Alongside this recent resurgence, there is often an ongoing conversation in the industry about how roasters can successfully develop a balanced, consistent, and high-quality blend. There are seemingly endless factors to consider, such as origin, variety, roast profile, and the solubility level of each coffee. 

To get the best results, most roasters will roast each blend component separately, and then combine all coffees together – a practice known as post-roast blending. But are there other ways to blend coffees that are just as effective?

In today’s article, coffee professional Elizabeth Sturges explores this practice and questions how practical – or challenging – it could be for coffee shops and home brewers.

You may also like our article on specialty coffee blends: how exciting can they be?

Changing attitudes about blends

Blends have been a staple of coffee shop menus and roastery offerings for many decades now. For consumers who are looking for more classic flavour profiles, blends are often the most dependable and reliable option.

But at the same time, specialty coffee’s interest in blends has also been rising. And this has created new sensory experiences altogether. While we traditionally think of blends as containing at least two coffees sourced from different countries, specialty coffee has helped to broaden the definition to include:

• Various regions within a country
• Coffees from different producers in the same region
• Different varieties or processing methods from the same farm. In this case, we can refer to these coffees as single-origin blends

Similarly, blends have been historically perceived as being lower in quality than single origin coffees. These negative associations mostly stem from larger commercial roasters who typically blend arabica with lower-quality robusta to keep costs down.

This narrative, however, has changed in recent years – even at high-level competitions like the World Barista Championship and World Brewers Cup. Roasters, coffee shops, and competitors are now becoming much more thoughtful and deliberate when developing or serving blends.

For instance, 2023 World Barista Champion Boram Um used a blend of anaerobically fermented Gesha and natural Pink Bourbon in his milk beverage course. Italian competitor and 2023 WBC runner-up Daniele Ricci also used a blend of Colombian Gesha and Caturra sourced from the same farm.

During their performances, both competitors emphasised how blending their coffees helped to create a more balanced and well rounded taste experience – which even some high-quality single origin coffees may not be able to do on their own.

How do roasters usually blend coffees?

If you ask most specialty coffee roasters about how to best blend coffees, it’s likely they will say post-roast blending. This is when each blend component is roasted separately to achieve the optimal roast profile. Then, all the coffees are mixed together.

And there’s a reason for this practice. While pre-roast blending (when all components are roasted together) can be more efficient, it often leads to uneven roast profile development. This is because different coffees have different bean densities and sizes (as well as hardness levels), which influence how you need to roast them.

Denser coffee, for instance, typically contains more sugars and has a higher moisture content. To ensure proper roast profile development, you should roast these coffees for longer and in smaller batches.

The relationship between grind size & solubility

Grind size is a key variable when extracting coffee – both as filter and espresso. In simple terms, if your grind size is too fine, your coffee will be overextracted. As a result, there will be more bitter and astringent flavours, with a thinner texture, too.

Conversely, when ground too coarsely, water will flow too quickly through the bed or puck of coffee. This leads to underextraction, with sour flavours and a quick finish on the palate.

Finding the right grind size for every coffee depends on a number of factors. Generally speaking, it boils down to a particular coffee’s sensory profile – and trying to balance acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and mouthfeel as much as possible.

In a coffee shop setting, baristas need to continuously tweak grind size – especially for espresso – to serve balanced and high-quality coffee throughout the day. And this is particularly important when baristas need to add a new coffee to the grinder hopper, as it’s likely they will have to make significant changes to grind size to get the best results.

It can take some time to find the right grind size, even for experienced baristas. But one crucial factor to always take into account is solubility, which relates to how easily coffee can be extracted. Essentially, different kinds of coffee extract at different rates, which depends on a number of factors such as:

• Origin
• Variety
• Processing method
• Bean density
• Roast profile

For roasters, this has significant implications on how to create blends, ranging from selecting the coffees to developing roast profiles. All blend components must have similar solubility levels – otherwise the blend will taste both under and overextracted at the same time.

Exploring other ways to blend coffees

Given that grind size and solubility are integral to extracting excellent coffee, are there better ways for roasters to develop blends other than post-roast blending?

One technique could be blending coffees after grinding them. 

Let’s say we have a blend made up of two coffees. On their own, each coffee is likely to need a slightly different grind setting to extract the most balanced and well-rounded flavour profile. 

Suppose the grind setting is X for the first coffee and Y for the second. If roasters blend both coffees prior to grinding, the grind setting can neither be X or Y, as adjusting to either one may result in under or overextraction.

This is where post-grind blending could be a useful practice to create a more harmonious and balanced blend. The dose for each blend component would need to be ground separately, and then combined just before extraction.

Using the above example again, you can use grind setting X for the dose of the first coffee and grind setting Y for the second – before thoroughly mixing both doses together and extracting (whether as espresso or filter).

Is post-grind blending too impractical?

In theory, post-grind blending could help to achieve more balanced and consistent results when using blends. However, there are also many practical challenges that could be very difficult to overcome – especially in coffee shops.

As coffee needs to be ground fresh before it’s extracted, grinding separate blend components is likely to be far too time consuming and complex for most baristas to carry out. Moreover, without formalised training procedures, baristas may struggle to carry out this technique successfully – which could be detrimental to maintaining coffee quality.

Home brewers and coffee professionals could certainly try experimenting with post-grind blending to assess how this method might enhance the sensory experience of blends. Following any results, we could then gauge whether it would be possible to implement this technique successfully in coffee shops.

It certainly seems that post-roast blending still remains the most effective and practical way to develop specialty coffee blends. And with blends becoming more and more popular, roasters need to make sure that quality remains a key focus.

While post-grind blending could be a useful practice for home brewers and coffee enthusiasts, those who decide to use this technique still need to be mindful of the potential challenges – or risk reducing coffee quality.

Enjoyed this? Then read our article on how specialty coffee roasters can use blends to drive brand identity.

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It’s ultimately a roaster’s responsibility to bring out the best characteristics of each coffee – and potentially highlight more of its nuanced qualities. So bearing in mind that no two coffees are exactly the same, roasters will need to develop different roast profiles for each one to get the best results.

But is there a universal approach to roast profiling that coffee professionals can follow – and then tweak accordingly for every coffee? Or is it best to take a different approach every time?

I spoke to Marcus Young, Executive Vice President of Coffee at goodboybob, and Fabio Ferreira, co-founder of Notes Coffee, to find out more.

You may also like our guide to roasting specialty coffee for espresso.

What is roast profiling?

In the coffee industry, we often talk about light, medium, and dark roast profiles – but what do they really mean?

Sweet Maria’s defines a roast profile as “what happened during the roast and what adjustments were made to affect the outcome”. Essentially, it’s a set of data collected during the roasting process, namely time and temperature. These data points are then displayed on a graph (or roast curve) so they can be replicated – similar to a recipe used for cooking or baking.

We can then define roast profiling as the process of manipulating variables like time and temperature to get a good balance of acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and texture for a specific coffee.

Marcus is the Executive Vice President of Coffee at goodboybob, a Golden Bean-winning specialty coffee roaster in California, US. He says that a big part of learning how to develop roast profiles is tasting many different coffees.

“In order to be a great roaster, you’ve first got to be a great cupper,” he tells me. 

Cupping is an industry practice carried out by producers, green coffee buyers, and roasters around the world to taste coffee. It follows a standard set of brewing protocols, which Q graders use to assess and score sensory profiles and quality.

Regularly tasting a variety of coffees – including different origins, altitudes, processing methods, and varieties – means roasters are better able to understand the vast range of flavours in coffee. In turn, the process of developing and customising roast profiles becomes easier.

Why is it so important?

As we’ve established, every coffee is different. For example, a coffee grown in a humid climate at a lower elevation will react differently when roasted compared to another coffee grown at a higher elevation in drier environmental conditions.

But climate and altitude are just two factors among many that affect roast profiling. Take origin for instance. With most Kenyan coffees having much brighter and more prominent acidity than coffees grown in other countries, this needs to be accounted for when developing a roast profile.

Similarly, you also need to roast washed coffees differently to natural, honey, and experimentally processed coffees.

Considering this, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to roast profiling. But what roasters can do is follow general steps and guidance to find the optimal roast profile for a particular coffee.

Where do you start with roast profiling?

For more experienced roasters, it’s often easier to develop an initial roast profile for a coffee they have never sourced before.

