Coffee is carefully sourced to create the blends we enjoy everyday. To create these tastes beans are sourced beans from particular origins.
Tastes such as smooth nutty, chocolaty notes can be found in Columbia and Brazil, whilst in Kenya coffees tend to be crisp, bright and very fruity. In Ethiopia, stone fruits, floral and tea like. However the single most influential factor on flavour is how the coffee is roasted.
Throughout the coffee roasting process the bean goes through many changes with regards to moisture content, size and colour. Here is a quick step-by-step explanation.
1. Around three quarters way through the roasting process you’ll start to visually see and hear significant changes
2. As the coffee bean is roasted it takes in heat – this is called endothermic reaction
3. The cell wall starts to breakdown as the oils within the bean expand – this causes the bean to generate its own heat called exothermic reaction
4. Crackling sounds are heard as the cell walls break which is known as first crack
5. At this point controlled heat from the roaster is crucial in order to control the chemical changes in the coffee
6. Roasting on from 1st crack the oils develop further eventually causing the second layer of cell walls to break. This is known as second crack.
7. Roasting beyond second crack the oils become very noticeable as it coats the bean and in turn the sugars begin to caramelise and burn. Coffee at this point is known as a dark roast.
After the second crack (dark roast) we can describe the taste as smokey, burnt sugar, black pepper spice, leather, earthy and or tobacco.
These taste descriptors sit in the tail end of the ‘dry distillation’ category of coffee flavours. Our preference is for our coffees to sit within Enzymatic and sugar browning flavours.
At the Office Coffee Company, In order to get the desired cleanliness, acidity, complexity, body and sweetness our roaster controls the temperatures at pivotal points and drop the coffee at the optimum (depending on coffee) time between first and second crack.
Our coffees within the Cool Earth umbrella and Seasonal Coffee Project are all very different yet all delicious. Sustainably sourced coffee beans roasted with passion, care and attention in mind.
Don’t take my word for it, book a coffee tasting and try it out for yourself.
