Copyright

© 2015 by Rob Hoos

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced
or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of
the publisher except for the use of brief quotations.
Written and Researched in Portland, OR
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN Number: 978-0-692-41770-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015906973
Rob Hoos
http://hoos.coffee
rob@hoos.coffee
DEDICATION
To Laura and Abigail: The loves of my life, two women who make every day
a joy.
To John and Meribeth Hoos: My parents who are the reason I am the person I
am.
To Kevin Hoos: My brother who I respect and admire more than I can tell him
(I don’t want it to go to his head).
To William Schaefer: An intensely close friend who has been with me
through thick and thin, and who was a sounding board to me throughout this
process.
To Zach Lemmon: One of my oldest friends, without whom I may have never
gotten into coffee.
To Augusto Carvahlo Dias Carneiro, for not only bringing me to Portland, but
for encouraging me during the course of my writing of the book. He is
basically the best boss ever.
Photo by Connie Blumhardt
WHY THIS IS WORTH A READ
To be honest, nothing makes me as uncomfortable as telling people about
myself, especially when the purpose of disclosing that information is to
impress them. That being said, seeing as I am neither famous, nor infamous;
nor do I work for a national or internationally known coffee roaster, I will
divulge a few reasons regarding my experiences, thoughts, and opinions that
may be beneficial.

As a consultant:
I specialize in flavor profile matching, especially when switching
roasting equipment manufacturers.
To my credit, I have been able to apply theories discussed in this
handbook to match flavors so closely that the roasting teams I have
worked with haven’t been able to differentiate between the coffees
they roasted, and the coffees I roasted. (On different roaster
manufacturers as well).
I have successfully worked with a wide variety of clientele from
both the “second and third wave” in coffee. Some of which are
household names, and others are well known regionally.
I am very involved with the Specialty Coffee Association of America
(SCAA) and the Roaster’s Guild of America (RG), specifically in
industry education:
Instructor Development Program Certificate Holder
Specialized Lead Instructor for Roasting Certificate Holder
Subject Matter Expert on Roasting for SCAA/RG
Member of the Roaster’s Guild Certificate Committee
Content contributor and developer for Roaster’s Guild Level 2
courses at the SCAA Leadership Summit
Instructor for Roaster’s Guild Level 1 Certificate Program in
Beijing, China.
Certificate Holder Roaster’s Guild Level 1 & 2
Lead Instructor and Station Instructor for the Specialty Coffee
Association of America
I have a wide range of experience within the coffee industry:
Barista
Barista trainer
Production / Packaging
Green Buyer
 Lead Educator
Production Roaster
Lead Roaster
Director of Coffee
Independent Consultant
I am a professional within the coffee industry:
Currently I am the Director of Coffee for Nossa Familia Coffee in
Portland, OR.
In the last 3 years, I have logged over 7,500 production roasts alone.
If they average 12 mins. per roast, then that is 1,500 hours of my
life, or 62.5 days (not counting sample roasting, profile
development, and roasting for fun)
I’ve been interested in coffee since 2001
I’ve been working in coffee since 2006
I’ve been roasting coffee since 2009

Anyhow, I hope that is enough about me. Bottom line for me is not related to
my credentials; rather to my experience that everyone that I know who has
applied these basic approaches to modulating the flavor profile of their coffee
have reported back to me that it works. Friends and colleagues of mine who
are also professional roasters buy in, and that is enough to keep me from
thinking that I am either insane, an egomaniac, or a fool.

SOMETHING I MUST NOTE:

In this handbook, I provide a lot of linkage with what sort of science I believe
to be going on during roasting that causes the changes in my experience of the
flavor profile. These are, to a certain extent, my opinions. I am not a scientist
by trade. I do not (unfortunately) have a gas chromatograph or a mass
spectrometer at my house, or in my lab at work. The truth is, whatever science
I state has come to me through a lot of reading, thinking, and drawing of
logical conclusions (though I think it to be reasonable and well thought out). I
am looking , forward to testing these items out and plan to adjust my opinion
along the way.

This project started before I moved to Portland in late 2011.

It is ongoing…
Please read the book in order the first time, it will help you understand things
better.
OPENING
One of the things that got me interested in coffee in the first place was an
intense fascination with the multitude of possibilities and nuanced
dissimilarities in the flavor profiles of coffee. During my time as a barista, I
had learned how I could modulate those flavors within the coffee through
altering the extraction. Part of what helped me understand how to do this was
the vast amount of information on the Internet and bookshelf about that role
and the effects of different extraction parameters on the final taste of the cup.
When I started working as a coffee roaster, a whole new world opened up to
me. As I excitedly dove into roasting, thinking that here I would be able to
take control of the flavor profile of coffee to the next level, I quickly realized
that I was diving into a sort of vacuum. The roasting community seemed
much less accessible to me as a beginner (and as a roaster in the Midwest). I
assumed that people had the information I sought (essentially, how to change
the way that coffee tasted by changing the roast profile) and that, for whatever
reason,
I was simply unable to access it. So I decided to purchase my own 1-kilo
roaster and began to figure out how to modulate the flavor profile by altering
my roast profile. I read every book, website and scientific article I could get
my hands on, and then began to develop theories based on all of my
experiences roasting and cupping up to that moment. I then began to use basic
means of scientific method: experimentation, control of variables,
observation, and repetition
My propensity for reading, experimentation, and became more involved in the
specialty coffee industry. Through working with various coffee industry
groups (SCAA, Roaster’s Guild, etc.) and consulting, I came to realize that
the void in information about modulating flavor through profile manipulation
was not imagined, nor were people just “holding out” on me. For the most
part, it seems as if no one had (or has) presented information most relevant to
the end goal of cup quality/characteristics. It is into this void that I hope to
shout with this manifesto.
I have been as precise, objective and analytical as I can be with my current
equipment. Readers should be able to take my experiments and reproduce
them to test my theories and paradigms. I have been working with this
approach for the past three years and have found it to be true regardless of
roaster manufacturer, batch size, origin, altitude, etc. I hope that these
standards can help you as much as they have helped me. Additionally, with
something as complex as coffee, I recognize that the nuance, and thus the
conversation, is never over. That is why I will be hosting a blog and ongoing
discussion concerning the ideas I have presented in this handbook
(http://www.hoos.coffee/blog) Ideally, this will help the community of
professional and home coffee roasters continue to advance our understanding
of our passion and profession.
A MANIFESTO
Manifesto: “a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or
motives, as‘ one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization.”1
I appreciate the definition of a manifesto. I have always been a person who
desires to be completely direct and up-front. For that reason, as I begin the
writing of this manifesto, this presentation of my beliefs and opinions about
coffee roasting, I have decided to just lay everything out on the line. Below
are the honest reasons why I am writing this handbook:

1. This handbook is meant to document, and clarify through the act of

writing, exactly how I currently understand and approach coffee
roasting, especially with respect to the flavor development of coffee
during roasting (and how changing the profile can affect the flavor of the
coffee).
2. Coffee is my passion, hobby, and profession. When it comes right down
to it, I am taking the time to put all of this into writing because coffee is
something that I am intensely passionate about and in which I am
heavily involved.
3. I worked a long time to develop this specific approach to coffee roasting
and flavor development and would like to contribution to the industry.
4. Finally, I am hoping that after reading this, some of you will approach
me and ask me for some help in the form of consulting. I do not have a
big name or a reputation in the industry. That is okay, but in order to do
the work I really enjoy, I have to put myself out there like this.

I have chosen to write this handbook more informally. I have some internal
conflict over the style I should use to present this information because my
greatest desire is to present an incredible, bullet-proof scientific article/
book. However, between work, consulting, and family life, “ain’t nobody got
time for that.” Although I am employing the scientific method to the best of
my ability in the experimentation and observation that has led me to the
conclusions I hold so dear, due to time and resources I am not able to
compose the formal scientific paper that I plan to write in the future
(hopefully with the help of someone with access to a mad-scientist lab). This
publication then, is a preamble to the larger, professional, robustly scientific
publication that will come at a later date. In addition, this publication will
work to bring my ideas on coffee flavor development to people in a way that
may be easier to apply to their day-to-day work.
This handbook is a manifesto because I hope to do a few things with it. I hope
to challenge the status quo within the coffee industry that treats the act of
coffee roasting as an art form, lacks expectations for consistency, and treats
the creation of flavor compounds within coffee as some sort of black magic.
Additionally, I want to present my perspective on coffee roasting, flavor
development, and consistency. The act of writing is an invitation for the
reader to enter my brain, and I am sorry for the mess.

1 manifesto. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged.

Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/manifesto
(accessed: October 17, 2014)
A CHANGE IN PARADIGM
In defining the unique aspects of my approach to coffee roasting, I am
outlining a philosophy or paradigm more than anything else. My philosophy
begins with the idea that coffee roasting is a definable, understandable process
for which a unified theory can be created. This is not to say that every specific
detail that plays a part in coffee flavor development can be perfectly predicted
and understood. Rather, there exist trends of flavor development common to
all coffees and by understanding these trends, informed and intelligent
decisions can be made. As Oregon roaster and inventor Michael Sivetz stated
in Coffee Technology, “Although green coffees vary in chemical and physical
properties, the chemical and physical changes they undergo during roasting
are similar even though they vary in degree.”2 Thus, the bulk of my time and
effort has focused on learning how to appropriately deconstruct the roast
curve and understand its components, and then — through application of
scientific method — manipulate the roast curve to produce the desired
changes to the flavor of the coffee.
There are a number of points of the roasting curve that I find to be incredibly
important — specifically for coffee flavor development — including the
following:

The pre-roast considerations (ambient temperature, humidity, etc.)

Beginning of the roast to time and temperature of the beginning of
chemical reaction (i.e. color change and the beginning of the Maillard
reaction)
The duration of the Maillard reaction until the beginning of first crack
The duration of the time between the beginning of first crack and the end
of the roast
The degree of sugar caramelization (represented as an end temperature
off the thermocouple reading bean mass, Agtron color, or other color
measurement)
The role that thermodynamic pressure plays in the development of
flavors in coffee

There are other crucial points that I monitor, but they do not contribute
specifically to flavor development during roasting (though they contribute to
my ability to meet the profile). Although those points lay outside of the scope
of this publication, they are important to the actual act of roasting and could
be covered through independent consulting or by attending SCAA courses on
roasting.

For much of the rest of this publication I will be breaking down and
explaining the significance of the deconstructed sections of the roast profile.
Please note that these sections are broken down based on their occurrence in
the chronology of the roast curve, and not based on level of flavor
contribution in roasting.

2 Michael Sivetz, Coffee Technology

(Westport, Connecticut: The AVI Publishing Company INC, 1979), 249

THE IMPORTANCE OF
SOURCING APPROPRIATE
GREEN COFFEE
“The intrinsic potential flavors lie within the bean; the mechanisms of
roasting can only bring out what is there An oak log will still smell of oak
volatiles; and a hickory log will still smell of hickory volatiles.”3
I won’t go on much about green coffee because it isn’t the point of the
handbook, but sourcing great coffee is crucial. Or perhaps I should say,
sourcing coffee that meets your company’s goals and roasting program is of
great importance. If there is anything I have learned about roasting coffee, and
intentionally manipulating the flavor profile of the coffee through adjusting
the roast profile, I am left with the absolute impression that you cannot find
something that isn’t there. Though Sivetz says it perfectly in the above quote,
let me provide one more analogy. I like to think of a coffee like a color (let’s
say blue). You can only do so much to a coffee by manipulating a roast. You
can turn that blue into a teal, or a navy blue, or even a purple, but it will never
be orange. You will never make it better or substantially different than its
potential, but you can make it worse than its potential. If you wanted orange,
you should have sourced coffee that was red, yellow or orange. Source what
you want, and always make sure you are treating everyone in the supply chain
(including the Earth) with respect.