Fabio co-founded UK roaster Notes Coffee in 2008 with business partner Robert Robinson. He says that when he buys a new coffee, he looks through previous roast profiles to find an initial one that may work best.

“I use that roast profile as my baseline so that I don’t roast the new coffee ‘blind’,” Fabio tells me. 

This obviously helps to increase the chances of developing a good roast profile the first time around – and then tweaking accordingly to get the best results. 

Newer roasters, however, are unlikely to have as big of a roast profile catalogue than more established ones. In turn, they need to consider various attributes of the coffee, and build a roast profile from there.

To assist with the process, both Fabio and Marcus recommend buying a coffee from a previous harvest from your green coffee supplier. Less experienced roasters can then use this cheaper coffee to play around with roast profiling, and better understand how different variables impact overall sensory profile.

Which factors are the most important to consider?

There are, of course, many crucial variables to factor in when developing a roast profile. But arguably, bean density and processing methods are two of the most important.

“Bean density is an essential factor for me to understand how ‘hard’ I can ‘hit’ a particular coffee,” Marcus says. For example, you may need to roast a denser coffee at a higher temperature, whereas less dense coffee usually requires a lower drop temperature and a more gentle approach.

“Similarly, processing method can also tell me how much heat I should apply,” Marcus adds. “For a washed coffee, I would roast it for a little longer, while for a natural coffee, I would reduce total roast time to showcase more of its flavours.”

Beyond bean density and processing method, other variables are also key to remember:

• Variety (which impacts bean size – another important factor)
• Origin
• Moisture content (which should be between 8% and 12.5% for green coffee)

Understanding what causes roast profiles to change

Although green coffee is a stable product, it will eventually start to age over time – usually around a year after harvest. With this in mind, roasters need to be aware of how green coffee will change in the months ahead.

As green coffee ages, it will start to lose its acidity and sweetness. This means that to avoid any flat, stale, or papery flavours, roasters need to create roast profiles accordingly.

“With older green coffee, I usually roast a little bit longer, which gives you more time to develop the sugars and flavour compounds,” Marcus says. “For instance, if it was a ten-minute roast when the coffee was fresh, then I would increase the total roast time to 10.5 or 11 minutes.”

Both green and roasted coffee must be stored in optimal conditions to preserve freshness and quality for as long as possible. Variables like temperature, humidity levels, and exposure to light and oxygen play a big role in this.

Looking specifically at temperature, significant fluctuations will cause green coffee to age much more quickly, which then affects how the coffee will be roasted. 

“Even the weather will influence your roast profiling,” Fabio says. He describes a time when he developed a roast profile for a specific coffee which should have produced good results, but his curve was “completely off the charts”.

“It was too cold that day,” he adds, emphasising that roasters should account for weather conditions on batch production days and how they might impact the roasting process.

Keeping variables consistent

There are certainly many other factors that can influence a roast profile, however, some of them are more related to technique rather than how the coffee is changing over time. 

Batch size is important, for example. If you roast with a different amount of coffee every time, you will inevitably receive different results with every batch. This is because batch size affects air flow in the roaster, which then impacts heat distribution in the machine.

Similarly, if you roast the same coffee on two different machines, the results are likely to be noticeably different.

As a general rule of thumb, keep variables like batch size and type of machine as consistent as possible. It’s then much easier to identify other key variables which need to be changed to achieve the best possible roast profile.

Tips & advice on how to approach roast profile development

It takes plenty of practice to create a roast profile that’s just right for a particular coffee. However, the process shouldn’t be intimidating. Ultimately, you always need to consider how the coffee should taste – and develop a profile which best highlights these characteristics.

“The reality is that there’s a lot of different ways to roast really good coffees, and people should be open minded to happy surprises,” Marcus says. 

Fabio, meanwhile, recommends that roasters shouldn’t become too fixated on “the aesthetic of the roast curve”.

“Sometimes it’s too easy to not look at the numbers and how the roast curve developed, or factor in which coffee you’re using,” he says. “You may have a beautiful roast curve, but the coffee might not taste great.”

Tasting different coffees

As previously mentioned, one of the most effective ways to improve roasting skills is to try as many different coffees as possible.

“For anyone that starts roasting, learn how to cup coffee,” Fabio explains. “It’s easy to train new roasters how to manage machines and follow profiles, but you need to know how to taste coffee. 

“And sometimes that’s the most difficult part of the job,” he adds. “A good roaster needs to know how to hone the acidity and sweetness of coffee – it all comes down to tasting.”

So is there a universal way to approach roast profiling? Well, yes and no. With each coffee being unique – and changing over time – roasters need to account for these differences to get the best results.

One thing roasters can always do to improve the consistency of their roast profiles, however, is to taste many different coffees on a regular basis. This way, they can better understand the range of flavours in coffee – and how to highlight them as much as possible.

Enjoyed this? Then read our article on how to define your roast profile.

Photo credits: Amit Dave, Daniel Mendoza, Elina Feofantova

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In line with this, there are many factors that roasters need to consider to best highlight a coffee’s flavours and aromas when extracted as espresso. Roasters ultimately need to account for these factors when sourcing their coffees, but the roasting process itself plays a huge role in influencing flavours and aromas.

To learn more about how to roast for espresso, I spoke to Kaapo Paavolainen, founder of One Day Coffee Co., and Ghilyon Welby-Watson, head roaster at Tate Coffee Roastery. Read on to find out what they had to say.

You may also like our article on roasting specialty coffee blends.

Why do certain coffees work better as espresso? 

Although the roasting process itself has a major impact on how espresso extracts, choosing which coffee to use is a crucial first step. Some considerations include:

• Origin
• Altitude
• Variety
• Processing method

Kaapo (who is also the 2021 Finnish Barista Champion) emphasises the importance of having a certain flavour profile in mind before sourcing green coffee to roast for espresso.

“It’s about the potency of flavour,” he says. “It needs to be strong enough for people to appreciate it on its own, but it also needs to cut through milk.

“The same coffee with different roast profiles will result in different flavours,” he adds.

He uses a washed Panama Gesha as an example.

“As filter coffee, Gesha has more floral notes, as well as flavours like jasmine, peach, apricot, bergamot, orange blossom, and citrus fruits,” he explains. “However, when prepared as espresso, it’s more challenging to balance all of the citrus qualities. 

“In turn, these flavours can’t be expressed in the best way possible,” Kaapo adds. “Even if you play around with the roast profile, you would have to roast it too dark or develop it for too long, so you would destroy most of the delicate tasting notes.”

Keeping consumer preferences in mind

Ultimately, it’s the roaster’s responsibility to make sure roast profiles allow a coffee’s inherent characteristics and qualities to shine through. However, at the same time, consumer taste preferences also inform a roaster’s decision to choose a particular coffee for espresso.

“We personally source coffee based on what we think appeals to the wider market, how the coffee will translate as espresso, and of course, quality and flavour,” Ghilyon says. “For us, we serve our coffees at all of Tate’s locations in London, which cater to a vast and diverse audience whether they drink specialty coffee or not, so why not source coffees that are both high-quality and all-round crowd pleasers?”

There are many different approaches that roasters can take to source their coffees. While some may need to appeal to a wider range of consumers, other coffees may be better suited to people who are looking for more unique and interesting sensory profiles, such as experimentally processed coffees.

“There is certainly a market for these coffees in the appropriate setting,” Ghilyon says. “We tend to focus less on variety, and more on flavour profile, origin, and processing method.”

How do you develop a roast profile for espresso?

Once a roaster has sourced their coffee to use as espresso, there is an element of trial and error involved in developing a specific roast profile. However, some of the main variables that roasters can experiment with are:

• Temperature
• Total roast time
• Colour of the beans (or Agtron measurements)
• Timing of “first crack”

“I monitor how the coffee behaves during the roasting process,” Ghilyon tells me. “I check the colour and temperature changes regularly, and also consider total roast time.

“Most importantly, however, you have to taste your coffee,” he adds. “If you don’t enjoy the coffee while cupping it or it doesn’t extract in the right way, what is it that you don’t like? And how can you improve it? You need to analyse the data and then continue to experiment with different roast profiles. 

“There are a number of factors to consider when developing a roast profile, but we are primarily looking for consistency, so we tend to keep things simple,” Ghilyon continues.

