Roaster’s Blog: What is Craft Roasting, and why do we do it?
Coffee as a taste experience contains more nuances than any other food available, from fruity to spicy, from funky to burnt rubber. Craft Roasting is the art and science of taking the raw coffee bean and applying heat and a specified amount of time to attain the ultimate flavor out of each different origin and blend. It can be considered a science because it is quantifiable and able to be tracked and monitored. But is also an art form because the senses play a critical part in the roasting process. Sight, sound, and smell are all indicators of where a coffee is at any point during the roasting process.
Roasters typically tend to fall into either the scientific or artistic approach to roasting coffee. We at One Village Coffee prefer the artistic side of roasting, relying on the senses, and our accumulated experience of working with the coffee bean itself to find the best possible roast for each origin we use. Sure we track our roasting sessions and keep records of time, temperature and roast progress, but more than anything we let the coffee bean tell us when it is ready to be pulled.
You may notice that we tend to roast at a lighter level compared to the average coffee roaster. This is because it is our goal to bring out the subtleties of flavor in each type of coffee. When coffee is roasted it goes through several stages of development, from green to yellow, to light brown and eventually black and caramelized. A darker roast tends to overpower the taste of coffee with the flavor of the roast instead of the actual coffee bean flavor. This means at the point of roasting when coffee starts to give up its oil and get very dark, you begin to taste less of the origin character of the bean and more of a general roast flavor. The result is a homogenized product where every coffee more or less tastes the same.
Why then do we craft roast? It’s simple; we want you to join us in enjoying fresh, high-quality coffee. Coffee isn’t meant to be just a hot drink to get you going in the morning, but an experience to be savored again and again.