3 Michael Sivetz, Coffee Technology, 257

CHARGING TOWARD THE
BEGINNING OF CHEMICAL
REACTION
The first consideration roasters must make when I approaching the beginning
of the roast is considering the charge temperature and charge weight of the
batch they will be loading into the roaster. Charge temperature indicates the
initial heat value of the drum as read by the return air (exhaust air) probe on
the roaster. This is not a precise measurement of the total temperature, simply
an approximation of the temperature of the air after it has passed through the
roasting drum (ideally, indicating the heat of the air after either depositing
heat into or being heated by the metal in the roasting drum). One will need to
modify the charge temperature up or down for the following reasons: batch
size, batch number of the day, anticipated residual heat in the roasting system,
and desired heat application in the roast.
Typically, a smaller charge weight will call for a lower charge temperature,
and heavier weight will call for a higher temperature. Usually, the greater the
batch number for the day, the lower the required charge temperature (because
of thermal retention). Additionally, if you just roasted a dark roast coffee, you
will likely need a lower charge temperature for the following batch because of
higher heat retention in the system. Depending on the roast profile of the
coffee you are trying to roast (especially compared with the power output of
your roaster), you may need a higher / lower charge temperature in order to
achieve the necessary rate of rise (or modify your batch size slightly). The
bottom line is, charge temperature and charge weight will help the roaster
establish the initial thermal momentum of the roasting environment.
Another important indicator is your turn-around point. The turn-around point
is a piece of roast data that, while not a precise measurement, gives the roaster
a grasp of what is happening with the rate of heat transfer early in the roast.
In a roast profile, the turn-around point represents the bean probe’s rate of
rise hitting zero after sharply dropping for the first minute or so (results will
vary based on thermocouple type, thickness, and placement). At the
beginning of the roast, the bean probe is heated roughly to the environmental
temperature of the drum. When you add the room-temperature beans into the
roaster (i.e. charge the roaster), the bean probe readout begins to drop sharply.
At the same time (though we cannot see it in any readouts), the bean
temperature is sharply rising from room temperature to meet the
thermocouple as it declines. The turn-around point is the measurement of
when and at what temperature the beans rise in temperature equalizes with the
thermocouple’s declining temperature, after which the two rise together
(called “turn- around,” “equilibrium,” or “delta point”). The timing of the
turn-around can help you understand the momentum of the roast long before
getting a true Rate of Rise (RoR) from the bean temperature thermocouple. If
the turn-around happens earlier than planned, you are entering the roast with
more thermal momentum than you may have expected and should lower your
heat application. This can also be true if the thermocouple temperature reads
abnormally high. If the turn-around happens significantly later than it should,
then you are probably lacking in thermal momentum and should use slightly
higher than normal heat application. Similarly, if the temperature for turn-
around is lower than normal, it may behoove you to use greater heat
application in order to meet the planned profile.
Though charge weight/ temperature and turn-around time/ temperature do not
directly cause flavor development in the roast specifically, they significantly
affect the rest of the roast. These factors do not have to be held in total
constant in order to match a roast profile or match flavor development; rather,
the craft and skill of the roaster manipulates them to maintain heat application
in the early stages of the roast.
After charging the roaster with beans, the thermocouple drops rapidly in
temperature until equalizing with the constant rise of the bean temp at a bean
temperature probe RoR of 0 degrees Fahrenheit. The readout then begins to
rise right along with the average surface temperature of the bean mass (and
air), as free moisture begins to be driven off the bean. For lack of better
terminology, I often refer to this as the drying phase. There are no real
significant chemical reactions happening; rather, water vapor is being driven
off, pressure is beginning to build and the thermal momentum of the batch is
being established. As enough moisture is driven off the bean, chemical
reactions can begin and color changes (specifically pale green/white to
yellow) become visible on the surface of the coffee bean. This color change is
one of the first critical points of measurement. Note the temperature at which
the bean becomes yellow in your roaster and try to use that thermocouple
measurement to standardize your notations. Noting the time and temperature
of the beginning of chemical reaction is absolutely critical to understanding
development and helping to replicate that roast at a later time.

Quick notes about this segment of the roast:

The “drying phase,” for lack of a better term, begins at the charge of the
roast and ends at the critical point noted as the beginning of chemical
reaction. This point is noted as the beginning of color change to yellow
and adoption of hay-like aroma. This signals the beginning of the
Maillard reaction and the measurement of our next critical segment.
Matching time from charge through drying to this point with other
batches of this coffee at this curve will help develop consistent thermal
energy for chemical reaction phases and make your job as the roaster
operator much easier.
If you know through experience that this coffee does not develop roast
defects if it is allowed to “dry” (i.e. drive off free moisture) until this
point (x amount of time allows for proper drying without causing roast
defects), then it will help to safeguard against negative flavor
contributors like scorching and tipping.
Tipping is caused by excessively rapid heat application; scorching
is caused by too high of a drum surface temperature during the
charge of the roast. It causes a toasty, grainy, burnt flavor.
Facing is another defect, in which coffee that has already gone
through color change is scorched. It may happen due to drum speed
(centrifugal force), drum overloading, or too high a rate of
conductive heat transfer. Facing causes burnt and char like
characteristics in the cup.
If the time from the charging of the roast to the beginning of chemical
reaction is too short, then the development of roasting defects like
scorching and tipping are more likely.
In addition, a shortened time frame will result in unevenly driven
off moisture, creating the potential for some inconsistencies in the
development of the flavors in the coffee.
If this time is too fast, then you may have too much energy within
the roasting system and will experience a “runaway” curve that
does not enable you to meet future goal times and temperatures for
your roast curve.
Consequently, if the time from the charging of the roast to the beginning
of chemical reaction is too long, it could result in a lack of pressure
within the bean during chemical reactions, which will result in deficient
flavor development in the coffee (i.e. a flat coffee).
An elongated drying time could result in a lack of thermal V momentum
in the roaster and make it impossible for you to achieve a solid match for
the rest of the roast curve you have planned.
Take care during the drying time, as you are not only trying to avoid
certain flavor defects stemming from roasting defects (tipping,
scorching), you are also trying to set yourself up for success later in the
roast.
This first notation (beginning of chemical reaction) along the path of the roast
curve is not directly a control point to cause the development of positive
flavors; rather, it is a control point to help aid in the avoidance of negative
flavor contributions. Additionally, since this helps to further establish thermal
momentum in the roasting system, it indirectly causes the development of
certain other flavor contributors based on the fluctuations in the later roast
curve caused during this time. It is critical to understand your roasting system
well through a little trial and error (or expert advice) in order to determine
optimum charge temperatures, turn-around points and overall heat application
to achieve ideal results for the “drying phase” of roasting. The number of
variables for each unique situation are too great for me to cover; in this
volume.
MAILLARD REACTION
“A remarkable scheme of the Maillard reactions has been proposed by Hoge
(1953, 1967) who gives clear information on the mechanisms of this non-
enzymatic browning reaction. Nursten (1981) proposed a classification system
of the Maillard reaction products: (i) ‘simple’ sugar
dehydration/fragmentation products (furans, pyrones, cyclopentenes,
carbonyl compounds, acids); (ii) ‘simple’ amino-acid degradation products
(aldehydes, sulfur compounds); (iii) volatiles produced by further interactions
(pyrroles, pyridines, imidazoles, pyrazines, oxazoles, thiazoles, compounds
from aldol condensations).”4
The Maillard reaction is one of the most chemically complex reactions that
occurs during coffee roasting. It more than doubles the number of volatile
aromatic compounds present in the coffee compared to the initial volatile
aromatic compounds in green coffee as well as produces a number of critical
intermediate and final products. This chemical reaction begins early in the
roast as amino acids act as catalysts with reducing sugars, resulting in a
complex non-enzymatic sugar- browning process. As expressed by Andrea
Illy and Rinantonio Viani, “Water and carbon dioxide are generated by the
very important Maillard reaction, which leads to the coloured products, the
melanoidins, and to the main part of the organic volatiles.”5 These continue to
change, react, change, and react, creating a number of intermediate products
as well as different chemical compounds. For our purposes we will be
considering the beginning of color change to yellow to indicate the beginning
of the Maillard reaction. This chemical reaction will continue until it either
runs out of compounds with which to react, or is ended by the drop of the
roast into the cooling tray (though it will continue until the coffee is decently
cooled; this is one of the reasons why it is super important to have an
effective cooling tray).
Though this reaction continues until the end of the roast, it is not productive
for us to measure it, since we are concerned about a number of different roast
phases. Thus, we will be measuring it from the beginning of color change to
the beginning of first crack. Taking into account the vast array of volatile
aromatic compounds created during this stage, in my mind some of the more
important compounds that are created are the melanoidins. There has been
research into the “…flavor binding, color, texture, and antioxidant properties
of melanoidins and investigation of the physiological effects and fate of
melanoidins (COST, 2002).”6 In my opinion, the greatest contributions have
to do with flavor, and texture (think body). As the Maillard reaction
continues, it generates more and more melanoidins, which continue to
modulate the complexity and perceived body of the coffee (they have a high
molecular weight, which correlates with higher viscosity and thus thicker
mouth-feel). By lengthening the roast during this phase, you can increase the
perception of complexity and body (and modulate the way we perceive the
flavors). By decreasing the time that the Maillard reaction is permitted to
occur, you can decrease the body and improve the clarity of the coffee.

Quick notes about this segment (I call MAI) of the roast:

The measurement of this segment of the Maillard Reaction begins at the
initial color change point noted above.
This measurement ends when you can tell that the bulk of the coffee in
the roaster is beginning to enter first crack (the audible demonstration of
sugar caramelization).
The duration of the Maillard reaction is significant because this reaction
will continue to occur until either the roast is ended or it runs out of
reactants.
The Maillard Reaction is caused by amino acids acting as catalysts with
reducing sugars, this chemical reaction continues to produce
intermediate products, which it then reacts with to produce other
intermediate products.
This chemical reaction is likely responsible for well over 600
volatile organic compounds within the finished product.
In addition, this reaction continuously produces melanoidins. These
high-molecular-weight browning products contribute flavor,
body/texture, color, bonding and complexity to the coffee.
Specifically to our experiments, they greatly modulate the
experience of the body of the coffee.
If you increase the amount of time that the Maillard reaction is allowed
to occur, you increase the complexity of the sugar browning tones you
are creating in addition to the weight/texture/mouth-feel.
Ex. Brown sugar turns to maple syrup turns to honey/ vanilla turns
to molasses
Though the specifics are different with every coffee (i.e. some just will
never have a honey-like tone or a vanilla bean in the finish), this
modulation of flavor holds true with all coffees.
When considering how to modulate this part of the roast curve, you
should consider what you taste in the cup, and then think about the
human experience of taste. Ask what a heavier mouth-feel would do to
this coffee, or what greater complexity could add or subtract from the
 experience you are trying to craft. Also, consider how the heavier mouth-
feel (viscosity) and the increased complexity affect the clarity of the
beverage.

In disclosing some detail about how I arrived at my conclusions, I would like

to share some of my cupping scores for a variety of experimental coffees in
order to help the reader understand the potential effects of altering the
Maillard time. In these experiments, I will talk about the differences made in
the following coffees: a Brazilian Micro-lot, a Mexican Organic, a SHG
Guatemalan, and an Ethiopian Kochere. All of these cuppings were done
blind in our cupping lab at Nossa Familia Coffee in Portland, Oregon. For
these particular experiments, I held the drying time, development time, and
final temperature as constant as I could (aiming for less than 10 second
deviations) and manipulated only the time spent ‘ in the Maillard-to-first-
crack (MAI) phase. In the body score, I am listing the qualitative (horizontal)
score first (6-10) and following that with an intensity score (1-5).