No matter their approach, roasters need to make sure their roast profiles result in the optimal level of solubility for espresso extraction. Essentially, more soluble coffees can be extracted more quickly. And given that most espresso is extracted between 25 and 45 seconds, a higher level of solubility is especially important.

To achieve this, you usually have to roast for longer to create a more developed (or “medium”) roast profile. When not managed correctly, however, Kaapo notes that the risk of creating unpleasant “roasty qualities” can increase. 

For more experienced and skilled roasters, he emphasises that using high-quality equipment helps to prolong roast profiles without sacrificing any of the coffee’s inherent flavour characteristics.

Do certain roast profiles work better for espresso?

Considering that solubility is key to extracting excellent espresso, it is recommended to use a more developed roast profile.

“I think there is a more preferred profile for espresso compared to filter coffee,” Ghilyon says. “Medium roast profiles result in more balanced acidity and allow you to extract more of the coffee’s flavours and aromas [in a shorter period of time].”

Kaapo explains how roasters can use Agron spectrophotometers to measure roast profiles, which use infrared light to determine roast profile. For instance, the higher the Agtron number, the lighter the roast profile.

“Using similar roast profiles, try to match Agtron numbers for one particular coffee,” he suggests.

However, while Agtron measurements help to ensure consistency, they don’t always indicate the optimal espresso roast profile for a specific coffee. To achieve the best results, roasters need to account for other variables, too.

Blends vs single origins

In recent years, single origins have become popular options for espresso. However, many roasters prefer to use blends – mostly because they result in more overall balance and well-rounded flavour profiles.

But does this make a difference to how you should roast these coffees? 

“It’s mostly a matter of mixing the different coffees to create the blend, [rather than using a different roast profile],” Kaapo says. 

Any blend contains at least two different types of coffee – such as origin, variety, or processing method, for instance. Roasters will usually blend each component separately to achieve the right solubility level, and then mix post-roasting.

“We roast coffee for maximum flavour,” Kaapo explains. “So if we have the best possible roast profiles for two specific coffees, we can blend them together using a certain ratio and find the ‘sweet spot’ where they complement one another.”

However, over the past few years, a growing number of roasters have started to use more developed roast profiles for milk-based espresso beverages. Essentially, these roast profiles ensure that the coffee’s flavours are expressed in a way which is complementary to the natural sweetness and creaminess of milk.

Furthermore, some roasters may wish to avoid using certain origins or processing methods for milk-based espresso beverages. For example, Ethiopian or Kenyan coffees tend to be brighter and have more floral and fruity flavours, and are therefore best when roasted to lighter profiles – which may not pair well with milk.

Tips for tweaking roast profiles for espresso

Ghilyon emphasises the importance of experimenting with different roast curves to achieve different results, and ultimately find what works best.

“You can change the charge temperature (the reading on the drum once the beans are added), develop the coffee for longer or shorter periods of time, or experiment with timings for the Maillard reaction,” he says. 

This term refers to a series of chemical reactions between amino acids and sugars in the beans, which causes them to “brown” and release flavours and aromas. In coffee roasting, the Maillard reaction is the time between when the beans start to turn yellow and when first crack takes place – the moment in which pressure builds up inside the beans and causes them to irreversibly expand.

All about taste

In the end, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to finding the best roast profile for espresso. However, Kaapo tells me that cupping and tasting coffees as much as possible is essential. 

“You need to taste different roast profiles for one particular coffee – as well as for many other coffees, too,” he explains.

For less experienced roasters, this can be challenging at first. However, with plenty of practice, the process can become more straightforward.

“It can be difficult to achieve consistent results every time, but if we continue to maintain quality across the supply chain, then we can provide a dependable and reliable experience for our customers,” Ghilyon concludes.

In roasteries and coffee shops the world over, developing roast profiles for espresso has been common for some time now. Not only do these roast profiles ensure a more balanced sensory profile, they also help to elevate overall beverage quality.

Every roaster will have their own approach, but one of the most important factors to keep in mind is the needs of their customers – and knowing how to cater to them accordingly.

Enjoyed this? Then read our article on what’s the future for espresso.

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When it comes to machines, this is especially true – particularly those which include heat retention and recirculation technology. Not only can these systems help to reduce energy consumption, and thereby decrease costs, they can also help to cut emissions.

Moreover, given that demand for sustainable coffee is only growing, it’s vital that roasters pay closer attention to their environmental impact.

To learn more about how heat retention and recirculation in coffee roasting work, as well as the benefits of these systems, I spoke to Alessandro Garbin, the CEO of IMF Roasters. Read on for more of his insight.

You may also like our article on how you can reduce emissions during coffee roasting.

What are heat recirculation and retention in coffee roasting?

Before we discuss how heat recirculation and retention work, we first need to look at the types of heat transfer in coffee roasting.

There are two types of heat transfer when roasting coffee:

• Conductive heat transfer: this is when heat transfers between two objects that are in direct contact. For example, when a coffee bean touches the surface of the roaster drum or another bean.
• Convective heat transfer: this happens when heat transfers through liquid or gas. This type of heat transfer can be natural or intentional.
  • Natural: hot air will rise to the top of the roaster drum
  • Intentional: using a fan or pump to force cool air into the roaster drum

Radiation heat transfer is also used in coffee roasting. This is when heat is released as a result of the vibrational and rotational movements of molecules and atoms. This means it’s almost impossible for roasters to control this type of heat transfer.

Conductive heat transfer also isn’t as prominent in coffee roasting as convective heat transfer. As such, it’s key for roasters to efficiently control it.

As well as utilising some kind of heat source (usually either gas or electric), most roasters have an in-built fan or pump. When in operation, both of these systems work to continuously intake air and heat it to roast coffee. A roaster’s ventilation system will then remove the smoke and waste gases from the machine.

Heat recirculation systems

Alessandro explains what heat recirculation is in the context of coffee roasting.

“Machines reuse air which has already been used to roast coffee,” he says. “After the air is cleaned using high temperatures, it can be used again inside the drum or roasting chamber.”

A roaster’s heat source and ventilation system are constantly working in unison. This means that air is continuously heated and reheated throughout the roasting process.

However, for roasters which come with recirculation systems, they can reuse hot air. To achieve this, the recirculator removes waste products – such as exhaust gases, chaff, and smoke – before returning the hot air to the drum or roasting chamber.

Some roasters also come equipped with more than one heat recirculation system, which can provide a number of benefits.

IMF’s Vortex system works by mixing ambient air with hot recirculated air before it enters the drum or roasting chamber. 

“The temperature of the air which needs to be recycled and reused from the drum or roasting chamber can often become too high,” Alessandro says. “The Vortex system then mixes this hot air with fresh, cooler air so that it reaches the optimal temperature for the required roast profile.”

Meanwhile, the Equaliser system maintains the same volume of hot air both inside the drum and surrounding its surface. This helps to distribute heat more evenly.

“IMF’s Equaliser system ensures a more uniform heat transfer to every coffee bean so that roasters can achieve a more even and homogenous roast profile,” Alessandro explains.

Why is heat circulation so important for roasters?

To maximise profitability, there are many factors that roasters need to consider. Among these are cost management and retaining customers by ensuring your roasted coffee is consistently high in quality.

Heat circulation systems can allow roasters to effectively manage both of these factors.

Many older machines tend to include an afterburner, which purifies air by heating it up to very high temperatures. However, while afterburners do help to reduce emissions, they also require gas to run.

For many roasters, increasing gas usage to reduce emissions is not always cost-effective. However, heat recirculation systems don’t rely on gas – meaning roasters can lower both their environmental impact and energy costs.

“Heat recirculation technology can help to make sure that emissions from roasting fall within the limits imposed by current regulations, [although this depends on where you are located],” Alessandro says. “You also don’t need to integrate any additional abatement systems, such as thermal systems or catalytic converters.”

It’s an understatement to say that demand for more sustainable coffee is increasing – especially among younger generations. This statement rings true across the entire supply chain, including with roasting.

“IMF roasters include a double-function heating chamber which recycles used hot air and heats it to very high temperatures,” Alessandro explains. “This way, when some of the air is emitted into the atmosphere, it’s already clean, while the rest can be reused during the roasting process.

“Moreover, this means the volume of air emitted from IMF’s roasters is lower – [maximising heat recirculation and reducing gas consumption up to 47%],” he adds.

