1.
Introduction
2. What is roast defect
3. Why roast defect happen
4. How to detect and prevend roast defect
5. QnA session
6. Cupping session
7. Closing session
Introduction
There are a number of different roast defects which can affect the flavour of
your coffee. You might taste the burnt and ashy flavours of scorched coffee,
or maybe even oaty and bread-like notes of baked coffee.
As a roaster, you won’t want these flavours overpowering the hard work
you’ve put into a roast. Identifying these defects by sight and taste will help
you roast to a higher standard and more consistently.
Read on to discover why cupping is so important in roasting, how to identify
defects in cupping, and how to make changes in your roast for that defect.
In this meeting, we discussed the core variables and events involved in the
coffee roasting process (such as charge and drop temperatures, fuel flow, roast
color, turning point, first and second crack, etc.) and the common roast defects
seen in the industry. These roast “defects” include but are not limited to: tipping
and scorching, under/over-development, under-roasted coffee, baked and/or
stalled coffee. We touched on how when all these come about in the roasting
process, what they look like on the roast curve, and how they influence the
coffee cup quality.
WHAT ARE
. BAKED COFFEE
This defect occurs when coffee is heated for too long without reaching first
crack. You may hear this referred to as “stalling” the roast. Unfortunately,
this defect is invisible. It results in a distinctive flat flavour with little
sweetness, often described as bread-like or papery.
Baked coffee is only recognisable by taste. Credit: Angie Molina Ospina
This defect isn’t possible to spot by just sight. Instead, it must be identified
by tasting the coffee after roasting.
It will occur if the beans take too long to reach first crack. This is likely due to
not enough energy in the roast. To avoid baking your coffee, ensure you are
adding enough energy to your roast so the first crack doesn’t occur too late.
This doesn’t mean a slow roast is always a bad thing, of course. As Scott
Rao says, the issue is when the Rate of Rise crashes hard, not gaining
enough heat fast enough. Scott also says that in efforts to decrease the
acidity in a roast, some roasters intentionally bake their coffee.
You can identify a baked defect in cupping. It can taste bready, flat, dull, or
oaty.
Bread and oats: common flavours in baked coffee. Credit: Caryn Smith
Baked coffee beans are difficult to visually distinguish from other roasted coffee
beans. Therefore, you may not suspect the beans are baked until you drink the
coffee. Coffee brewed with baked beans will have a noticeably different taste. It
is described as lifeless with hints of oat and grain. Others describe baked coffee
beans as having papery or bread-like tastes. These beans have lost their flavors,
sugar, and acid during the roasting process.
To understand what causes coffee beans to become baked, roasters need to
look to the Rate of Rise (RoR) measurement. ROR measures “the growth rate of
the bean temperature over time”. In other words, the measure indicates how
quickly the beans’ temperature is changing.
The key is to avoid an RoR that is too low. Lower RoR’s indicate the coffee beans
are taking a longer time to move through the roasting process. When the RoR is
low enough it can lead to stalling – when the temperature is not increasing as it
should to complete the roasting process. A low enough RoR results in coffee
beans roasting longer than they should be (at a lower temperature) before
reaching the first crack.
Basically, to avoid baked coffee beans, roast your beans more quickly at a higher
temperature.
2. UNDERDEVELOPMENT
Underdeveloped beans tend to be “grassy”, lacking the caramelised sugars
that occur in roasting. Sometimes, but not always, this happens when the
roaster has set out to roast light but still needs to adjust their profile a little
more.
Underdeveloped coffee beans. Credit: Angie Molina Ospina
A batch of coffee may come out underdeveloped. First, you may be able to
spot this visually. When cupping underdeveloped coffee you might notice
that the crust is less likely to form .
One reason for this is that there has not been enough caramelisation of
sugars or development of carbon dioxide gases within the roast. This is also
why you might sometimes struggle to form a crust of a light roast coffee.
Theo explains that a solution would be to stretch out the development
time from the first crack to the end of the roast. However, be careful not to
burn off too many sugars in the process.
An underdeveloped coffee can taste green, grassy, hay-like, barn-like, or
pea-like. Theo also advises that you can taste the potential of the bean but
might find that the flavour notes could have been accentuated a lot more.
Wild grass, hay, and peas: common flavours in underdeveloped coffee. Credit:
Caryn Smith
When coffee has a green or grassy taste with low acidity, the roasted beans are
likely underdeveloped. This coffee roasting defect is sometimes easily
identifiable by a lighter outer color.
