Fact 1: Coffee “shrinks”, - loses weight - during roasting, while swelling to twice the bean size.
Fact 2: The longer you roast coffee beans, the darker the colour and the higher the “shrinkage”, e.g…, the more coffee it takes to make a pound.
Fact 3: Our normal shrink is 20%; our dark roast shrinkage goes as high as 25%. Lightly roasted coffees can have shrinkage factors as low as 11%.
Fact 4: Most coffee is under-roasted as a cost cutting measure since true gourmet coffee sales have proven the consumer’s preference for “fully roasted” coffee.
Fact 5: There is an “Optimum degree of roast”, that brings out the maximum flavour characteristics for each coffee. This gives the consumer maximum aroma and a rich, full bodied taste.
Fact 6: Under-roasted coffee has a flat, green, grassy astringent flavour. Over-roasted tastes burned or “caramelized”, and the varietal flavours of the coffee are lost in the dominant taste of the roast.