How does heat retention affect day-to-day operations?

First and foremost, as conduction and convection are the two main types of heat transfer, recirculation systems help to make sure that heat distributes more evenly in the drum or roasting chamber. 

If heat is distributed unevenly, this can lead to a number of issues for roasters. One of the biggest concerns would be uneven roast profiles. This is when some beans are underdeveloped and others are burned or scorched. Not only does this create an inconsistent product, it will also significantly impact the flavour and quality of coffee.

“Not all heat recirculation systems guarantee a constant air temperature during roasting,” Alessandro says. “High-quality roasters like IMF ensure a consistent temperature by incorporating fresh air into the drum or chamber, which allows for greater thermal stability.”

Improving consistency

Furthermore, as machines become progressively hotter throughout the day, some roasters find it difficult to maintain consistency between batches. With better heat retention systems, temperature variance between roasts will decrease, which inevitably improves roast profile consistency.

Alongside maintaining coffee quality, heat recirculation systems can help to reduce costs in the long term. When lower volumes of air are reheated, roasters are able to reduce their energy usage, thereby reducing energy costs and lowering their carbon footprint at the same time.

Finally, Alessandro offers advice on how to make sure heat recirculation and retention systems keep running efficiently in your roaster.

“As with any roaster, it is recommended to regularly clean and maintain your machine so that it lasts for a longer time,” he concludes.

For any roaster looking to become more energy-efficient, it’s clear that investing in a high-quality roaster is key. However, managing costs and keeping emissions down will become easier if roasters keep an eye on heat retention and recirculation technology.

In doing so, roasters will be able to manage their energy consumption much more effectively. In turn, they are likely to experience a decrease in their costs, as well as their environmental impact – both of which are more important than ever before.

Enjoyed this? Then read our article on how coffee roasters can design an appealing and efficient roasting space.

Photo credits: IMF Roasters, Better Days Coffee Company

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However, while it certainly takes skill to roast single origin coffees, roasting specialty coffee blends also requires a high level of expertise. Each component of a blend needs to be roasted in a way that best highlights its flavours and aromas.

To find out more about roasting specialty coffee blends, I spoke to Tony Dreyfuss, co-founder and co-president of Metropolis Coffee, and Tony Konency, co-founder of YESPLZ Coffee. Read on to find out what they had to say.

You may also like our article on how exciting specialty coffee blends can be.

How can specialty coffee roasters start developing a blend?

There are an almost endless number of factors which roasters need to consider when creating and roasting new coffee blends. However, Tony Dreyfuss tells me that it’s important for roasters to ask themselves a set of initial questions to make the process more efficient. These include:

• What kind of consumer are you developing the blend for?
• Would the flavour profile of this blend align with these consumers’ taste preferences?
• How can you best highlight the qualities of each individual blend component?
• What brew methods will be used for the blend?
• What will be the roast style for the blend: espresso, filter, or omni-roast?
• How much will the blend cost?
• What role will the blend play on your menu?
• Will the blend be a temporary or permanent addition to your menu? (Such as a house or seasonal blend)

While there are undoubtedly more factors to consider, another important point is deciding whether to blend each component separately or together.

Roasters can decide whether to combine different coffees to make a blend either before or after roasting. Their chosen method largely depends on their own flavour preferences.

Tony Konency explains that he avoids combining coffees prior to roasting. 

“From personal experience, we would never pre-blend coffee before roasting,” he says. “Every coffee should be treated as a unique component, and therefore roasted separately, so all of our blends are post-roast blends.

“Even if you’re a larger roaster, it’s still important to blend after roasting,” he adds. “There are some rationalisations for blending before roasting, but it can often sacrifice quality in the long term.”

Choosing coffee for a blend

When it comes to narrowing down which coffees to include in a blend, there are many options to choose from. Roasters need to consider factors such as:

• Origin
• Variety
• Processing method
• Bean size and density

“Certain types of coffee are going to provide [the flavours] and mouthfeel that you’re looking for,” Tony Dreyfuss explains. “For instance, some customers may want a blend with more acidity and fruit flavours.

“In line with this, roasters can include coffees from Africa or Central America,” he adds.

Moreover, as coffee is a seasonal product, roasters must also have an understanding of when these blend components (or coffees with similar sensory profiles) will be available throughout the year.

Tony Konency explains that quality also plays a key role in building and roasting coffee blends.

“From our experience, many importers think that we’re looking to blend 83 or 84-point coffees,” he says. “However, we tend to prefer using 88 or 89-point coffees in our blends.”

For roasters focusing on more premium blends, making sure that all components are high quality will result in a product which better aligns with its branding.

Although all components of a blend are important for overall quality, the base coffee arguably has the biggest impact. A base component can be:

• When a blend contains two coffees, and therefore accounts for 50% or more of the overall product
• When a blend contains more than two coffees, and therefore accounts for the majority of the product

For example, the makeup of a blend with three coffees could be 40% Brazilian, 35% Honduran, and 25% Rwandan. This would make the Brazilian coffee the base component.

Do you need to roast blend components differently?

It’s important to note that all roasters will approach their blends differently.

“Some coffees should be roasted separately as they wouldn’t roast very well together,” Tony Dreyfuss says. “This is largely because of bean density and hardness.

“If you roast beans together which have different densities and hardness levels then they will roast at different times,” he adds. “It’s best practice to roast all components separately [to achieve the optimal roast profile] and then combine them all after roasting.”

The solubility of coffee is an essential part of this. In simple terms, different kinds of coffee extract at different rates for a number of reasons. In turn, this means roasters need to make sure all blend components have similar solubility levels – otherwise the blend will taste both under and overextracted at the same time.

Which kinds of roast profiles are best suited for blends?

Ultimately, roasters can use whichever roast profile they choose for a blend.

“It can be a light, medium, or dark roast – it’s really up to the roaster,” explains Tony Dreyfuss. “It also depends on the kind of product that you want to create, which is what makes blends so unique and inspiring.

“A roaster may want one of the components to add body and depth, so they might roast that coffee for slightly longer than others,” he adds. “For the second component, they could add a single origin coffee which has more acidic qualities or fruit flavours, so they would need to roast this coffee to a slightly lighter roast profile.

“A quality blend should be able to combine these different flavours and textures to create a unique product, just like a recipe,” he continues.

However, Tony Konency emphasises that it’s important to maintain a certain level of consistency in roast profile for all components.

“You can’t combine a very light roast coffee with a very dark roast and have it be a successful blend,” he says.

Different roast profiles also have different solubility levels. For example, darker roasts extract much more quickly and easily compared to lighter roasts. 

To avoid a combination of under and overextraction as much as possible, roasters should aim to keep the roast profile of each blend component within a certain range.

How can roasters maintain quality?

Although creating a blend can be a unique way for a roaster to showcase their skills and creativity, preserving quality is vital, too.

“It can often be more difficult to maintain quality when roasting for coffee blends,” Tony Dreyfuss says. “If something isn’t quite right, it’s hard to pinpoint what it is exactly – it could be a specific coffee in the blend or it could be a roast profile.”

To overcome these challenges, Tony Dreyfuss suggests following certain procedures.

“You must regularly cup your blends, and you also need to sample roast the blend components separately to make sure they are holding up over time in terms of flavour,” he explains. “If you find that any of the coffees change, you might also want to change your approach to roast profiles so they can better fit into the blend.”

In line with this, roasters need to pay particular attention to achieving consistent results. A coffee’s flavours and aromas will naturally change over time, as well as from season to season, so developing a blend with a repeatable flavour profile is key.

Marketing

However, for a blend to be successful, it also needs to be marketed as a unique product.

“With a single origin coffee, the roaster’s main job is to make sure they roast it well,” Tony Dreyfuss says. “But when you create a blend that’s proprietary to your company or for a wholesale client, it’s your opportunity to really showcase your skills and creativity – and show what your blend is really about.”

Blends are a staple of many roasters’ menus. Furthermore, in recent years, it’s become clear that they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon – including higher-quality single origin blends.

However, despite their trending popularity, roasters still need to focus their attention on what is most important when it comes to blending: creating a dependable and consistent product.

Enjoyed this? Then read our article on whether blends are becoming more popular in specialty coffee.

