A Coffee Lover’s Guide to the Commercial Roasting Process

With as many luxurious flavors of coffee currently offered by the commercial market, you may wonder from time-to-time, how they roast their beans to such magnificent results. Well, the commercial roasting process does differ from how we do it at home so to that end, following is some insight into the experts’ methods.

Several interesting steps take place prior to the commencement of the roasting process starting with unloading green coffee beans into a hopper, cleaning them to remove debris and dirt and then blending and weighing the beans per each facility’s particular specifications.

Additional processes include:

Roasting – Temperature typically ranges between 700 and 1000 degrees Fahrenheit with the completed roasting time varying from 5 to 20 minutes, dependent on the desired hue and flavor outcome.

Quenching – Misting the beans with steam as a cool-off mode to halt the roasting process once the preferred color and strength are achieved.

Cooling – Transferring the beans to an enclosed cooler where ambient air is blown over them as they’re stirred ‘round and ‘round to ensure that all beans are reached. In a case of smaller commercial batches, the beans are actually transferred to an open bin called a ‘cooler car’ instead of the larger-scale, covered version.

Destoning – A more intensive cleaning process to remove any residual debris that may not have been caught during the initial screening process.

Some supplementary processes include a method referred to as the ‘crack’ in which that sound actually does emit from the bean. Cracking usually consists of a ‘first’ and ‘second’ and allows the semi-roasted beans to release some of their unneeded counterparts such as extra moisture and / or skin coverings.

The resulting strength of the beans can be manipulated by taking them either fully or partially through the crack process; the color and texture of the beans will vary during this process as well. An example of these varying outcomes would be what is referred to as the Vienna, or Light French, roast in which the beans reach a darker brown, richly-hued result after being removed during a partial second crack. However, processing the beans in a rapid and full second crack process will produce a bean that is actually caramelized.

So the next time you’re about to very easily brew yourself a cup of coffee with your automatic cappuccino espresso machine, try to remember all of the attention that went into providing you with those perfectly roasted beans leading to that cup of savory satisfaction.

About the Authors

Andréanne Hamel and Luc Cloutier are successful business owners and espresso lovers, providing valuable information for proud home or office espresso machine users as well as for coffee shop and restaurant owners going for an Italian commercial espresso machine. Their many articles offer valuable insight in a fun and entertaining way.