Brazil
Body σ from
Micro- Notes
Score Baseline
lot
Honeyed with clove, ginger, and cinnamon, cherry
Baseline 8 | 3 0:00
flesh.
Cherry, with a seed-like savory spice, pie cherries
Fast 7.5 |
-0:10 and graham cracker, floral, chocolate, slight merlot
MAI 2
grape, brown sugar, significantly less body.
Plum, seed like, sweet, herbaceous spices, drinking
Slow 8.5 |
+0:39 chocolate, dark cherries, floral and fragrant, merlot
MAI 3
grape with heavy body.
Brazilian Micro-lot: In this experiment(my first), I tried to hold all things
constant with the exception of my time between color change and the
beginning of first crack. Though I was almost completely successful, I had
one roast that fell out of specification, yet helped to highlight the points I am
making here. Considering baseline time as 0:00 for Maillard reaction, the
faster Maillard reaction varied by -0:10, and the slower Maillard reaction by
+0:39 (the out-of-spec-for-development- time experiment was +0:35). With
the baseline roast, I noticed the following: decent body (qualitatively an 8 on
SCAA form) with a 3 for intensity of body. Descriptors I used for this coffee
included chocolate, honeyed, clove, tea-like, notes of cherry flesh and
cinnamon spices, balanced. The faster time for Maillard reaction was a 7.5
qualitatively and a 2 with regard to intensity. Descriptors I used for this coffee
were cherry, soft floral, seed-like, graham cracker, very light-bodied.
Meanwhile, my scores for the longer Maillard reaction were an 8.5, and a 3
with regard to intensity. Descriptors I used were plum, herby spices, drinking
chocolate, dark cherry, heavy-bodied. Finally, since it is relevant to this
discussion, the accidental modulation of the “out of spec” roast resulted in a
7.5 qualitative analysis, and a 4 with regard to the intensity of the body.
Descriptors used were chocolate, honeyed, and candied plum. There was also
a note about the heaviness of the body. There seems to be a clear trend in this
coffee to the modulation of a heavier body (and in this particular case, a more
pleasing qualitative analysis) with the increase in duration of the Maillard
reaction. Additionally, there is a change in the descriptors moving toward
“heavier” and more complex taste descriptors.
Organic Body σ from
Notes
Mexican Score Baseline
7.5 | Sweet, caramel, rich red berries, floral,
Baseline 0:00
3.5 graham cracker, red apple.
7.5 | Sweet nut, perfumed floral, spice, molasses,
Fast MAI -0:08
4.5 chocolate, green grape to apple.
Sweet, chocolate, brown sugar, fruit, warming
Slow MAI 8 | 5 +0:26
spice in aftertaste.

The Mexican Organic coffee displayed encouragingly similar results despite

differences in variety, altitude, processing method and microclimate. The
baseline once again is represented by 0:00. This time, the faster reaction is
represented by -0:08, and the longer reaction time by +0:26. The baseline
roast of this coffee scored as follows: 7.5 qualitative, and 3.5 with regard to
intensity. Descriptors used on this coffee include sweet caramel, rich red
berries, floral, graham cracker, and red apple. The faster of the reactions
scored the following: 7.5 qualitative with a 4.5 intensity. Though this doesn’t
match with the proposed effects, the rest of the data would make this out to be
an erroneous score (I am only human). Also, the variance is under 0:10,
which is part of the reason I developed a 0:10 consistency standard. (I have
trouble tasting variance if it is within 10 seconds, so when production roasting
I only consider variances of less than 0:10 to be on target). The descriptors
used for this one include sweet nut, perfumed, floral, spice, green grape to
apple. The longer Maillard reaction yielded an 8 on the body with an intensity
of 5. Cupping notes for this coffee included sweet chocolate, brown sugar,
fruit. Notice that once again we have not only a shift in the intensity toward
heavier body as we progress through a longer Maillard reaction pre-first
crack, but there is also a shift in the descriptors toward weightier and more
complex flavors.

Thirdly (and fourthly) is the experimentation with the SHG Guatemalan. Let’s
deal with the first round, and then we will move over to the second. During
the first round, baseline was 0:00, faster reaction was -0:29, and longer
reaction was +0:23. Please note I cupped this coffee 7 times, and this is a
representation of the average scores for these coffees. Baseline scored 7.75,
with a 2.75 intensity. Cupping notes for the coffee included sweet, citric,
peach, floral, vanilla, white tea, raw sugar, baking spice. The faster Maillard
scored a 7 and an intensity of 2.5. Cupping notes for this coffee included dull,
sweet, bland, floral, peach-like, spices, seed-like, caramel. The longer
Maillard reaction scored 7.625, and 3.5 with regards to intensity. Cupping
notes used to describe this coffee included floral, vanilla, peach, baking
spices, baked peaches, cinnamon, honeyed, chocolaty, tobacco, peach pie,
mulled spices, coriander seed. In this example we see again a trend toward
increase in intensity of the body, alteration of qualitative scores, and a
modulation of descriptors from simple to complex, and from light to heavy.

SHG
Body σ from
Guatemalan Notes
Score Baseline
A
7.75 | Sweet, citric, peach flesh, vanilla, White tea,
Baseline 0:00
2.75 floral, lime, molasses.
7 | Sweet nut, perfumed floral, spice, molasses,
Fast MAI -0:29
2.5 chocolate, green grape to apple.
Fruity, floral, vanilla, peach, baking spices,
7.625 vanilla, cinnamon, honeyed, chocolate,
Slow MAI +0:23
| 3.5 tobacco, heavy, darker peach tones, mulled
spices, molasses, baked peaches.