Photo credits: Paul Hansen, Metropolis Coffee

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However, many smaller roasting businesses can overcome this hurdle by following a set of best practices when connecting with potential wholesale clients. By equipping themselves with the necessary skills and resources, they can successfully draw in new wholesale customers – helping to scale their businesses and drive sales.

In this article, we explore how roasting businesses can successfully attract new large-volume customers and develop mutually-beneficial partnerships.

You may also like our article on cost management tips for smaller roasters.

What should a roaster-customer relationship look like?

Although a large majority of a roaster’s sales come from ecommerce platforms and in-store purchases of retail coffees, many roasters also have partnerships with wholesale clients who buy larger volumes of roasted coffee. These are often coffee shops and other businesses which serve coffee beverages.

In many cases, these customers are one of the most effective ways to quickly generate revenue and improve profitability. However, working with wholesale customers comes with its own unique set of challenges – often forcing roasters to quickly adapt to their needs and demands.

There are certainly some key services which roasters are required to provide – mainly ensuring that coffee quality is maintained to a certain standard, for instance.

However, every wholesale customer has their own specific needs, which means roasters have to provide specialised solutions to each client. For example, some customers may need to know more about where roasters source their green coffee from, as well as how sustainable the supply chain is.

Furthermore, understanding what kind of coffee the customer wants is essential. Some wholesale clients may require more dependable products, such as blends or more traditional-tasting coffees, while others may prefer more exclusive lots or experimental processing methods.

Staff education and training is also another service that roasters can offer wholesale customers, including workshops and cuppings. Through these sessions, roasters can provide more information about their coffees, as well as teaching skills to wholesale clients’ teams. In turn, roasters can ensure that the quality of their coffee is maintained to the end consumer.

Similarly, roasters can also host cupping or tasting sessions with coffee shops’ end customers to help improve their brand and share more knowledge across the supply chain.

Ultimately, the roaster-client relationship should be mutually-beneficial, and both parties should offer each other more than just sales and coffee alone.

However, this raises an important question. How can roasters find new wholesale customers, and where should they look when doing so?

Setting up an initial meeting

For roasters, a first meeting with a prospective wholesale client needs to be more than a presentation of their business. Ideally, the initial meeting must be as interactive as possible and show why both parties are a good fit for one another.

In order to maximise their time as much as possible, roasters should create a plan that covers the meeting from beginning to end. For example, prior to the meeting, roasters can learn more about prospective customers. One way to do so is by asking a number of questions to assess client needs, such as:

• Which beverages are on their coffee menu? 
• What food do they serve? 
• Which coffees could work well with their menu? 
• How much do they charge for coffee and is there an opportunity to charge more for higher quality?
• Which factors do they value the most in a coffee supplier? 
• Are there any challenges they face when serving coffee? 
• What types of coffee do they like? – including origins, processing methods, and roast profiles.

Once the roaster has gathered all the necessary information, it can be a good idea to then set up a tailored follow-up sales pitch, which can include a suggested selection of coffees which they think meet a wholesale client’s requirements.

After pitching these coffees, you can also prepare yourself to answer any further questions in a clear and direct way. It’s important that prospective clients understand things like C price fluctuations and unit cost, and how they will affect price margins.

Many successful roasters say if their price margin requirements don’t align with the customer’s, the best option is to not take them on as a client. Ultimately, this provides roasters with an opportunity to reassess their sales pitches and the coffees they offer – allowing them to potentially improve their business and follow up with the customer at a later time.

Introducing yourself to potential customers

While the concept of cold calling potential customers that roasters have no previous relationship with may seem inappropriate, it is a common sales strategy and can often be successful.

However, it’s important to remember that the goal of a cold call is not to make a sales pitch, but to simply introduce the business and request a meeting or even set up a cupping. It’s also important to be concise and respectful of the customer’s time, while still making it clear why you would be a good fit.

Lead generation and setting up initial meetings can be one of the most challenging and frustrating parts of the sales process for roasters. 

With this in mind, roasters could benefit from a number of other lead generation strategies. Networking at local coffee events, visiting local coffee shops, and speaking to hospitality businesses are all effective means to meet new prospective customers.

Another useful – albeit more costly – sales pitch is to send coffee samples to potential customers. However, this rarely results in longer-term partnerships, and typically requires significant effort and time.

Avoiding common sales mistakes

Naturally, sales can be a precarious aspect of any coffee business – largely because customers have a number of varying needs and requirements, which might not always align with the products that a roaster has. That said, there are a number of common pitfalls to avoid. 

To start with, never agree on a price that isn’t sustainable for you in the long-term. Although it can be tempting to offer a lower price to secure a sale with a client, this could prove to be costly and challenging in the long run.

Moreover, raising the agreed price after a partnership has been established can create tension between the roaster and the customer – even placing the wholesale client in a difficult position with prices for their customers. 

Establishing a price floor and ensuring there is price transparency along the supply chain is one of the ways in which roasters can avoid these issues.

Alongside prices, make sure you also don’t commit to supplying volumes beyond your capacity. Be realistic about the volume of coffee you can provide; don’t overpromise and underdeliver.

The same principle goes for offering regular cupping or staff education sessions – doing so may only be feasible with a smaller number of customers. Similarly, providing deliveries with increasing regularity can be difficult as you scale, so keep that in mind.

Selling coffee is the primary aim of any roaster, but it is often the area of the business that can create the most challenges – especially with wholesale customers. Despite this, there are many ways for roasters to optimise their sales strategies to achieve the most successful results.

Although every sales pitch might not be successful, it provides roasters with an opportunity to reflect on where they can improve.

By following the advice of successful roasters, smaller coffee businesses can develop the right strategies for them to scale and attract wholesale customers.

Enjoyed this? Then read our article exploring how coffee roasters can diversify their income.

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Photo credits: Folly Coffee Roasters

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However, while you might be able to regularly roast high-quality beans that impress your friends and family, becoming a professional roaster and entering the sector in a more formal capacity is no small task. 

To learn more, I spoke to Chris Kornman, Royal Coffee’s Director of Education at The Crown, a dedicated coffee lab and tasting room. He told me what it takes to switch from being a home roaster to a full-scale production set-up. Read on to find out more.

You might also like our article on shared roasting spaces.

When is it time to start roasting professionally?

There are a number of benefits to roasting coffee at home. First, you can make sure that each batch you brew is fresh to taste, and you can experiment with a range of different profiles and techniques.

Roasting at home also gives you more control over the coffee you drink while helping you hone a skill. And it’s not just you who benefits, either – friends, family, colleagues, and other local coffee enthusiasts may well end up benefitting from the beans you roast. 

But how do you know when it’s time to take that next step?

Chris tells me more about some of the signs he can see which indicate that it’s time to start roasting at a professional scale. 

“It depends on the amount of time you want to spend roasting,” he says. “If you’re happy roasting in small batches, home roasters make excellent roasting tools. 

“However, when you go professional, the larger roasters offer a better economy of scale and efficiency if you plan to roast a lot and want consistency. If you’re doing more than 5 to 10lbs a week, it might be time to think about investing.”

Even though home roasters can produce consistently high-quality batches of coffee, there are drawbacks when roasting at greater scale. While a small capacity is an obvious restriction, many home roasters also have lengthy cooling periods, and internal mechanisms that simply aren’t built to withstand that kind of workload.

However, upgrading to a professional roaster is by no means an easy decision. Especially for hobbyists, even low-end professional roasters will require a significant investment.

“Business-wise, you’ll want to compare your costs, volumes, and profits,” Chris says. “If you’re only interested in the craft of professional roasting and not in building a business, you’ll have to ask yourself if you can justify the cost of the machine to satisfy your curiosity.”

What else should aspiring production roasters consider?

Beyond simply investing in the machine, however, there are other factors that home roasters looking to make the switch should consider.

Read on to find out what they are.

Your roasting space

Unless you happen to have been using your small home roaster in an empty warehouse with plenty of spare space, you will likely struggle to use a larger machine in a home setup.

Space is important. As you scale up your roasting operations, you will need to make sure there’s enough square footage not just for the roaster itself, but also for the increased quantity of green coffee you’re buying, other equipment, packaging, and so on. 

“When looking for space for green coffee storage, think about three to six months ahead,” Chris says. “Beyond that, you’ll need space to package, grind, and ship as needed. A couple of hundred square feet, minimum, with room to expand, is a good place to start.

