As we circle the entire globe to find great coffees we are reduced to matters of taste, literally. Our ability to source and purchase the quality we live by is designed around a process called sampling.
We collect samples of green coffees -- from a quarter pound to a pound and roast them on a specifically designed Sample Roaster. This allows us to accurately taste a coffee before we commit it to our product line or make a costly investment. Secondly, the design of our Sample Roaster mimics the methodology of our Production Roaster, so we are able to perfect the roast style for each coffee on a small, practical scale and translate that information to our production roaster thereby ensuring that the best flavor is coaxed from each batch.
Roasting is simple in theory: The beans must be heated, kept moving so they don’t burn or roast unevenly, and cooled when the right moment has come to halt the roasting process. Coffee which is not roasted long enough or hot enough to extract the oils and flavors will have a pasty, nutty, or bread-like flavor. Coffee which is roasted too long or at too high a temperature will be thin-bodied, burned, and industrial-flavored. Coffee roasted too long at too low a temperature will have a baked flavor.
To simplify the roast process, the air temperature inside the drum is usually controlled at about 500 degrees F; for the first five minutes, the bean merely loses “free” moisture, moisture which is not bound up in the cellular structure of the bean. Eventually, however, the deep “bound” moisture begins to force its way out, expanding the bean and producing a snapping or crackling noise. So far, the color of the bean has changed from green to a light brown, and the oil has not yet been volatilized. When the interior temperature of the bean reaches about 400 degrees F, the oil quite suddenly begins developing; chemists call this process pyrolysis; it is marked visually by a darkening in the color of the bean.
This is the moment of truth for the coffee roaster, machine or human, because the pyrolysis, or volatilization of the coffee essence, must be stopped at precisely the right instant to obtain the flavor and roast desired. The beans cannot be allowed to cool of their own accord, or they may over-roast. They are quickly dumped into a cooling bin, where pyrolysis continues until “quenched” with either cold air or a light spray of cold water.
We roast coffee on what we consider to be the finest piece of equipment available to the industry – a vintage 1954 cast iron German Gothot roaster. We have found this roaster affords us the ability to control all variables in the roasting process. This allows us to manipulate the coffee to a degree that is unique to few roasters. We can, therefore, through experimentation adjust roast profiles to perfectly extract desired taste charactistics from the coffee.
Given a high quality, specialty grade bean, roasting is probably the single most important factor influencing the taste of coffee.
At Stone Cup Roasting Company, we understand that coffee provided at the highest level of freshness translates directly into increased flavors and likewise great taste. It's with this knowledge in mind that our goal is to ensure that our customers are provided with the freshest coffee possible so as not to sacrifice flavor. For this reason we subscribe to a "Roast to Order" philosophy. This means that all coffees are roasted on order. No coffees are held "in stock". We are committed to shipping your freshly roasted coffee within 24 hours after we receive your order. Our objective is to see that all of our customers experience the wonderful taste characteristics of the various and exceptional coffees our world has to offer. This can only be achieved through the delicate combination of sourcing the highest quality green coffees, roasting each been to perfection and delivering it to our customers as quickly as possible. We are capable of accomplishing this task by taking a unique ordering approach. We strongly encourage all customers to order only the amount of coffee needed on a weekly basis. The resulting coffee is at its peak of flavor and therefore has an unparalleled taste.
Every step of the transformation of green coffee into hot brewed coffee makes the flavor essence of the bean more vulnerable to destruction. Green coffees keep for years, with only a slow, subtle change in flavor. But roasted coffees begin to lose their flavor after a week, ground coffee an hour after grinding, and brewed coffee in mere minutes.
Roasted, whole coffee beans keep fairly well. The bean itself is a protective package, albeit a fragile one. Stored in a dry, airtight container to prevent contamination or contact with moisture, roasted whole-bean coffee will keep its flavor and aroma almost perfectly for about a week. After two weeks, it will still taste reasonably fresh, but the aroma will begin slipping; after three weeks the flavor begins to go, and whole-bean coffee kept past a month, while still drinkable, will strike the palate as lifeless and dead.
However, if the natural packaging of the bean is broken, in other words if the coffee is ground, it will go stale in a few hours. The delicate oils are exposed and immediately begin evaporating. An airtight container will help, but not much
The finer the grind the more contact there will be between coffee and hot water, and the faster and more thoroughly the essential oils will be released into solution. The coarser the grind the less contact between coffee and hot water and the slower and less thoroughly the essential oils will be released into solution. Over-extraction (keeping the hot water and coffee together for too long a time) releases undesirable flavors into the brew.
Despite going through a very controlled and precise tasting, sourcing, and production process at Stone Cup Roasting Co., the specialty has an X Factor-YOU! While most products are fully finished and ready to enjoy once purchased, specialty coffee requires the customer to be in effect, part barista. This means that the transformation of green coffee into the perfectly intense, aroma filled, flavorful cup requires direct participation by our customer. In adhering to the steps listed below you will complete a process that will certainly culminate in the finest cup of coffee available.
Taste the high, thin notes, the dryness the coffee imparts at the back of your palate and under the edges of your tongue. This pleasant tartness is what coffee people call acidity. It is distinguished from sour, which in coffee terminology means an unpleasant sharpness. Acidy notes should be very clear and bright in Mexican, a softer and richer in Sumatran, and overwhelming in Yemen Mocha coffees. Many coffee purveyors resist describing a coffee as acidy fearing you'll confuse this positive acidy brightness with unpleasant sourness. So - look for a variety of creative euphemisms: bright, dry, sharp, vibrant, etc. An acidy coffee is analogous to a dry wine. In some coffees acidy taste actually becomes distinctively wine-like. The wine-like aftertaste should be very clear in the Yemen Mocha. Sometimes this wine parallel is described with other terms. Fruity is often used - however, fruit connotes sweetness. Mostly the challenge is recognizing the sensation. Once you do that - call it whatever you wish.
Realistically, aroma can't be extracted from acidity and flavor. Coffees that are acidy smell acidy, and richly flavored coffees smell, well, richly flavored. That said, certain high, fleeting notes can be detected most clearly in the nose of a coffee. You'll often discover a subtle floral note from some coffee in the aroma. Floral notes are most noticeable in the Yemen Mocha, but depending on roasting technique and freshness you could experience it in the best Colombian and Kona coffees. The sensation of the gases released from brewed coffee, range from fruity to herbal, as they are inhaled.
Body or mouth feel is the sense of heaviness, richness, and thickness at the back of the tongue when you swish the coffee around your mouth. The coffee itself is not actually heavy; it just tastes that way not unlike the differences between heavier Burgundies and lighter white wines. In this instance, both coffee and wine tasters use the same term for the same experience. Mexican coffee tends to be the lightest bodied, while Sumatran is the heaviest.
Yemen Mocha lands somewhere in the middle. Here's a tip: if you drink coffee with milk, you should buy a heavy-bodied coffee. If you drink black coffee, you might prefer a lighter-bodied variety.
If aroma is your introduction to a coffee, then finish is signature at the end of the experience. Finish is a term used in wine tasting that's recently begun being used to describe a coffee's aftertaste. That remaining flavor that lingers on the palate after the coffee is spit out (at a cupping) or swallowed (at a café). It reflects a coffee's body. Heavier-bodied coffees such as Sumatran have a longer finish. Lighter coffees such as Mexican have a quicker finish, if you will.
These four characteristics are the foundation for our coffee selection. They are just the main considerations. Our passionate Roast Master also reviews a myriad other things that impact flavor and experience.