Coffee Roasting Explained 

Agree, a TV series would be amazing, but I think he pretty much covers all of this in his book The World Atlas of Coffee.

Would be an easy pitch to the execs as a RU-vid original series

@vice

I would 100% watch that.

Road trip style with a comedic side-kick to act as the viewer and ask our stupid questions.

A wild James appears

@@JokeswithMitochondria I was curious about your username so clicked on ur profile. Wasn’t disappointed haha

I'd love to see David (oops) Attenborough (sp) do a short video on James in the wild, chasing coffee.

*David Attenborough voice*

The man was gestated in a womb full of espresso.

This is what I came to ask for. I’ve really been enjoying my current bag of 72 hr anaerobic natural process Honduran and while I’m familiar with each of these words individually, when put together they’re a bit mysterious

yes! i just had some wilton benitez pink bourbon beans and oh my word! i thought i knew what coffee can taste like, boy was I wrong. The process is Double anaerobic thermoshock.

Wha WHAT? At this point, I don’t know what that is but will research immediately! 😂

Yes!

Yes, I was just going to mention this. Some of these I didn't even know of, but would love to know more about these processes and how they differ. 🙂

I just want a neck tie with the beans in the scale of light to dark from this video

Agree with Matt. Taking tours where great coffee beers are cultivated, and why they taste the way they do.

Around the coffee world in 80 days ! Roll over Michael Palin / Jules Verne !

Do you mean a Coffeedential? ...I'll see myself out.

In Guatemala 🇬🇹 😊

I don't know anything about you're current situation, but if you have a passion for coffee and mechanical engineering, all I can suggest is go for it! I hope you have a rewarding and successful career in engineering, hopefully in coffee roasting.

Damn bro that sounds boring as shit

Let me know if oxidation is a critical element in the roasting process, good luck in your coffee journey !

That sounds amazing

Same same

same with me from Indonesia

Which island if one may ask?

I believe that's how they do it in Ethiopia as well

Sounds awesome

This!

Came to comments to request this as well

Yes!!! I understand that roasters have differing profiles, but when they aim for a the same goal (ie. Light or City Roast), how different machines affect overall taste from a single origin differently.

Long-time home roaster here (started on iRoast, then Behmor, now Aillio Bullet R1). Generally the dry-process ("wild") coffees benefit from lighter roasts because the origin flavors have a lot of fruit and berry that darker roasts often kill. As for color though, it's tricky. As the coffee roasts the things you can measure and observe are time, temperature, rate of rise (how fast the temperature is changing), color, smell, sound (first and second crack), and surface texture. And all too often, these give conflicting signals. I find that calling the end of a roast is usually a "preponderance of the evidence" decision with plenty of reasonable doubt. And I've been doing it for 20 years.

Yes please

😅😊 0:53 😊

😅😊 0:53 😊😊😊😊

Lovely channel, I was about to ask for the same

There is a cool podcast called making coffee with Lucia Solis where she goes really deep into coffee processing. Really cool, and I have recommended the podcast to many people who are curious about the different processing methods that have been around and the ones that are starting to pop up and become more popular.

The difference is primarily about how/when they clean the fruit (called a coffee cherry, but not related to cherries at all) off the beans (seeds) before the roasting. *Washed/Wet* = The bean is immediately, and entirely, cleaned of its fruit. Then fermented, then literally washed in water to remove the mucilage (a sticky layer of sugary fruit remains on the bean/seed) . Cleaner taste. Commonly floral or tart. Light, tea-esque texture. *Wet-Hulled* = The bean is immediately washed clean of fruit but the mucilage left on during transport to a mill elsewhere for the rest of processing/drying. Typical in wetter, humid growing regions where the drying can't be consistently carried out because of the climate. Sort of a mid-point between Washed and Honey process. *Natural* = the fruit dries out whole before the bean is removed. Tend to be fruitier than a washed bean, still acidic but not so tart. *Honey* = The flesh/pulp of the cherry are removed but called the mucilage is left on the bean/seed to dry out. Tends to be jammy and heavy-bodied, far from acidic. Honey further divides into white, yellow, red or black honey depending on how much of the mucilage is left on during drying (black = 100%, red = >50%, yellow = 50%-25%, white = 20%). The mucilage is loaded with fruity sugars so honey process is often quite sweet and fruity...Hence the jammy quality, which increases in order from white to yellow to red to black. *Anaerobic* = This is technically a qualifier to any of the above processes rather than a process itself. It just means the fermentation+drying occurs in a vacuum without oxygen. Tends to be low-acidity, with intense floral or winey flavors. *Experimental* = A mostly-market term denoting various combinations of the above known processes or testing of different variables (like processing at precise controlled temperatures and such).

@@grabble7605 thank you!

"Psh, you call yourself speciality? I've seen coffee more special than you at the dollar store!" remember folks, please be kind to your coffee beans! they've been through a lot!