“You’ll quickly find yourself strapped for space if you’re trying to operate out of a storage shed, garage, or porch.”

He also notes that the new space you require may well cost as much – if not more – than a new roaster. 

However, there are other, more flexible options that can be more cost-effective. Shared roasting spaces have become more popular in recent times, with multiple roasters sharing premises to minimise individual outgoings.

“Co-operative and shared roasting spaces are incredible resources for new and up-and-coming roasting operations,” Chris says. “You’ll have the ability to explore and rent space/time in a professional-grade facility (plus store your products) without needing to invest a tonne of time, money, and equipment upfront. 

“You can learn what you like, what you’d change, and generally be better informed and experienced when you’re ready to build out your own space.”

Roaster capacity

Choosing the right roaster for your needs will understandably be essential, but price is by no means the only factor to consider. 

Capacity is key, too. It can be a simple, expensive mistake for new professional roasters to over or underestimate the capacity they need for their new venture.

Chris says: “Roasters look for around a 5kg machine capacity minimum for starters, but even these machines can be quickly outgrown.

“If you plan to expand, offer wholesale or start a café, a 15kg capacity machine will offer you greater flexibility. Many of these can also roast as little as 5kg or less per batch as needed with good profiling protocol.”

Medium-capacity machines offer a great balance: they can help you fulfil varying order sizes while still delivering high-quality results. While different capacities will understandably require a different approach to profiling, they still give you the ability to roast for much larger orders if demand changes. 

However, along with capacity comes another issue: sourcing green coffee. While this might seem obvious on paper, thinking about how much you need to buy to keep up with demand can be a difficult formula. 

Beyond that, you’ll need to think about which beans your customers enjoy. Trying out different coffees is a great way to test their tastes and experiment.

This is why green coffee suppliers often offer smaller bags of coffee that allow roasters to roast different beans without committing to a large minimum order size. For example, Royal Coffee have a “Crown Jewels” range: a select catalogue of high-quality green beans sourced from around the globe, sold in 1lb and 22lb bags.

However, Chris says that volume can be adjusted for better value once roasters feel comfortable working with a new chosen origin. 

“There’s a significant economy of scale when buying in bulk,” he says. “A full-size 60kg bag or pallet (usually 10-12 bags) are good starting points if you want to improve your margins when buying green. 

“If you’re not ready for whole bags, even just a 10kg Crown Jewel or our forthcoming larger boxes of coffee are great options to get started that will offer you better deals than buying in small portions.”

Education and experience

When moving up to a larger capacity roaster, it’s incredibly likely that you’ll have to “re-learn” some of your old skills on the new machine. 

However, beyond that, experience and education lends itself to a number of other areas. This includes working with data at a larger scale and implementing quality control measures.

“It’s a big change,” Chris says. “If you’re using Artisan or Cropster for data logging, you’ll have some ability to transfer pieces of data, but the inability to truly manipulate your environmental temperature with good heating elements can be a steep learning curve, especially if scaling up from a simple home roaster. 

“Beyond data logging and heat & time metrics, you’ll also need to familiarise yourself with an entirely new set of equipment, maintenance, and cleaning protocols.”

By minimising the amount of time you take getting to grips with these processes, you’ll be able to roast higher-quality coffee more consistently and at a much faster rate than if you just learn on the job. 

Using a shared workspace with other roasters is a great way to learn, but if you have set up your own space, it’s worth looking for external expertise. Chris tells me that Royal Coffee offers a number of resources to this end – including The Crown, a coffee lab and tasting room.

“You can check the Royal Coffee blog, webinar, and on-demand archives, or sign up for one of our online or in-person roasting courses,” he explains. 

“If you’re not active in a home roaster forum, these can be good community resources as well. However, that said, there’s really no substitute for hands-on experience.”

Transitioning from home to production roasting is no easy feat. From finding the right roaster to match your demand to learning the ropes with QC, inventory management, and even shipping – there is understandably a lot to take in.

Don’t be afraid to speak to more experienced roasting professionals. Find a space that suits you, look for educational resources, and check in with the online roasting community if you’re not sure about something. Once you do start to learn, however, you may find you’re able to consistently produce delicious roasted coffee in no time at all.

Enjoyed this? Then try our article on roasting for filter & espresso at home.

Photo credits: Evan Gilman

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For many, this first step is to become a production roaster – a role which forms the backbone of many roasting teams.

To learn more about exactly what being a production roaster entails, I spoke to two industry experts. They told me more about some of the day-to-day responsibilities, and what the future might hold for anyone in this role.

You might also like our article exploring the role of a head roaster.

From barista to batch roasting

The production roaster is an essential part of any roasting team. It might not be the most glamorous position, but it’s usually the start of a journey for coffee roasting professionals.

Broadly, production roasting refers to the routine daily roasting operations that a roastery undertakes. The roasting schedule and profiles will be set by management (often by a head roaster). In short: a production roaster’s job is to carry out the process of roasting itself.

Many people enter this role from elsewhere in the coffee industry. Often, aspiring production roasters are baristas seeking to branch out from customer service and take a role further “up” the supply chain. 

Alica Banszka is a production roaster at Rebel Bean in Brno, Czech Republic. She tells me that she, like many other production roasters, first entered the coffee industry as a barista. However, since leaving the coffee shop to join the roastery, she says she’s developed a number of key skills.

“Patience definitely helps, as does listening to your mentors,” she says. “Even as a barista, you need to have someone who teaches you. For production roasting, specific skills like precision and attention to detail are important. For me, not being afraid to ask questions and for support was what helped the most.”

In addition, Alica notes that many coffee professionals find that their sensory skills develop quickly once they become part of a production team. This, she says, is because they’re often involved with cupping and quality control.

“The sensory skills I gained from being a barista improved as I became a production roaster,” she notes.

A day in the life of a production roaster

Roasting companies will have a specific day-to-day routine that their production team is expected to follow. 

Alica tells me more about the ordinary working week as a production roaster at Rebel Bean. According to her, three or four days a week are actually spent roasting.

She says: “I start between 7am and 8am and preheat the machine. Then I start to prepare my coffees, of which I roast about 15 batches every day. This takes between five to six hours.”

Quality control parameters and procedures are usually put in place by the head roaster or the Head of Coffee. 

Alica adds: “Roasting is mostly routine, but you need to be very focused on what you do and be aware of the details, always checking the profile that you’re roasting to.”

It is down to the production roaster to follow these guidelines as closely as possible. These will, in turn, educate them about what they should monitor during any roast – parameters including charge temperature, rate of rise (RoR) and more. 

Alica says: “For instance, if I have the green coffee I need ready, I follow an in-between batch routine, which comes down to using a weigh and fill machine that I put in the vacuum loader.

“In between batches, when I turn the machine off, I reweigh another batch and then I start to preheat it for the next batch,” she adds. “I always weigh the coffee in and out of the roaster so we can see if there is a difference between batches, or if everything is consistent and fine.”

Aaron Torres is Head of Coffee at Ue Roasters in Witney, England. He is responsible for training and guiding Ue’s production roasters, effectively dictating how their coffee is roasted. He tells me about the way he structures their shifts.

Aaron says: “We warm up the machine, and after that, we do quality control on the production from the day before. After that, we organise the batches that we’ll have to roast that day.”

Creating a schedule can help to improve consistency in the roasting process, as production roasters will grow more familiar with the day-to-day routine as time goes by. 

“We usually plan the day while we cup the roasted coffee,” he says. “We use that time to organise our wholesale orders, and when we finish the cupping, we know what our day looks like.

“We then move on to weighing out the green coffee and divide it into two sections: blends and single origin. Then we roast for around six hours. We then have to clean the equipment at the end of the day, and usually a deep clean once per week, or fortnightly.”

Learning from the best

Learning from an inspiring, experienced head roaster who is keen to pass on their experience is a key part of the process for production roasters. After all, quality starts at the top – and good management staff are essential in any good roastery.

Aaron tells me that his own personal progression in the coffee sector has helped him pass on specific ways of talking about and working with coffee. In turn, he says, this raises the confidence levels and knowledge of his production team.

For example, after completing his Q grader qualification, Aaron says that he felt more confident. He then passed on this confidence about coffee quality onto the roasting team, using it to generate a cohesive dialogue when talking about coffee.

