Roasting is an Art?

Coffee is a drink of old. Some sources site it going back to the 15th Century.

It was 1714 when the delicacy of coffee was about to make an unforeseen voyage.

In 1714, the Mayor of Amsterdam presented a gift of a young coffee plant to King Louis XIV of France. The King ordered it to be planted in the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. In 1723, a young naval officer, Gabriel de Clieu obtained a seedling from the King's plant. Despite a challenging voyage — complete with horrendous weather, a saboteur who tried to destroy the seedling, and a pirate attack — he managed to transport it safely to Martinique.

Once planted, the seedling not only thrived, but it’s credited with the spread of over 18 million coffee trees on the island of Martinique in the next 50 years. Even more incredible is that this seedling was the parent of all coffee trees throughout the Caribbean, South and Central America.

I grew up drinking tea and I had a strong hatred toward coffee. Part of the reason was because coffee was like an adult beverage for us.

Adults said, “If you drink coffee it will stunt your growth.”

The truth in that was that they did not want us diving into caffeine and bouncing off of walls as if we were Sonic The Hedgehog. However, we still drank pop and Monster Energy drinks. Go ahead and try to figure that one out.

This last year, due to COVID I had more room to experiment. I decided to take a stab at the coffee industry. A big part of the reason is because our end goal is to open up a safe cooperative space for youth and young adults where they can learn and grow into leaders in their respective communities.

Starting a coffee shop is not easy, especially starting one in the midst of a pandemic. The main product we started off with is our specialty coffee that started it all.

Later on, in the fall, we decided to roast coffee. To be honest, I was scared at first. When I heard that it releases gas and can get very hot, I thought I would hurt myself. Yet we took a chance and started the adventure.

So, here’s some dummy facts about coffee roasting:

Around first crack, it sounds like small popcorn sounds, this is near the end of the light roast stage and it is going into medium. For a light roast aim for a yellow/light brown look.

When you hear a lot of popcorn sounds just like the fan favorite Orville Redenbacher’s, that is the second crack and is medium roast. The beans are now a little darker but not too dark. If you want to take them out, do so now before they go to dark roast.

Dark roast, the beans look very oily. I enjoy all of the roast but everybody is different. I can drink it black too. Tasting the different notes intrigues me. Bringing a little sugar to your mug will give you a better profile and allow you to taste more notes. Notes are how the bean was roasted, if it's full - bodied, has an Earthy taste to it, Chicory, and so on.

You will find the notes on the coffee bags and smell the beans first before buying it. You will find a one valve on the front of most coffee bags and it will help you determine if you will enjoy it or not.

Also, something I found out is that light roast has the most caffeine because during the roasting process, not all of the caffeine has gotten cooked out. When the roast continues, the caffeine starts get cooked out. The beans expand as well.

Next time you’re in a store take some one-pound bags of whole coffee beans and compare the three roast. Even though it’s a pound, you will get more with the light roast then the dark since the beans are not as expanded.

There are a lot of images and videos you should look up when it comes to roasting. We do not know everything and for our roasting, for now we are keeping it to the regular roast. But as we become more season and get our physical coffee shop, it will leave more room for growth.

Come check out my coffee shop and try our coffee beans and whipped coffee kits. Coffee is fun to learn about and it’s relaxing to create.

It’s time to create a table where we can come drink some coffee and talk about life with one another.