that
it will raise 2-3 in a minute
Open 2/3 ventilation immediate before the first crack
Open ventilation completely immediate before the second crack
Finish

Record the bottom temperature and duration up to it

Record the temperature of beginning and finishing of first and
second crack

Important Notices
Every before first batch, clean up the roaster to avoid fire
Understanding of bottom temperature and duration up to the
temperature is important
Being familiar with temperatures of beginning of 1 st and 2nd crack
and finishing of 1 st and 2nd crack is important
Understanding for duration of during 1 st and 2nd crack and from end
of 1st and commencement of 2 nd crack is important
Changing gas pressure cannot reflect immediately, it will take
around 0.5-1 minute
The temperature raising is fluctuating up to 6-7 minutes after
putting beans
Ambient temperature sometimes affect roasting
Relative humidity >70% - roasting speed will decrease
Temperature > 30 - roasting speed will increase
It should cool down the drum temperature up to 160-170 after
finishing then tune on fire to raise the temperature up to 180

Roasting Level
Cinnamon Roast from immediate after starting the first crack to
during the first crack
Light Roast from immediate after finishing the first crack to a few
tens of seconds after finishing the first crack
Medium Roast immediate before the second crack
City, Full city during the second crack, 10-80 seconds after
starting the second crack
French Roast from last some tens of seconds of second crack to
immediate after finishing second crack
Italian Roast a few tens of seconds after finishing second crack
Important Notices
There are no exact definitions for each roasting level
You can define each roasting levels definitions that correlates to
your roasting method

Determination of roasting level

It should be tested by each roaster and determine what
levels is good
The yardstick for test roasting is city or full city
Taste the coffee and evaluate it whether the roasting
level should be lighter, stronger or as it is
In general speaking, roasting level for Philippines arabica
coffee is ranging from light to full city
It is not recommendable to roast up to italian level
except the beans for iced coffee

Complements
Those roasting methods are just yardsticks. To create
flavors and tastes, sometimes it is required to deviate
from the yardstick
e.g. changing roasting duration up to 1 st crack
changing temperature for putting beans
Products should be consistent always. The consistency is
attributed or come down to numerical values:
temperature and thermal power. Namely, it is
recommendable to implement temperature and gas
pressure gauge, if there were not installed
Roasting method for merchandisers should be
inheritable to other staffs as numerical values not relies
on senses or only experiences
Its not advisable to roast by a pan. It cause discoloration
that is uncooked

Creating Flavors and Tastes

By changing roasting methods
and roasting levels, creating
flavors and tastes can be
accomplished in same coffee
e.g. blending different roasting
level coffee with same coffee
Light roast and full city roast 1:1
ratio
How to create blends?
Test different ratio blends.
e.g. prepare 3 roasted coffee.
Then brewed each by each. Make
different ratio blends by using a
spoon in other cups. Evaluate and
determine what ratios are good.

Creating Flavors and Tastes

The tastes or flavors should be compatible to local
people or your targeting market, understanding local
preference or buyers preference is important
Aside from be closer to consumer demand, it is also
advisable to introduce new flavor tendency in the
market
it will expand market volume
it should be based on certain reasons
e.g. light roast as specialty coffee with scored point,
blend of light and city roast with description of flavor
tendency, Italian roast blend for iced coffee

Pre-mix or After-mix
Pre-mix mix beans for a blend before roasting
After-mix mix beans for a blend after roasting
Once the ratio of the blend was fixed, roasters can consider
pre-mix roasting, if the characters in roasting process was
almost same each other
In CAR, it is advisable to pre-mix so that economize preparation
time, if each blending parts was all arabica or all robusta in
same postharvest method
The advantages of after-mix roasting is that can be prepared
several kinds of coffee beans as blend parts
In the case of caf, barista can make any kind of coffee flavor
along customers preferences by blending each coffee as they
ordered
it can reduce the amount of discarding of coffee beans after
expired