“In the beginning, it was very difficult for my production roaster to add descriptions of flavours and aromas, so I gave him the Le Nez Du Cafe to take home and practice with,” Aaron explains. “After a couple of months, he became a lot more confident talking about different aromas and flavours.” 

Meanwhile, Alica’s approach to learning the craft involves taking in information from as many sources as possible.

She says: “I have mostly been learning from my boss. He’s the one I learn from now, but also my previous boss. I also read a lot of online articles and attend webinars held by machine manufacturers.”

Three years ago, she received a massive career boost when she received a scholarship for the Coffee Roasters Guild’s Roaster Camp, which took place in France.

“[It] was an amazing experience. I found that talking with other roasters as well as swapping coffees and tasting a lot really helped me develop and grow.”

Collaborative events like CRG’s Roast Camp allow professional coffee roasters to share their ideas, experiments, and insights into how to get the most out of high-quality green coffee.

This open dialogue is an essential part of the learning process. It can help push production roasters forward and improve education across the supply chain – in roasting and beyond.

Future job prospects

Although production roasting is generally seen as an entry-level role, the skills developed in this role will often put an individual in a good position to move up the supply chain and into more senior roles.

Aaron says: “[Production roasters] should later be ready to become head roasters. In this role, they can profile the coffees from scratch, understand more about the equipment that they are using, and maybe run the daily basics of the roastery.”

Alica, however, says she wants to head in another direction. Having worked in coffee as both a barista and a production roaster, she says her plan is to now get involved at production level.

She says: “I want to get into the growing side of coffee. Maybe not as a green buyer, but definitely something closer to the farm.”

By learning from the team around them, production roasters can develop their knowledge and skills over time to advance their career and become more experienced roasters.

This means that whether you’re an avid home roaster or barista looking to take that next step, production roasting can be a great path into coffee roasting as a professional endeavour. 

What are you waiting for? Start looking for that next step in your coffee career today.

Enjoyed this? Then read this article on the role of a Head of Coffee.

Photo credits: Josef Mott

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For customers buying roasted coffee, consistency is an expectation, not a benefit. People expect their roasters to reliably reproduce the same flavour profiles again and again. 

But how do you guarantee consistency? And which variables should you keep an eye on? Read on to answer these questions and learn more. 

You might also like our article on automation in coffee roasting.

How do we define consistency in coffee roasting?

The science of coffee roasting comes down to slight tweaks to heat and airflow during the roast. Increasing or reducing these factors at different points allows roasters to manipulate the innate flavour locked within green coffee. 

But once a roast profile has been developed, there is another challenge: repeating it. 

This is where the question of consistency comes into play. We can consider roasters to be consistent when each bag of coffee tastes the same as the last. There should be no fluctuation from batch to batch, and every customer who buys the same coffee should broadly experience similar flavours (albeit with some variation for palate).

This is important, as consistently delivering a high-quality product is the foundation of a specialty coffee roaster’s brand. It’s also one of the most important steps to maintaining a loyal customer base.

Measuring consistency: Data & colour

Morten Münchow is a coffee roaster, trainer, and researcher at Coffee Mind in Denmark. He explains that there are several variables that can affect consistency from batch to batch. Conversely, there are a number of different ways to measure consistency using data from your roaster. 

Morten tells me about a study that Coffee Mind conducted in partnership with Stronghold, a roaster manufacturer based in South Korea. 

The study, he says, pinpointed several different data points that roasters can use to measure consistency from roast to roast. They are:

• Exact time and temperature of first crack
• Temperature of the room
• End temperature time of the bean
• Weight loss during the roast
• Agtron or ColorTrack measurements

The last of these, Agtron or ColorTrack measurements, are popular among roasters for measuring “colour”. Agtron or ColorTrack equipment shines a light on a sample of coffee beans, before providing a reading based on the colour (opacity) of the sample used. 

The higher the number, the lighter the roast. An Agtron “score” of around 70, for instance, indicates what would typically be considered a light roast. Medium roasts are around 55 to 60, while dark roasts start at 35 and can drop as low as 25.

In the study, Morten says Coffee Mind and Stronghold roasted several batches using a Stronghold S7X. The aim, he says, was to achieve similar readings for each batch while using the same time and heat parameters. 

The difference in consistency was measured using the average difference in Agtron number from batch to batch.

“After the first roast of the day, we were able to reproduce the same roast profile with an average deviation of 0.7 Agtron,” Morten explains.

Which variables can affect roast consistency?

Unfortunately, unless your roastery is maintained with scientific precision, environmental variables and human error will naturally affect roast consistency. 

Furthermore, while highly-skilled roasters are able to monitor and adjust a roast profile if they see an issue, responding to these variables takes years of experience and understanding.

Morten tells me that the biggest variable that affects consistency in batch roasting is heat retention.

“Any retained heat in the material of the roaster can make the beans behave differently,” he says. “This can be the case even if your input parameters are the same (heat, rotation speed, airflow, and so on).”

Consequently, this means that any potential heat transfer into and out of your roaster can affect consistency – even the ambient temperature of your roastery.

For instance, in the summer months, a roaster may need less time to warm up than it would in the winter. Consequently, on colder days, the roaster can take more time to preheat to the right temperature. For inexperienced roasters, a lack of knowledge about how ambient temperature affects the roast can mean inconsistency from the first batch of the day to the last. 

“Almost any roasting professional knows that the first roast of the day is an ‘off roast’,” Morten says. “This is an issue for almost all roaster manufacturers. It often requires the roastmaster to adjust the profile in order to hit the target colour and Agtron reading. 

“The underlying reason for this is usually that the roaster is not sufficiently heated by its pre-heating sequence alone.”

Morten also notes that batch size affects consistency. “I don’t even consider it a potential inconsistency,” he says. “It’s such a direct and predictable source of inconsistency, that I think you just have to dial in a new profile for each batch size.”

However, if you are changing batch size and want to measure consistency, Morten recommends using infrared (IR) temperature probing.

“On the Stronghold S7X and other roasters using infrared temperature probes, the results on measuring different batch sizes have actually been really good,” he says. “These actually measure the surface of the coffee without being affected by the surroundings – which bean temperature probes can be.

“[If you are going to change batch size], the infrared probe is a good technological way to manage consistency,” he explains. “However, this is only as long as you’re working with the same coffee on the same roaster.”

How can we minimise inconsistency?

The first step is simply to develop and refine roast profiles, and follow these to the letter for every batch. However, as mentioned previously, human error can be a factor, especially if you have larger teams working on one roaster.

Morten recommends setting out a rigorous routine and trying to isolate yourself as best as possible.

“Plan the day before you start roasting, and make sure nobody disturbs you,” Morten says. “You need to make sure you’re doing nothing but roasting for that planned time. No phone, no emails, no social media!”

The other solution he notes is the use of technology. While an experienced roastmaster’s sight and smell alone can improve consistency, modern roasters are naturally more precise and can pull on a range of data points.

Morten says the study Coffee Mind conducted with Stronghold found that the Stronghold S7X’s auto-replication mode can replicate the precision of even the most trained roasters.

“The Stronghold S7X roaster has proven to be capable of a precise reproduction of coffee roast profiles,” he says. “[An average deviation of 0.7] means the S7X’s auto-replication mode is as precise as highly trained individuals on manual roasters.

“It’s difficult to imagine what you could even do wrong with the S7X other than adding the wrong amount of beans to the hopper,” he says. “It also auto-dumps the coffee at the end of the roast, making the last and most crucial decision – when to finish the roast – more consistent.”

This new, technological approach to roasting may be difficult to adopt for those who have been trained to roast the “traditional” way. However, being able to roast without a need for constant supervision means roasters can spend more time on other areas of the business.

How else can roasters make their batches more consistent?

Other than developing a solid profile and replicating it to the best of your ability, Morten says that using and analysing data is a great way to be more consistent. 

Time, end temperature, and weight loss are all good places to start. However, Morten notes that recording different scenarios across each roaster you use can help you analyse any gaps in consistency. 

“Test consistency with your roaster and explore the different scenarios that could lead to inconsistency,” he recommends. “The key parameter for consistency is flavour, which is 80% driven by variation in colour and 20% driven by variation in timing.”

He says the study conducted by Coffee Mind and Stronghold found that the specific protocol followed for each batch made the largest difference to consistency.

