Roasting coffee for research
Coffee geeks love to question and conquer what they already know about coffee. Some of them took the challenging path to uncover new wisdom and started coffee research. That’s where we come into the picture - the ROEST sample roaster became a popular choice of scientific equipment. To find out more, we interviewed our friends roasting on ROEST!
Role of the roaster in research: Sample evaluation
Do you know how to effectively store green coffee to extend its shelf life? We do not - but if you decide to find out, and conduct a research, you will need a sample roaster. A sample roaster is an essential tool for your coffee research and its purpose is to prepare samples for evaluation. Sample preparation is a scientific term used to describe coffee roasting. In order to analyze your coffee samples, the samples need to be roasted.
Despite the manual roasting the ROEST sample roaster offers, it is not important to study the behavior of your roaster after you created your desired profile. Sample roasters need to deliver good quality of each roast (Imagine sample roasting quality as for the Quality Control purposes by SCA ) which can be replicated sample after sample with high accuracy.
“At the beginning of our research we set the Power Profile and were using the same profile for over thousands of green coffee samples throughout the whole period the project (Read more about the project here.) took place (over a year). The roasting was conducted every month, where roasted coffee was evaluated on a cupping table, in the Institute of Heavy Organic Synthesis and in JARS Laboratories,” elaborates Krzysztof Barabosz from the Hard Beans Roastery (on the photo).
Requirements for a roaster
Coffee roasting as a part of the science research cannot be underestimated. Conclusions based on poor roasting quality can be misleading and ruin the whole research. To save yourself a headache, you need a professional sample roaster that is reliable and meets the highest standards:
Krzysztof in his sample roasting routine.
REPEATABILITY, CONSISTENCY & PRECISION
Ask anyone who is conducting a coffee research: “What’s the most important about the sample roaster for your research?” You will get the same answer: consistency.
Roasting samples for research is about having a routine in which all the steps are as consistent as possible. In order to see what has changed when studying one parameter at a time, everything else has to stay stable.
ROEST sample roaster is therefore equipped with up to six temperature sensors with high accuracy. This contributes to delivering consistent results. In combination with First Crack detection, this means you do not need to touch your roaster from start to finish.
When sample roasting, it is important to be able to reproduce the sample whenever you need to. For example, when choosing the coffee that you are making a study on, you need to get to know your coffee sample well. You should be able to prepare/extract the coffee sample you are experimenting with and repeat the extraction process to make the coffee taste the same every time. Roasting your coffee sample, this can get tricky. At the end, when you are tasting your coffee, how can you be sure you managed to get the same roast even though it is coming from the same bag of green coffee? That’s not possible unless you have a reliable sample roaster. Just like Matt Winton said during his Instagram Live session: “It’s so comforting to see that ROEST does exactly what you want it to do.”
“We’ve made a market research and chosen the best available equipment. In terms of Sample Roasting, ROEST seems like the right choice.” ”
EASY TO USE
It would be great having a professional head roaster hired for your research - but that is not how it works. Coffee roasting is not needed on a regular basis during research. Therefore, when looking for the ideal sample roasting equipment it is particularly important to have one that is easy to operate. “I’m not a very skilled roaster, maybe if I would have time, I’d learn more about roasting strategies - but that’s not something I need for research. I’m aiming for replicable roasts with high consistency. It means I want to have as consistent coffee as possible without touching the roaster.”, Samo Smrke, Zurich University of Applied Sciences.
After all, a sample roasting approach for scientific research is mostly technical - drop beans in the roaster, start roasting and let the roaster do the work. Eliminating human interaction means eliminating systematic errors. Once you start to interact with the coffee, you easily introduce mistakes. Samo confirms: “Of course, I would love to play with the coffee - check the beans visually, adjust some parameters to get better tasting coffee, but for scientific research that’s not what we need.”
GATHERING DATA
To keep your roasting process under control, you need data for your reference or analysis. That is another advantage of the ROEST sample roaster - it comes with a web portal where you can store all your roasting data. You can also download it and analyze it as needed. See captions below.
ROEST web portal: Live roast
ROEST web portal: stored roasts
SIZE OF THE SAMPLE
Lastly, the size matters, and not only because avoiding waste is responsible. The ideal sample size is the same as for Quality Control lab routines: 100 g. It is enough for tasting multiple cups without having any leftovers.
