James Hoffmann explains coffee roasting - Page 2

#11: Post by **marcism** » June 13th, 2023, 2:57 pm

Almico wrote:Nice vid. Explains quite a lot for the interested coffee drinker.

He did irritate my favorite pet peeve when he stated that the specialty coffee industry tends to roast light to preserve "origin flavors"...like Costa Rica has a particular flavor?

...

I just realised I've never thought about that, but I fully agree!

#12: Post by **rmongiovi** » June 13th, 2023, 4:04 pm

Almico wrote:He did irritate my favorite pet peeve when he stated that the specialty coffee industry tends to roast light to preserve "origin flavors"...like Costa Rica has a particular flavor?

it's called "terroir." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir

#13: Post by **mgrayson** » June 13th, 2023, 4:18 pm

I've always interpreted "origin" to apply to the greens themselves. Different roasts preserve or hide the flavors inherent in the unroasted beans.

#14: Post by **coyote-1** » June 13th, 2023, 4:22 pm

Soil and other environmental factors do affect flavor. And not just with coffee. Wines in particular display this. A cabernet sourced from grapes grown in middle Italy tastes different than one sourced in Bordeaux. As I can taste those differences in wine, I imagine there are folks who can taste the differences in coffee.

I'm now looking forward to Hames Joffman's take on roasting

#15: Post by **Chert** » June 13th, 2023, 7:39 pm

Chert wrote:What roasters were featured? Probat , Loring and IMF? I did not recognize the forced air machine.

I found on the roasters website that the glorified popper is the New Zealand built Hot Air Roaster, A.R.T. III. Never heard of it before, have ya'll seen one?

#16: Post by **lancealot** » June 13th, 2023, 10:53 pm

Almico wrote:He did irritate my favorite pet peeve when he stated that the specialty coffee industry tends to roast light to preserve "origin flavors"...like Costa Rica has a particular flavor?

Growing and harvesting methods impart flavors, processing imparts flavors, elevations and weather can impart flavors and most of all variety impart flavors. But geography...not so much.

He explains that he considers origin characteristics as "Where you grow coffee, the soil type, altitude, climate, even how you process it after harvesting"

It's right there from 2:22 - 2:49

#17: Post by **LBIespresso** » June 14th, 2023, 10:09 am

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/th ... rn-france/

I am with Almico on this one. Even so, this article is yet another reason to question the motives of those that benefit from the made-in label or terrior.

#18: Post by **Almico** » June 14th, 2023, 10:28 am

lancealot wrote:He explains that he considers origin characteristics as "Where you grow coffee, the soil type, altitude, climate, even how you process it after harvesting"

It's right there from 2:22 - 2:49

I get it. It's just that the use of word "origin" is misleading. By definition, it means a point or a place where something comes from.

Most coffee-selling websites organize their offerings by country of origin. So it's no surprise that if you ask most coffee drinkers the origin of the coffee they are drinking, if they know at all, they will tell you the country where it came from, not the the variety(ies) that comprise it or the farm that produced it. And worse, many assume that all coffee from that country tastes basically the same. It's a self-induced marketing dilemma from left over from the early days of the second wave.

#19: Post by **rmongiovi** » June 14th, 2023, 12:07 pm

Is anyone saying that the coffee variety isn't important? That just seems like a different issue than the place where it is grown. Don't you need both?

It seems a little unobservant to me to believe that where the coffee is grown has no impact on its flavor. I'm not sure I'd go so far as the whole "terroir" thing (which the wine growers have certainly embraced). But anyone who has bought a crop product year after year knows, some years are good and some are not so good but there's no denying that what the crop experiences as it grows has an impact. The jump from there to "the location has an impact on the coffee's flavor" doesn't seem so far to me.

I'm not so sure my palate is refined enough to detect a consistent difference between a particular varietal grown in location X from that same varietal grown in location Y especially given year-to-year variations. But I think I've experienced enough that I won't deny that possibility out of hand.

#20: Post by **Marcelnl** » June 14th, 2023, 12:45 pm

if coffee is like wine, and I have no reason to believe it is very different in this respect, I'd also say that variety is more important over location.

A merlot red is always the same but there are nuances, and sometimes a vinyard can make something out of it that wows me...often for a merlot sometimes in an absolute way.

Pity that type/variety of green is hardly ever mentioned until you start digging deeper, much deeper. I'm with Alan on this I guess..