In other cases, underdeveloped coffee beans can have a dark outer layer. During
the roasting process, the outer layers of coffee beans reach a higher
temperature before the inner layers. This uneven rise in temperature could lead
to a developed (darker) look while the inner part remains underdeveloped
(lighter).
By examining a coffee bean’s inner layers, you can determine if it is
underdeveloped. However, be aware that an underdeveloped coffee bean will
be difficult to crack open.
When trying to achieve a lighter roast, you can end up with underdeveloped
coffee beans. This usually occurs when roasters are overly cautious about over-
roasting their beans. Underdevelopment is also common when roasters are
perfecting their light roast profiles.
Underdeveloped beans in darker roast coffees have a darker outer layer and a
lighter inner layer. This may be the result of uneven roasting temperatures.
Raising roasting temperatures at the right times will help minimize
underdevelopment in darker roasts. This is a skill that can be perfected with
continued practice with your roaster.
3. OVERDEVELOPMENT
The opposite of underdevelopment is overdevelopment. But it’s a fine line
between a darker roast and overdeveloped coffee. In fact, Matt Perger of
Barista Hustle takes the stance that there’s no such thing as
overdevelopment.
Roasting darker than you intended is still an error, however, and it’s one that
a lot of specialty consumers won’t appreciate. The beans will look dark and
oily, sometimes even approaching black. The cup will be burnt and bitter,
with smoky, coal notes.
Dark beans are just one of the issues with this selection.
You should be able to identify a burnt coffee by sight. The beans are likely to
be dark in colour, black, with an oily finish. However, one coffee drinker’s
burnt, could be another drinker’s perfect cup. This is all down to personal
preference.
Burnt coffee will occur when the beans are roasted too far past the first
crack, and the development of the coffee has been overdone. Theo explains
that a burnt coffee has had “all the unique characteristics of the coffee burnt
off”.
One of the best ways to combat the burnt defect is to shorten
the development time , which occurs after the first crack.
The burnt defect might taste like ash, burnt, carbon, or bitter when cupping
or tasting coffee.
Charcoal, ash, and carbon: common flavours in burnt coffee. Credit: Caryn
Smith
Overdeveloped coffee beans will be black and oily and produce a burnt and
bitter-tasting coffee. Some describe the taste as smoky and liken it to ash or
carbon.
Roasting coffee beans too long will lead to overdevelopment. It does not take
much to cross over from a dark roast to overdeveloped beans.
However, there are some who believe that coffee is either developed or
undeveloped. The thought is overdevelopment is an inaccurate term and the
beans are just “darker”.
Others view overdevelopment as an “over-roasting” error and therefore consider
it a coffee roasting defect.
4. QUAKERS
Quakers are unripened beans that are hard to identify during hand sorting
and green bean inspection. They’re often, but not always, caused by poor
soil conditions which limit sugar and starch development. Technically this
isn’t a roast defect, but often you’ll only discover it after roasting.
Quakers will be lighter in colour than the rest of the batch. If they’re not
removed, the taste in the cup will be dry, with papery and cereal notes.
Quakers, baked coffee, and more. Credit: Alvin W. Kim
5. SCORCHING
Scorching happens when the “charge temperature”, which is the initial
temperature, is overly high and the drum speed isn’t fast enough. It’s easy to
recognise. Dark, burnt patches will appear on flat sections of the coffee bean
surface – it’s literally been scorched. These beans will taste oily, smoky, and
even, Ricardo tells me, like roasted poultry.
Several of these beans are scorched.
This defect can sometimes be spotted without tasting. You may notice that
the flat side of the bean is dark or charred. This is caused by the drum being
too hot and moving too slowly.
“There’s not enough momentum to toss the beans about and they sit on the
side of the drum. This results in the one side of the beans becoming
scorched and the other side underdeveloped,” says Theo.
How do you prevent scorching? First, try lowering the charg e temperature ,
which is the temperature that you drop the beans into the drum. Second,
you can increase the speed of the roasting drum to increase momentum. Be
aware to not to increase the drum speed too much. This will result in the
beans being pushed to the sides of the drum, creating the same scorched
defect.
You can expect scorched coffee to taste smoky, burnt, bitter, and ashy,
combined with some green, grassy, and hay notes from the
underdevelopment. These will overpower the other flavours.
