The First Ten Minutes

Once the coffee roasting begins, at just 3 minutes, the beans emanate a grassy fragrance. At about 6 minutes, the beans begin to swell and change colors from green to yellow and then gold. At about 9 minutes, the coffee begins to wrinkle and look ruined. It is now that the smell changes to that of toasted wheat. At about 10 minutes, noticeable changes begin to appear in the bean.

First Crack

Around 10-12 minutes, gasses build up in the beans causing them to swell to about double their original size and then rupture. This rupture releases gasses within the bean and can be heard in the roaster kind of like popcorn. The swelling smoothes out the surface of the bean and then it begins to even out in color to a very light brown. This is the lightest roast and is referred to as cinnamon roast. This is the roast that cuppers use to evaluate coffee for certain characteristics and defects.

The Sweet Spot

After 1st crack has finished, the roast begins its next stage of development. This is the point in the roast where the roaster will begin to develop the sugar chain, giving the coffee its character

Second Crack

After about 15 minutes, the color changes to a darker brown. The color and aroma of the coffee begin to change very rapidly. Just as in the first pop, the gasses build up and burst creating a second pop.

The Darker Roasts

After about 17 minutes the coffee beans now look very dark. A little bit more and we finally come to the darkest roasts, the Vienna & French roasts. It is important to note that this has nothing to do with where the beans come from, just how the beans are roasted.

Finishing The Roast

At whatever stage the roaster decides to stop roasting, the beans are poured out onto a cooling tray which stirs the beans to quickly cool them in order to stop the cooking.