It can depend on the type of coffee bean. I do find some denser beans tend to taste a bit grassy even at the point when first crack ends. You can either roast a bit longer in total time, but risk losing some of the flavor, or you can go a slight bit darker, which is what I usually do. There's another possibility which is unevenness between the inside and the outside of the bean, for example it can look darker than it actually is. You can test it by placing a roasted bean on the table, and press with your finger, it should always crack pretty easily regardless of the colour. If it doesn't then it's definitely not ready. You can then check the colour of the cross section. If the inside is lighter than outside, again, not a good sign. But if it passes those test, and yet the beans still taste grassy, or nutty, go a bit longer, some coffee is just more suited for the darker end of a light roast.

I very much second this comment. I've been dabbling into roasting and think I have got the basics down, but since there's so much depending on your setup (like James said) I'd very much like a "this generally produces that" kind of explanation of the phases and times for roasting.

I had never heard of this. The design is so simple, I might give it a go ! Thank you

I don’t know if this is similar at all, but The Wired Gourmet has a video on home roasting that involves a pan on a burner along with a heat gun that sounds potentially similar.

@@aaronboggs5799 Yes, using the heat gun to roast coffee is quite common actually. There's the dog bowl method which is quite messy. If you search for flour sifter coffee roaster on youtube, you will find many examples.

1. When coffee people say "washed" coffee, it usually refers to a method of coffee processing, called "washed process" coffee. For more info here, I'd look up "coffee processing methods" 2. Raw coffee, or green coffee, is unroasted coffee! 3. Decaf coffee beans are specially processed to literally decaffeinate the coffee, using one of several available methods. Hope that's helpful as a starting point!

@@catherineim and so I guess "unwashed" goes for Natural process.

@@LudoHanton Not quite. Washed is perfectly natural but certainly a more modern development and essentially a refinement of coffee bean prep. It's generally considered to produce 'better' (cleaner, fruitier, more defined, less muddy) tasting coffee.

@@edwardchester1 In reference to "washed" and "unwashed" coffee, it seems there was a misunderstanding. "Unwashed" do seem to represent the "Natural" process. Both "washed" and "natural" are natural processing methods for coffee.

Also, I would like to see the different methods for decaffeination.

The best are the old intricately carved hand mills- grind the coffee super fine so no grit can be felt so the best Turkish coffee can be brewed by an old woman wearing a head scarf who will 🔜read the dregs in your upturned coffee cup afterwards 🧿🧿😊

this would be a very interesting experiment.

agreed! I was hoping you'd taste from the cups in front of you - or is that coming in the next video? :)

I made a similar comment.

We have a local coffee shop that roasts their own coffee and the guy that does the roast experimented with a Mexico coffee which is normal roast to a dark and he did a light roast and it is absolutely amazing and imo the way a Mexico should be. Has a cinnamon peanut butter flavor to it. So yes that would be so cool to see.

Different roast profile would be more interesting imo

Ditto!

Yes mate I have purchased a Gene Cafe machine and it's great but more tips will help me...the novice. Having said that I already gave 4 distinctly different batches done.

You wanted more emphasis on beginning of the coffee prodcution chain when this video set out explicitly to cover roasting? Sounds more like an idiotic expectation.

As someone who only drinks water decaffeinated coffee every day, I also want to know.

Cool I'm interested in roasting my own beans. Where did you get your roaster and where do you source raw beans?

piqued. not peaked.

Wake up so we can listen to James to fall asleep!! 😊

He recently made an electric solar powered roaster. It definitely doesn’t cover every one of your questions but it was very cool. Probably from a month ago or so.

nice thought, and thats why i dont believe ini omniroast, since i believe it will not bring the best of the beans

@@danirinaldi1044 Hi Dani, what do you mean when you mention omniroast?

@@Markusableitinger1 omniroast usually mean roast profile that accomodate filter brew and espresso. Somewhat inbetween filter roast and espresso roast

@@danirinaldi1044 Got it. Thanks. Yes, omni roast are sub-optimal.

This! Like beans from different type of roasting machine with same roasting profile.

I've never understood (and still don't) why would anyone like dark or extra dark roasts. You might as well brew a cup of charcoals for a similar results.

❤ a dark roast for the flavour and the marked drop in acidity, not particular about origin but my mother is- Brazilian light to medium for her. We both brew it Turkish style on the stove which requires a super fine mill best achieved by precision perfected hand grinders. Interesting video. Thankyou 😊.

Even a popcorn popper can roast more effectively than an oven

@@TheBswan Effectively sure, but consistency is nailed down already. I've considered it, but I don't want to add another machine to my already crowded kitchen. Same with an airfryer, they seem to be nice but I value kitchen space. I do use the grill from time to time tho, turns out pretty consistent. (Modified rotisserie basket)

Do you think 'charcol heat' is distinct from 'gas heat'? Please tell us what you imagine the difference is.

@@AlexanderNash i mean, the roasting comes from air in contact with the heat source being moved to the beans. changing the heat source changes the makeup of said air. same idea as people grilling using charcoal instead of gas

People do that all the time.

"use a hot air popper and adjust speed/temp to roast coffee" The cheaper small appliance coffee roasters for the home are just hot air poppers refitted to purpose.