Ashy, bitter, and grassy: common flavours in scorched coffee. Credit: Caryn
Smith
Burn marks on the flat surfaces of the coffee beans indicate scorching has
occurred. Coffee made with scorched beans will have an overpowering
smoky/ashy flavor.
Scorching can occur when the beans are placed in a roaster at a higher than
ideal charge temperature. The charge temperature is defined as a roasting
machine’s initial temperature before the beans are added.
Other causes of scorching include a roaster with a slower rotating drum or
loading too many coffee beans to a roasting batch. Overfilling a roaster’s drum
will prevent the movement of beans and decrease the airflow.
Essentially, to prevent scorched coffee, make sure the beans are turning over
easily earlier in the roast cycle. Monitoring the fan speed will help ensure
sufficient bean movement in the roaster.
6. Tipping
This may look similar to scorching, but the main difference is that the burn
marks are on the edges of the beans. Ricardo tells me this normally happens
during the second crack, although some also say that a too-high charge
temperature can also cause it.
Ricardo Villegas of Tecno Café explains the importance of uniformity. Credit:
Angie Molina Ospina
You might recognise this defect through the black markings on the tips of
the beans. This is caused by too much hot air too early on in the roast. The
bean cannot absorb heat fast enough and so cannot transfer the heat
throughout the bean. Instead, the moisture leaves the weakest part of the
bean and burns the bean at that point.
If you’ve found tipping in your roast, either by taste or sight, the solution to
this would be to lower the drop temperature. This means the bean will have
time to absorb the heat more efficiently.
While cupping a roast with a tipped defect, you may taste flavours similar to
scorched coffee, such as smoky, burnt, bitter, or ashy notes. As with the
scorched defect, these flavours will overpower the other flavours.
Burnt, smoky, and bitter: common flavours in tipped coffee. Credit: Caryn Smith
The visual difference between tipping and scorching is the location of the burn
marks. While scorching burn marks are located on the flat surfaces of the bean,
tipping marks, as the name indicates, are at the tips or edges. The taste is
usually similar to that of scorched coffee.
Tipping is a function of the coffee bean’s shape. At high temperatures, the
moisture evaporates from the tips more quickly due to the lower density relative
to other parts of the bean.
Some believe a higher charge temperature causes tipping, similar to scorching.
Others think tipping occurs later in the roasting process – during the second
crack. Conduction or convection? In other words, is tipping a result of a hot drum
or poor air circulation? The answer could be any of the above. The thought is it’s
more about the shape and the inability to withstand the heat at the edges/tips.
QUAKERS ARE IDENTIFIABLE ONLY AFTER THE ROASTING PROCESS.
Quakers are not considered a true coffee roasting defect, but can only be
identified after the roasting process is complete. Before roasting, quakers look
similar to other coffee beans so they are overlooked in the sorting process.
These underripe coffee beans are usually caused by poor soil conditions which
hinder sugar and starch development.
After roasting, quakers will remain lighter in color compared to the other
roasted beans. Take the time to remove any quakers from your roast before you
grind and drink the coffee. If quakers are not removed from the batch, they tend
to add a papery or cereal flavor to the coffee.
HOW CAN YOU DETECT & PREVENT DEFECTS?
Ricardo tells me roasters can use specialist equipment, such as coffee roast
analysers. These won’t prevent defects, but they will help you to measure
consistency in roasting. However, these tools can be pricey.
At Tecnocafé, Ricardo uses a quality control sheet to record the different
physical changes the coffee goes through. He also records the Rate of Rise
(ROR1, ROR2), which indicates the speed of the roast in degrees per minute.
This will help you to understand what is happening to the beans, and from
there how to adjust your roasting to prevent defects.
What’s more, recording this information can help you to find the best profile
for each coffee . As Ricardo tells me, “The roast profile can never be judged
by its colour alone.” Two beans may look the same on the outside, but it’s
how they got to that colour that determines much of the final cup profile.
Making notes on a roast. Credit: Angie Molina Ospina
Roasting is an artform as well as a science. The producer may have
cultivated and processed those beans with passion, precision, and
dedication – but without good roasting, the consumer will never taste that.
Choosing the best profile requires technical know-how and often that
intuition that comes with experience. But recognising common defects is an
important first step. So keep studying, roasting, and learning until you crack
the perfect roast profile.
