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Roasting, Blending and Decaffeination

To help you further understand and appreciate specialty coffees at Oregon Coffee Roaster, here are some excerpts from the book, COFFEE QUALITY by Michael Sivetz, the inventor of the hot-air roasting process.

"The roasting of green coffee beans develops the coffee aromas and flavors. Roasting is the process of heating the coffee beans uniformly, first to remove the moisture (about 12%) then to cause pyrolysis of the sugar in the bean cells, which means that the sugars break down to caramel, water, carbon dioxide, and many aldehydes and ketones which characterize the aroma and taste of fresh coffee.

The roast weight loss is related to bean color and beverage taste, and is often related to the mode of brew preparation and cultural taste. Different coffee beans react differently to the various end temperatures cited. And various green beans have preferred levels of roast for best flavor developments. In the USA, too many firms roast their beans too lightly, because that gives less weight loss (greater yield and profit). Often roast level is determined by the coffee buyer-taster who is used to evaluating green coffee beans at light roasts. The end result of such light roasts can be a very acid, astringent, harsh-tasting beverage which does not have optimum flavor development. It is a wasted coffee sold to the public.

Few people realize that the manner of roasting has a great deal of influence on the taste of the final roasted beans. For example, rotary steel cylinder roasters, which are traditional in the trade; e.g., Probat in Europe, due to their high operating temperatures (over 800o F) cause scorching of the beans, oil release that can coat all the beans, and smoke from burning chaff that fumigates the beans, giving them a harsh, biting, and (in dark roast) a burnt taste which is "dirty." The use of Melitta filter paper, for example, helps remove some of this bitey taste. It is far better not to scorch or burn the beans or lay a tar coat on the bean. In order to avoid this scorching and non-uniform roasting of coffee beans, Mike Sivetz developed, in 1975, a fluid bed "once-thru-air" coffee bean roasting machine that produces a clean "tar-free" non-biting, smooth tasting beverage.

Further, the Sivetz fluid bed roaster, with thermal bean sensor, is the only roaster that can measure true bean temperature, because the probe is in a stationary box containing the fluid bed of beans. This accuracy cannot be directly achieved by rotary cylinder machines due to the pure mechanical difficulty of probing a moving mass. You are truly receiving the best possible product available in the market today."*

The Sivetz hot-air roaster allows each bean to develop its naturally distinctive flavor without the smoke and tar contamination that occurs in many roasters. You will gain confidence as your customers try new coffees and note the subtle differences, especially when they keep returning to you for more!

about arabica

Arabica is a different plant species than the more common robusta coffee.

roasting the bean

The manner of roasting has a great deal of influence on the taste of the final roasted beans.

brewing the cup

98% of a cup of coffee is water, so it makes sense that the quality of water used will affect the taste.

Blending beans

OCR combines many varieties of coffees into a wide selection of blends. While green coffee beans can be blended before roasting, we believe the best flavor comes from roasting each component bean to its peak flavor then blending the roasted coffee for an unlimited variety of tastes. Each blend is measured carefully so you get the same great taste order after order. Private blends are available with an "exclusive--for your business only". No one else will know or be able to purchase your blend. Let us know if we can develop a custom blend for you.

After careful screening of the artificial and natural flavors available, OCR selects those with the best taste and aroma to create an infinite number of standard and custom flavored coffees. Over 100 flavors are currently available in regular, decaffeinated, naturally decaffeinated, half caffeine, and organic.

Decaffeination

Have you ever wondered how the caffeine is removed from your daily "cuppa"? There are several methods available on the market, each with their own advantages. In our opinion, some are much better than others. Regardless of which method is used, there is a cost in subjecting the coffee to additional processing so often a slightly lower grade of coffee is used for cost containment. For this reason, you won't often find Kona or other higher cost coffees decaffeinated. Read on to find out more about each method.

Traditional Decaffeination Process

The original method of removing caffeine from starts with green (unroasted) coffee beans. The beans are either soaked in hot water or steamed to release the caffeine into the water. This takes several passes over a ten hour period. In the first batch, many of the flavor compounds in the beans are removed with the caffeine. This flavor-laden water is then used on further batches. Being charged with flavor, the water removes little if any flavor from successive batches. The caffeine is captured by treating the water with methylene chloride or ethyl acetate. Ethyl acetate can be found naturally in some plant materials but is often produced synthetically to keep costs down. Regardless of which solvent is used, the resulting coffee has only a trace amount or none at all after processing. Any trace is further removed during roasting and brewing as confirmed by a Federal lab. This method results in a good-tasting coffee that is 97% - 99.9% caffeine-free.

Mountain Water Natural Decaffeination Process

This new chemical-free method of decaffeinating coffee was developed and takes place in Chiapas Mexico. In order to extract the caffeine, green (unroasted) coffee beans are immersed in clear, pure water that flows from the mountain Citlaltepetl into the valley. Citlaltepetl comes from the words "star mountain" in the original language. Mount Citlaltepetl is the highest mountain in Mexico and the third highest in North America.

Caffeine is a naturally occurring chemical that easily infuses into water. During this infusion process, elements of flavor from the coffee beans are also released into the water. To separate the caffeine from the other compounds, the water passes through a special filter which removes the caffeine and produces a "flavor charged" water. This water is used again in the extraction process of the following batches. With the caffeine removed but flavor components fully saturating the water, the next batch of coffee releases it's caffeine into the water but retains nearly it's full flavor.

The resulting coffee beans are 99.9% caffeine-free, flavorful and ready for drying. After returning them to their previous 11% moisture content, they are bagged and ready for export. This method not only produces a flavorful bean, free of caffeine but with limited use of water, is also ecologically friendly.

Swiss Water Natural Decaffeination Process

Developed by the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company in the 1930's, the SWP method is the most widely known "non-chemical" method in use. Though pioneered in Switzerland, the plant is now in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. This method is often chosen for decaffeinating organic coffees because no chemicals are used in treating the water or the coffee beans.

As with other methods, the green coffee beans are soaked in hot water to release the caffeine. In the first batch, many of the flavor compounds are also lost to the water so the first batch is discarded and the flavor charged water is used on successive batches. This minimizes flavor loss in those batches while still effectively removing the caffeine. After soaking, the caffeine laden water is put through a proprietary carbon filtration system. The caffeine-free water is re-used on additional batches of coffee and re-filtered for each one. After decaffeinating, the coffee beans are restored to their original moisture content, bagged and exported.

The Swiss Water method of decaffeinating coffee is favored for it's lack of chemicals but is also the most expensive method.

Have you ever wondered what becomes of the caffeine that's removed from the coffee? What's removed from coffee, tea and chocolate through decaffeination is added to soda. With the advent of "power" drinks and super-charged sodas, the demand for caffeine by soda manufacturers is higher than ever.

(*Used with permission, excerpts from Coffee Quality by Michael Sivetz, 1987, pp 35 & 36, Sivetz Coffee Inc., 349 SW 4^th Street, Corvallis, OR 97330)