“It doesn’t happen enough, but roaster manufacturers’ user manuals should really specify how the operator should handle the roaster to achieve peak consistency,” he adds.

Some of the measures Morten recommends include:

• Waiting the same amount of time between each batch (to ensure uniformity in heat transfer)
• Extended pre-heating where necessary
• Rapid pre-heating after finishing a batch
• Roasting the first batch manually to minimise the impact of starting with a cold roaster

It’s clear that consistency is a key parameter for roasters to consider when working with larger volumes of coffee. After dialling in that perfect roast profile, it’s of the utmost importance that you replicate it perfectly to make sure customers keep coming back.

Understanding how heat transfers into and out of your roaster is a great place to start, as is drawing on all the data points you have available. However, going forward, it seems like there will be no substitute for the precision that a modern roaster can offer – no matter how experienced a roastmaster is, human error will always be a factor. 

Enjoyed this? Then try our article on choosing a roaster for your coffee shop.

Photo credits: Café Muda, Monogram Coffee

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Please note: Stronghold is a sponsor of Perfect Daily Grind.

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The post How can you ensure batch-to-batch consistency when roasting coffee? appeared first on Perfect Daily Grind.

For coffee roasters, a number of diversification opportunities have materialised in recent years. From ecommerce to equipment sales, roasters are offering more products and services to customers than ever before.

To learn more about exactly how roasters can diversify their income, I spoke to three individuals working at roasteries. Read on to find out what they told me. 

You might also like our guide to common coffee roaster sizes.

What is diversification? Why is it important?

When building a business, it’s a good idea to start with a “core” product. This core offering is typically the heart of your business, and often the reason you start in the first place: a singular product or service that you think people will pay for.

But even if you’re successful, over time, relying on one stream of revenue – irrespective of growing demand – can leave your business vulnerable. 

Let’s say that, for example, your business model is based only on selling to coffee shops. But what happens if they close, and your customers all freeze or cancel their orders?

Diversification is, among other things, an excellent way to mitigate and minimise risk. Felton Jones is the Plant Manager and Chief Roastmaster at PJ’s Coffee in New Orleans. He told me about how diversification helped the brand remain profitable as a supplier.

“Making sure we expand our offerings to include a number of items that complement our roasted coffee gives us the ability to remain profitable,” he says. 

“In addition, being more diversified allows us to absorb coffee market price fluctuations without the need to frequently change prices for our customers. This in turn allows us to be more open-minded, and allows us to consider a wider range of products beyond coffee.”

Maren Ernst is the owner at Ernst Kaffee in Cologne, Germany. She says: “The last year has shown just how quickly things can change. Our revenue shifted from retail bean sales to wholesale and ecommerce. It just shows how important it is to be diversified.

“Furthermore, diversification keeps you up to date. It makes sure you’re not stuck in a niche, and ‘doing what you always do’ – it opens opportunities.”

In turn, diversification can help roasters attract (and ultimately keep) new customers. Consumer habits are constantly evolving, and by adapting and remaining agile, roasters can evolve with them.

Lee Harrison is the Senior Director of Coffee and Roasting at Joe Coffee Company. He says: “If for some reason (a pandemic, perhaps), the frequency of retail customers that we rely on suddenly drops, we can rely on our wholesale and distribution business lines. 

“Thinking along these lines, we have tried to develop and offer a range of products that meet a variety of consumer needs or desires. This includes varying price points, roast profiles, and origins – all connected by Joe Coffee values.”

What should you consider when adding a new product?

All three interviewees note one factor above all else when thinking about a new product or an opportunity for diversification: demand. 

“Many factors play a role when we decide to add new products,” Felton says. “First, we listen to customers. Our loyal customers share valuable feedback about flavours, origins and more. 

“We also watch trends closely. Being proactive and testing new products based on industry trends gives our product development team an advantage.”

These new products could be anything from reselling home coffee brewing equipment to a new range of more exclusive and pricier coffees.

Maren agrees: “The main factor for extending our offering is customer demand. When we got started, we didn’t plan for wholesale business, but cafés and restaurants came to us and started asking if they could buy and serve our coffee. In a way, we were ‘forced’ to diversify.”

Demand alone isn’t everything, however.

Lee says: “Once we understand what customers want, we develop products that fit our values. A new product should meet both consumer demand and Joe Coffee values before we put it on the market.”

Making sure that you only roll out products and services that meet your brand identity and align with your values is important. And make sure you concentrate on your core offering, too – adding one revenue stream which thrives at the expense of another is not true diversification.

“Ensure that your core products always remain a priority,” Felton says. “Making decisions to bring in new products could be costly and an overall distraction [if you’re not careful].

“Core products will also provide the foundation for you to be creative and experiment with new offerings and new ideas. It is imperative that you don’t take away from the core product as it is key to your brand.”

Research is important

So, you’ve identified a suitable level of demand for a new product or service. But what’s the next step? Moving ahead to product development and rolling it out?

No – before you do anything else, do your research. An article by Forbes reads: “A sustainable business constantly needs new ideas to satisfy the evolving demands of consumers, but too often new ideas fail as a result of inadequate market research.

“Access to insights that can optimise your current and future product offering and assist in connecting your brands to the right consumers in the right way is critical.”

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for market research when thinking about a new product. Good research comes in a number of different forms. These range from large-scale reports showcasing consumer habits and statistical data to focus groups, a competitor review, or even bespoke in-house research. 

“We survey our staff, we survey our customers, we collect anecdotal data from our retail and wholesale environments, and we do our own market research to understand pricing and quality for a specific product type or sector,” Lee says. 

“We don’t have access to large-scale consumer research data but some of our wholesale partners do. It has been their data, at times, that has helped us move in certain directions.”

Felton uses similar research methods as well.

“[We hold] widespread internal discussions including with our corporate personnel, and we also have a beverage committee made up of corporate employees as well as franchisees.

“Market trend reports from organisations such as the SCA and NCA are extremely helpful, too.”

Products & examples

There are so many different ways that roasters can diversify and add new products. Businesses that generally sell to coffee shops may look to start selling coffee direct to consumer, for instance. This was a major change for many during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, your new revenue stream doesn’t necessarily have to involve a change in audience – it can mean rolling out a new product to the same prospective customers.

Equipment is a great example. For instance, roasters selling coffee to home consumers through a web shop can add brewers and home grinders. Similarly, wholesale suppliers might take the opportunity to “bundle” their coffee with commercial equipment, such as grinders and espresso machines.

Another opportunity is to leverage your brand’s knowledge and expertise to educate consumers. This could mean holding webinars, workshops, or classes – virtually or in person. Areas of focus could range from cuppings and general coffee knowledge to brewing and roasting.

Maren, who started Ernst Kaffee with a coffee bar and roasting for retail customers, has since diversified to offer workshops and classes, open a web shop, and start selling wholesale.

“Diversification helps our business to not be dependent on one business pillar or customer,” she says. “It made us grow step by step in a very healthy way.”

Lee adds: “Our most successful products are the ones that people can connect with. In our cafés, these are the [more complex] coffees they become more familiar with over time, [whereas] we’ve aimed for balance [in the coffees we sell to home consumers].

“I think any product offering can be successful as long as it’s well suited to the customers that will buy it and consistent in terms of quality.”

If successful, diversification won’t stop you from being vulnerable if things change – it can also build brand awareness, too. This is important for acquiring new customers and will help you beat competitors.

However, Felton says that keeping new products sustainable in the long term will require time and resources.

“Our brand awareness is better than ever,” he says. “But while [these changes] have had a positive impact on overall revenue, they also require additional infrastructure to ensure successful growth.”

Adding classes and workshops, diversifying into wholesale, starting subscriptions, selling equipment, food, merchandise… there are so many ways for roasters to diversify their income. The key is making well-informed decisions based on solid market research, good demand, and your brand values. 

“Keep it simple, and don’t reinvent the wheel,” Felton says. “Stay focused on your core products and values, be sure to develop, and understand which trends do and do not apply to your brand.”

Lee adds: “Remember that, at the end of the day, it is our customers who finance your work. By creating more points of access, you can connect them with your values, your passion, and your work. Listen to your customers!”

Enjoyed this? Then try our article on how roasters can build good relationships with producers.

Photo credits: Ballard Brands, Joe Coffee, Ernst Kaffee

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