SHG
Body σ from
Guatemalan Notes
Score Baseline
B
7.75 | Peach pie, tea-like floral tones, pie spices,
Baseline 0:00
2.75 molasses and honey (hints of caramel).
Fast MAI 7 | -0:29 Peach preserves, cherry, hints of floral,
2.5 cinnamon, clove, herbaceous spices, caramel
chocolate, syrupy.
Fruity peach (ripe), tea like, heavy floral
7.625
Slow MAI +0:23 tones, slight seed like and tea like characters,
| 3.5
honey like sweetness, very syrupy.

The second set of experiments with the SHG Guatemalan resulted as follows.
Baseline 0:00, faster reaction was -0:03, longer reaction was +0:41. Baseline
scored 8.5 with regard to quality and a 3.5 with regard to intensity.
Descriptors included peach pie, tea-like floral, molasses, honey and caramel,
floral tones. The faster Maillard reaction time scored an 8 for qualitative and a
4 for intensity. Similar to the experiment with the Mexican, we have what
appears to be an outlier, but the differentiation is minimal and can be
accounted for by the slightly longer length in development time. The tasting
notes for this roast were peach preserves, hint of cherry, floral, cinnamon,
clove, chocolate, molasses. The scores for the longer Maillard reaction time
were an 8 qualitative and a 2.5 for intensity. This is an outlier in the true sense
of the word. I can theorize as to its presence, but I am better off just admitting
the flaws in my cupping and indicate to the reader that, despite this outlier, I
still fully believe in the aforestated trending and utilize it to this day. Tasting
notes of this roast were fruited, ripe peach, tea-like, heavy floral, honey and
graham cracker, syrupy. There seems to be a slightly similar trend to the
descriptors despite the variation in the cupping scores.

Kochere - Body σ from

Notes
Ethiopian Score Baseline
7.5 | Floral, white tea, honey, citrus, lemon, berry,
Baseline 0:00
2 vanilla, butterscotch, bergamot.
8 | Lemon, floral, vanilla, slight seed-like character,
Fast MAI -0:11
3.5 cinnamon, orange, orange rind, floral, bergamot.
Chocolate, floral, nut, citrus blossom, malt,
Slow MAI 8 | 3 +0:54 sweet lemon meringue, berries, lemon bar,
caramel, vanilla.

Kochere -
Ethiopian Body σ from Notes
(2) Score Baseline

7.5 | Floral, white tea, honey, citrus, lemon, berry,

Baseline 0:00
4.5 vanilla, butterscotch, bergamot.
Lemon, floral, vanilla, slight seed-like
7.5 |
Fast MAI -0:11 character, cinnamon, orange, orange rind,
2
floral, bergamot.
Chocolate, floral, nut, citrus blossom, malt,
7.5 |
Slow MAI +0:54 sweet lemon meringue, berries, lemon bar,
3
caramel, vanilla.

Finally, my experiments with the Ethiopian Kochere. This one provides us

with a particularly rich glance into the development occurring in the Maillard
reaction from beginning of color change to the beginning of first crack
because in addition to the dedicated experimental data, I have data from a
number of production runs with slight variations in Maillard reaction length.
We’ll begin with the experiment, and then I will branch out into discussing
the other sets of data. Baseline 0:00, faster development -0:11, and slower
development +0z54. Baseline scores a qualitative 7.5 (7.5 second cupping)
with a quantitative 2 (4.5 second cupping).

The cupping notes for this roast are floral, white tea, honey, citrus, lemon,
vanilla, butterscotch, and bergamot. For the faster reaction time, the coffee
scored 8 (7.5) and a 3.5 (2) for intensity. Cupping notes for this coffee were
lemon, floral, vanilla, seed, baking spice, orange rind. Finally, the longer
Maillard reaction development scored an 8 (7.5) for quality and a 3 (3) for
intensity. The tasting notes for this expression of the coffee were chocolate,
floral, nut, citrus blossom, malt, sweet lemon, lemon meringue, caramel, and
vanilla. As with the other coffees, you can see a clear progression in terms of
complexity, and weight of flavors as well as a trend within the scoring.

With the Kochere specifically, I logged a number of intentional variances in

our production roasts. By pairing these with cupping notes reflecting not the
SCAA form interpretation but the flavor modulation, we can see a clear
picture beginning to develop. In this extensive listing of Maillard times with
regard to the baseline, a trend in flavor descriptors becomes apparent. Flavor
moves from less structured toward complex, and from lighter in weight/body
to heavier.
Time Relative to Baseline Flavor Profile
-1:12 Cane sugar, honey, vanilla
-1:05 Honey-like
-0:59 Sweet honey, vanilla
-0:51 Caramel, molasses, a lot of vanilla, buttery
-0:49 Wild honey, vanilla, syrupy
-0:44 Cane sugar, honey, vanilla
-0:40 Cocoa nibs, honey, Wild honey
-0:36 Cane sugar, agave nectar, buttery, vanilla bean
-0:25 Caramel, vanilla bean
-0:16 Cinnamon, butter, vanilla, baking spices
0:00 Honey-like, vanilla, butterscotch
+0:48 Chocolate
+0:53 Chocolate, malt, caramel, vanilla bean

At its core, this chart demonstrates the basis of my understanding of the role
of the Maillard reaction in the roasting of coffee. It increased the complexity
of chemical composition and the perception of body, resulting in the
appropriate modulation of the perceived flavor for the coffee drinker. In other
words, you could intentionally give a coffee a tea-like structure, or a caramel-
like mouth-feel, or give it a heavy, buttery body all by modulating the length
of time the Maillard reaction is permitted to generate melanoidins.

