Green coffee beans are just a pale green shadow of their future dark brown selves.  Brewed green, coffee produces a beverage that tastes like the grass smells on a spring day as you mow the lawn! All of the wonderful flavor and aroma that we enjoy in coffee is created when we roast the beans to develop their potential. Green coffee beans are roasted to between 356°F and 464ºF for 8 to 15 minutes, depending on the degree of roast required. The longer the coffee is roasted the darker it becomes. During the roasting process moisture is lost and the bean "pops" audibly rather like popcorn: A milestone of the roast called “The First Crack.”

The Grignard transformation: starches are converted into sugar, proteins are broken down and the cellular structure of the bean is altered. The heating process precipitates the release of coffee oil, or what is called "caffeol", which is the essence of coffee flavor. This essence of coffee is what we enjoy in the cup. It is also volatile and water soluble, so once the coffee beans have been roasted until dark, the flavor can be damaged by moisture, light and especially by oxygen.       

Roasting is one part art, one part science, and several parts judgment. It is a skill. Too much heat and the beans are roasted too dark and too much caffeol is burnt; not enough and the caffeol is not precipitated.  The darker the roast, the more uniform the resulting flavor. The different kinds of roast include light, medium and dark, while various other terns, such as European, Full City, and Viennese are used in the USA.  Some beans are more appropriate for certain roasts. A light Ethiopian bean would lose its character if it was roasted too dark, while some Mexican beans are best roasted to a dark color.

Coffee is somewhat of a capricious crop. Each year nuances in the flavor of the beans is affected by numerous variables: weather, harvesting, processing, storage, humidity and air temperatures, etc. These changes in bean character present an enormous challenge to achieve consistency in the roast and flavor profiles of our proprietary coffees. It requires deft skill and years of experience and what is called “palate memory” to achieve the consistency of flavor our customers expect. This character in the cup is our commitment to you our customers to offer you consistent coffees of distinction found nowhere else.

Our people are coffee people, real coffee people; expert in their abilities to roast and to blend coffees to their maximum flavor potential.  Light Roasts, Dark Roasts, Espresso, Blends and everything in between.

Whether it's a terrific origin, estate, or a blended coffee, our roasts define the magic of great coffee flavor and our guarantee is unequivocal:
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