Meet the coffee researchers roasting with ROEST!
We asked our researches why they roast with the ROEST and what is their favorite feature about the sample roaster:
1. Francisco Velazquez, COMA Project
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Francisco (on the photo) at the COMA lab.
The team of COMA (coffee, metrics & analytics) is aiming to provide a solution for ageing and decaying coffees prior to roasting. The goal is to bring a new perspective into the steps between harvesting and roasting coffee.
The COMA project developed and validated a biophysical process, in which they recover (to certain extent) cup quality (as measured according to industry standards) without the introduction of any additive. As a part of this research, they have been testing more than 80 different coffee samples with more than 30 different parameters.
Why ROEST for your research:
- As scientists, we are also keen to understand, in a higher detail, all the steps of the roasting process, without spending a large chunk of time in mastering roasting. Thus, ROEST allows a rapid jump-in and walks you through your first roasting.
- We evaluate or process first, based on taste, thus leveraging the right roast for cupping has been challenging. However, ROEST has been extremely helpful since it allows easy monitoring and adaption all by keeping consistency on a remarkably high level.
Favorite feature of ROEST sample roaster:
- The whole setup, being robust and delivering a high sample quality without reducing consistency. Easy cleaning and long-lasting quality of all materials. If necessary, easy repair and access to the roasting chamber. The export function of the data for further analysis is also very helpful.
2. Krzysztof Barabosz
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Krzysztof Barabosz is the Co-Founder of Hard Beans roastery in Poland. The roastery focuses on high quality coffee and they love to spoil their customers with very exclusive lots. Exclusivity often comes with a high price. Wondering how to store the coffee without losing its beauty and the investment, Krzysztof decided to start researching. The research was carried out as part of the project “Industrial research and development work on the development of a technology for storing green coffee beans in the specialty segment, which translates into increased quality control and freshness of the target product”. The project started in 2018 and finished in December 2020. Results will be available soon.
Why ROEST for your research:
- It is a very precise sample roaster, which gathers a lot of important data. It is equipped with an electric heater, which is more reliable and consistent compared to gas burners. While the whole project is based on a very delicate product - green and roasted coffee, which can be easily "destroyed" by improper handling during measurements, we needed to be very careful when choosing the equipment...We've made a market research and chosen the best available equipment. In terms of Sample Roasting, ROEST seems like the right choice.
Favorite feature of ROEST sample roaster:
- The 185 deg. C "beep" informing that the Crack is ahead. When you are in this batch after batch monotony, (continuously repeating the same task), in between measuring the humidity and water activity of each sample, you can easily forget yourself. So, a few times the sound indicator saved the roasted sample!
3. Samo Smrke, University of Science in Zurich
Samo is the Head of Coffee Transformation at Coffee Excellence Centre, Zurich University of Applied Sciences. ROEST sample roaster was used for some of these research topics:
Coffee platform artificial intelligence
Green coffee physical properties and roasting behavior
Linking instrumental measurements to sensory properties
Roasting other material than coffee and studying aroma formation
Various green coffee quality projects
Sneak peak to the lab at the Zurich University. Soon there will be second ROEST sample roaster joining this set up.
Why ROEST for your research and favorite feature:
- The first time I saw ROEST it was on the Roaster Guilt Forum in 2019 and I was fascinated by the high technology, multiple sensors...and we decided to purchase it for our lab in Zurich.
- For our research, the most important is:
roasting consistency, reproducibility and that it’s easy to use.
batch size: 50g is too small for research, 100g is perfect, 200g we often do not need.
Small size of the roaster and portability - it does not need to be installed at the location.
Are you planning on doing coffee research?
Whether you are only thinking about starting a coffee research or are already in the process, get inspired by our friends. We asked them for some advice on conducting a coffee research:
Samo Smrke:
“Follow the scientific experimental approaches, such as for example: The most important approach of research to follow:
whenever studying something, always change only one parameter at the time and see how it affects the outcome.
repeat experiments not only one after another, but also on different days to see if results are the same. If you cannot repeat, find where the error in the experiment is.”
Francesco Valazquez:
“Do not hesitate to perform a systematic experiment, ROEST will help with it.”
Krzysztof Barabosz:
“Be patient and seek questions! Keep your mind open for unexpected results and situations. Don't hesitate to ask others for support - after all the results should serve everyone in the community.”