Even so, there is no silver bullet here. Each coffee has within it a slightly
different chemical composition that will cause it to have different flavors and
potential for flavors. But in the end, they all will trend in the way I have
suggested. As a roaster, you have a great amount of control in how you will
present the coffees (what you are accentuating and what you are
downplaying), but you only have so much latitude. In order to land on certain
flavor profiles, you must be diligent and deliberate in your sourcing strategies
and then use these roasting strategies to draw out that potential.
4 Ivon Flament, Coffee Flavor Chemistry
(West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, LTD, 2002), 39
5 Andrea Illy and Rinantonio Viani, Ed.,

Espresso Coffee: The Science of Quality Second Edition

(San Diego, California: Elsevier Academic Press, 2013), 192
6 Illy and Viani Espresso Coffee: The Science of Quality Second Edition, 204
DEVELOPMENT TIME
Next we arrive at a point in the roast where the majority of coffee roasters
will feel a little more at home. Unlike other segments of the roasting curve I
have previously enumerated, this phase has a common name and designated
start point. Development time is set to begin at the beginning of first crack,
and measures the length of the roast to the drop (where coffee exits the
roasting chamber and enters the cooling tray). There are also a series of
conventions people hold about development time, but they are currently not
universal within the coffee industry.
To begin with, development time is actually very complex. It is not simply
one set of chemical reactions occurring; rather, it is a multi-dimensional
interaction between many separate chemical reactions that are not only
happening on their own, but also interplaying with one another. During this
stretch of time, the Maillard reaction is continuing and is now reacting
somewhat differently, since it is coming into contact with different new
compounds that are being generated by - other chemical reactions. Sugar
caramelization, organic acid degradation, Strecker degradation, and pyrolysis
are all occurring simultaneously with the ongoing Maillard reaction and
causing a number of different changes in the chemistry and flavor profile of
the coffee. We will spend time in this section focusing on the significant
aspects of the roast that affect flavor development during this stage.
Sucrose begins to undergo caramelization (at different temperatures
depending on the speed at which it is heated), forming water vapor and
carbon dioxide leading up to and continuing during first crack. Then, there is
enough pressure in the bean that we experience first mechanical crack. This is
where the structure of the bean fractures and begins to expand, leading to the
rapid off-gassing of reaction byproducts. Caramelization, which we will
spend much more time talking about in the next section, converts sucrose into
caramel, and replaces the sweetness of the sugar with a bitter and complex
flavor. Sugar caramelization is also important in that the degenerating sucrose
forms acetic and formic acids, among other byproducts. Joseph Rivera states:
“Depending on actual roasting conditions, acetic acid concentrations can
increase up to 25 times its initial green bean concentration. Overall acetic acid
concentrations reach a maximum at light to medium roasts, then quickly
dissipate as roasting progresses due to its volatile nature.”7
During this phase, we have the degradation of organic acids being quite
noticeable, specifically those in the chlorogenic acid group (CGAs) as well as
the loss of citric and malic acids. All of these are present in the green coffee
and begin to break down to form other organic acids as they decompose.
Quinic and caffeic acids would be great examples of acids generated due to
CGA breakdown. Likewise, the citric and malic acids present in the green
coffee are decomposed and partially form other organic acids like citraconic
acid for citric, and fumaric and maleic acids for malic. CGAs are responsible
for a lot of the bitterness in coffee stemming from the organic acid content.
Citric and malic acids tend to be more pleasant. Thus, the trick is to
sufficiently decompose the CGAs while retaining as much citric and malic
acids as you prefer for your light, acidic, enzymatic coffees. Phosphoric acid
levels tend to stay about the same during the roast (in other words, you have
to use sourcing to control it). As noted above, acetic acid is formed through
sucrose caramelization, peaks, and then begins to decline. The real trick to
timing the length of development time for a particular coffee is to understand
the balance of organic acids you want to taste in the cup, and modulate the
length of development time to achieve that flavor. Develop too rapidly and
you will have excess CGAS remaining and experience bitter and metallic
acidic compounds; roast for too long, and the acidity will be muted or less
perceptible to your palate (or even become unpleasant).
Those more expert on organic chemistry than myself suggest the following:
“A great number of acids is generated by Maillard reaction or
caramelization. The most prominent are formic and acetic acids. ”8
“The predominant acids are chlorogenic, acetic, and citric.”9
“In brewed coffees, the acidity is largely due to homologous organic acids of
vinegar, namely acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, valeric acid, etc, the
latter of which have strong and distinctive tastes.”10
The final thing I’ll mention happening during this stage is pyrolysis, or the
thermal decomposition of compounds into their more basic compounds (and
eventually carbon) without the presence of oxygen. This reaction begins
shortly after first crack and continues until the end of the roast. Pyrolysis
could be a contributor to what some consider to be a “roast” flavor if it
becomes too far out of balance with other compounds in the final product.
As we can see, there is a lot going on during this phase of the roast. This is
perhaps Why the development phase has been, to this point, one of the areas
of greatest focus and scrutiny by most people in the roasting community.
When this segment of the roast has been modified, the reactions I feel make
the greatest impact on my tasting coffees have been the organic acids and the
volatile compounds formed by the Maillard reaction. Though sugar
caramelization and pyrolysis are also occurring during this segment of the
roast, I will specifically focus on them in the next chapter of this handbook.
In order to demonstrate my findings, I will amalgamate information from my
cupping trials of the same coffees listed in the Maillard reaction section. Once
again, the acidity scores represent SCAA cupping form scores (6-10) and the
second number represents the experience of intensity of the acidity (1-5).
Acidity σ from
Brazil Micro-lot Notes
Score Baseline
Honeyed with clove, ginger, and
Baseline 8.5 | 3 0:00
cinnamon, cherry flesh.
Chocolate, Concord grape, floral,
sweet, tangy, strong acidity (citric?)
Fast Development 7.5 | 5 -0:57
honey, musk melon, grape to candied
plum spice.
Honey, plum, seed-like, molasses,
6.5 | melon to grape, slightly tart, lighter in
Slow Development +1:03
1.5 body with heavy chocolate tones. Low
acid.
With my initial experiments in the exploration of the different segments of the
roast curve, I was encouraged by the trends I was seeing and their logical
nature. I was able to significantly vary the development time of the coffee
and taste that variation in the cup. With the fast development, I was able to
increase the speed of the time in “development” and reach the terminal
temperature 57 seconds sooner than I did with the baseline roast. The result
was a more intense experience of acidity with a lower qualitative score. With
this particular roast, I did accidentally vary the length of MAI time +0z35.
This contributes to the chocolate notes and candied plum (increased
complexity and experience of body over the baseline significantly). With the
slow development time, I was able to match roasts and vary only the length
of time in “development” phase. This resulted in a significantly lower
experience of the acidic intensity of the coffee, and a much lower qualitative
score. Here we see the overall flavor profile of the coffee moving from a
lighter, more tannic and bitter acidity to a sweeter and more rounded
experience, and finally to an almost nonexistent experience of acidity.
Acidity σ from
Organic Mexican Notes
Score Baseline
Sweet, caramel, rich red berries,
Baseline 8 | 4 0:00
floral, graham cracker, red apple.
Ginger, cinnamon, apple-white pear,
Fast Development 7 | 4 -0:35 soft, nutty, slightly vegetal.

