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Basic Principles
Full City Roast
American Roast
Misperceptions

Coffee roasting is an art and a science. Like the best chefs, master coffee roasters apply years of experience, thorough knowledge of the ingredients (green coffee beans!) and fully developed senses of taste and smell to bring out the full potential locked in each coffee bean. Roasters working with small batches and maximum control over the roasting process produce the finest coffee.
BASIC PRINCIPLES The basic principles of roasting are: to heat the beans at the proper temperature, to keep them moving so that they don't burn or roast unevenly and to cool them at just the right moment to stop the roasting process. This relatively simple process produces profound changes in the coffee. Moisture vaporizes, starches convert to sugar and sugars caramelize. Green coffee loses 15-20% of its weight during the roasting process. Depending on the hardness of the bean, the size of the batch and the roast desired, most roasts take from ten to twenty minutes. However no simple roasting formula can be routinely followed if the best possible coffee is desired. Like wine grapes, the characteristics of coffee differ according to the region in which they are grown and vary from harvest to harvest. Artisan roasters must consider bean size, hardness, moisture content and other variables to determine the optimum combination of time and temperature for each roast.
FULL CITY ROAST All Aurora coffee (except our dark French Roast) is roasted to what is known as a "full city roast". The goal of this style of roasting is to bring the beans to just the point at which the oil in the bean, coffeol, rises to the surface. Coffeol is the fragrant, volatile substance that readily dissolves in water. It is also the heart of coffee's flavor. To bring it to the surface, the deep bound moisture must be forced out of the bean. This is the crucial moment of the roast. A distinct crackling sound is heard and the roaster must then begin close observation of the color, smell and taste of the bean so that she can stop the roast at just the right time. All of this occurs in the last several minutes of the roast. An error of seconds may mean the difference between the perfect cup and a burnt coffee.
AMERICAN ROAST Medium, or "American" roasts result when the process is stopped after the coffeol has begun to develop but before it rises to the surface. These light roasted coffees tend to exhibit less body and more acidity than full city roasts. People who grew up on grocery store coffee will recognize this profile. Some large corporate roasters tend to stop the roasts early in order to avoid the weight loss that occurs as the coffee loses moisture. The coffee never has a chance to develop its full flavor potential. On the other hand, if the roast is taken too far, the smoky, charred flavor tends to mute the other subtle taste characteristics of the coffee. The precision and care taken by our roasters ensure that we maintain that fine line between under roasted and over roasted beans.
A COMMON MISPERCEPTION A common misperception about coffee roasting is that darker roasts taste more bitter than lighter roasts. Quite the opposite is true. Roasting mellows the flavor of coffee. If a dark roasted coffee tastes bitter it is due to the quality fo the bean itself and not the roast. Darker roasts also, suprisingly, have less caffeine. The difference may not be noticeable, but the longer coffee is roasted, the more caffeine goes up in smoke.