Sorting
Roasted beans for merchandiser, it should be consistent
and free from danger of health (e.g. mycotoxin - mold)
Ideally, roasted beans should be consistent in color and
size
If the defect content was very high, the result, roasted
coffee beans, would be inconsistent in color
Sorting can be done before and after roasting
After sorting, the sorted beans should be scaled for
understanding the portion of defects and good beans.
Usually, good beans are defined that has defects less
that 10~15%

Black beans

Black beans
Cause
Lack of water during development of cherries
Over fermentation
Overripe cherries picked from the ground
Bas drying process or humidity on the beans
Description
Brown to black beans
Shrunken
Wrinkled
Flat faced
Crack too opened

Sour beans

Sour bean
Causes
Delay in between coffee picking and depulping
Overextended fermentation process
Use of dirty water
Storage of beans with high moisture content
Description
Light brown to dark brown beans
Crack free of tegument
Silver skin can be reddish-brown

Mold bean

Mold bean
Causes
Over fermentation
Long interruptions during drying process
Storage of beans with high moisture content
Description
Coffee beans infested by mold presenting yellowish or
reddish spores

Faded - Streaked
Bean

Faded - Streaked Bean

Description
Stained bean, showing an irregular greenish
color
Causes
Usually due to uneven drying or re-wetting
after drying

Faded - Oldish
Bean

Faded - Oldish Bean

Description
Coffee beans with alterations in the normal color,
white coffee beans, cream, yellow to brown

Causes
Long time in storage
Storage in bad conditions (high temperature and
humidity)

Faded - Amber or Buttery

Bean

Faded - Amber or Buttery Bean

Description
Yellow, semi-transparent beans

Causes
Iron deficiency in the soil

Faded - Over dried

Faded - Over dried

Description
Amber to yellow beans

Causes
Excessive time in the dryer, or high
temperature during drying

Broken - Pressed or Crushed

Bean

Broken - Pressed or Crushed Bean

Description
Bruised beans with partial fractures

Causes
Bruised beans during depulping, drying and
milling process
Milling parchment with high moisture

Broken - Cut or Nipped

bean

Broken - Cut or Nipped bean

Description
Cut or nipped bean and rusty
Causes
Bean broken by the depulping machine
during wet process
Cherries harvested prior to maturity

Broken chipped bean

Broken chipped fragments

Description
Tiny fragments
Causes
Bean broken by the depulping machine
during wet process
Bean broken by the hulling machine after
drying

Immature bean

Immature bean
Description
Green or light grey beans
Beans tend to have a very adherent silver skin and size smaller than
normal
Whither surface
Smaller size than normal
In this group low density beans are included
Causes
Cherries picked before ripeness.
Cultivation in marginal zones for coffee production.
Lack of fertilizer
Beans affected by drought and rust disease

Insect damage

Insect damage
Description
Beans with small holes caused by insects.

Causes
Attack on cherries by Hypothenemus haempei
(coffee berry borer)
Attack by Araecerus Fasciculatus during storage,
due to inadequate storage conditions

Wet or Underdried Bean

Wet or Underdried Bean

Description
Beans with dark green color and soft
texture
Causes
Bean with high humidity. Lack or
incomplete drying

Malformed shrunken bean

Malformed shrunken bean

Description
Wrinkled bean
Causes
Beans affected by drought conditions
Lack of fertilization

malformed

malformed
Description
The beans that can not form completely
Cause
Genetic inheritance
Nutrient deficiency
Separated from shells

shell

shell
Description
Shell like shape
Non-content
Cause
Genetic inheritance
Nutrient deficiency
Climate factor

Dry cherry

Dry cherry
Description
Dried black cherry
Cause
Improper pulping in wet method
Improper hulling after drying

parchment

parchment
Description
Whole parchment
Parchment fragments
Cause
Improper hulling
Improper sorting

Floater

Floater
Description
The beans that can float on the surface of water
Light density
Color in whitish or yellowish
Cause
Improper storage and dying
Parchment coffee that was stored in excessive
humid environment

Impurities

impurities
Description
From small to large stones
Sticks
Twigs
Others
Cause
Drying parchment or cherry on the ground directry
Drying on old patio
Improper sorting

Good configuration bean

T ha
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Good configuration bean