First, the roaster drops the green beans into a drum filled with hot air, causing the temperature inside the drum to drop. Then the roaster heats the beans until the water in the beans begins to steam, making the beans swell and audibly pop. The heat causes complex polysaccharides to break down into starches and then sugars, which caramelize. Aromatic oils within the beans boil to the surface, giving them an oily appearance. The expansion of oils causes a second audible "crack". Along the way, the beans darken from their original green to a rich chestnut brown. The longer the beans are roasted, the darker they become.
Roastmaster, Michael Calbrese roast all our coffees by hand using a century-old method, adjusting and monitoring the temperature at every step of the roasting process. It
can take up to 18 minutes to roast coffee the Kobrick way. Our longer roast curve allows us to coax the flavor out of every bean. The result? An uncompromising smoothness and rich flavor that are unique to Kobricks coffee.
Roasts
can be described as light (City), medium (Vienna), dark (French) and darkest
(Italian).* Despite the current vogue for dark roast, they are not necessarily better. Some single origins are better suited to a light or medium roast.
Kobricks uses two types of roasting equipment to create its different flavor profiles. For many of its coffees, Kobricks uses a Jabez Burns American roaster (4 bagger, 600lbs. capacity), which evenly develop the beans and bring out the sweet, mellow flavor of the coffee. For its even smaller batches, Kobricks uses American made Diedrich roasters (24K, 5-50lbs. charge) to manually control the roasting curve and bring the coffee to the height of its flavor.
Just as we use different roasters and roasting styles to achieve different flavor profiles, we have to approach coffee from each of the coffee-producing nations differently in order to fully bring out its character. Differing growing conditions cause each country's coffees to roast and taste differently. Even coffee from the same country can be different depending on bean variety, elevation,
finca, crop year, individual lot and the length of time since harvest. This is also why we continually taste all of our coffees to ensures we are producing consistent, high-quality coffee that is among the best in the world.
The most significant points of the roasts are:
Roasting is a fine art, requiring a delicate hand, split-second timing and an ability to judge when the coffee bean is at its peak of flavor. Unlike many other coffee companies, Kobricks hand-roasts all its coffees.
Turn-Around