Sweet, spicy, berry-like fruit to red

Slow Development 6.75 | 3 +0:19 apple, mulled cider, slightly heavier
body.

We see similar results with the second experiment. I was exceptionally

fortunate to keep the roasts for these experiments almost completely on track.
The other segments of the roast (outside of development time, which I was
intentionally modifying) were within 0:10 of baseline, and the amount I was
able to cause the development time to deviate Was significant. We see (with
regard to actual score) a similar intensity score between the baseline and the
fast development time; however, we also see a significant variation in the
qualitative score of the one with faster development.

Accompanying this lower score, we also see the presence of vegetal tones. I
would conjecture that these vegetative tones could be linked to excess
chlorogenic acids (CGAs) remaining in the coffee. When comparing the
baseline to the slower development time, we see a significant decrease in the
intensity of the acidic composition, as well as a lower qualitative score. The
liveliness of the acidity is diminished as well. In this experiment, we see the
manipulation of development time causing a modulation in the experience of
the acidity from intense to less intense, from lower in quality to higher in
quality, and then sinking off once again, and a modulation of the composition
of the organic acids from vegetal and bitter to balanced, to diminished.

SHG
Acidity σ from
Guatemalan Notes
Score Baseline
A
Sweet, citric, peach flesh, vanilla, white tea,
Baseline 8.5 | 4 0:00
floral, lime, molasses.
Cocoa nibs, floral, sweet, candied peaches,
Fast 8.25 |
-0:11 lime, citrus, seed like, lemon-lime, brown
Development 3.75
sugar.
Slow Sweet, tobacco floral, raisin, baked peaches,
6.25 | 3 +0:23
Development maple, vanilla, butter, canned peaches.

With the first experiment with the SHG Guatemalan coffee, I was able to keep
the development time experiments within 0:10 for all other segments of the
roast, and varied it by more than 0:10 (though only slightly with one of the
coffees) with the development time. With the faster development time, I was
barely faster than the development time for baseline. The baseline’s peach
and citric tones take on a slightly more bittering characteristic and change to
lime, or lemon-lime-like acidity with candied peach. In extending the
development time, the citrus tones fade into the background and more
complexity and tones associated with body come out. The citric tones fade,
and peach flesh becomes baked peaches, the tea floral becomes more tobacco-
like, etc. This is a great example of how a roaster can shift the development
time to modulate the flavor of the coffee in small and nuanced ways.

SHG
Acidity σ from
Guatemalan Notes
Score Baseline
B
Peach pie, tea-like floral tones, pie spices,
Baseline 8.5 | 4 0:00
molasses and honey (hints of caramel).
Bright citrus, lime-peach, dried peach to
Fast
8 | 4 -0:43 mango like acidity, tea-like, seed-like,
Development
honey, graham cracker, sweet, floral, peach.
Slow Cooked peaches, chocolate and brown
7 | 3 +0:12
Development sugar, sweet syrup, sweet, slightly flat.

Between the baseline and the faster development time, the difference is quite
significant, but the experience of intensity and quality is not that different.
However, it continues to illustrate a similar point when you begin to look at
the flavor descriptors. The faster development time has a greater experience
of citric acid (and even a slightly bitter citric acid with the lime), the stone
fruit or peach even shifts to allow the cupper to experience mango. With the
longer development time, we notice a more expected outcome with regard to
the qualitative and intensity score. They are both lower in score than the
baseline. Once again we see a shift from bitter to sweet citric, to more
balanced and sweet acidic compounds, and eventually to their decline. There
is a shift in the experience of depth and complexity of tones as the
development time lengthens and the Maillard reaction continues to do its
thing.

Kochere - σ from
Acidity Score Notes
Ethiopian Baseline
Floral, white tea, honey, citrus,
Baseline 8.5 | 4 0:00 lemon, berry, vanilla,
butterscotch, bergamot.
Sweet, citrus, slight sweet corn,
Fast Development 7 | 3.5 -0:48 cocoa nibs, lemon cake, lemon
blossom, wild honey, orange.
Lemon, chocolate, earthen,
Slow Development 6.5 | 4 +0:46 coriander seeds, flat, dull, slight
vegetal.

Kochere - σ from
Acidity Score Notes
Ethiopian (2) Baseline
Floral, white tea, honey, citrus,
Baseline 7.5 | 3.5 0:00 lemon, berry, vanilla,
butterscotch, bergamot.
Sweet, citrus, slight sweet corn,
Fast Development 7.5 | 4.5 -0:48 cocoa nibs, lemon cake, lemon
blossom, wild honey, orange.
Lemon, chocolate, earthen,
Slow Development 7 | 3 +0:46 coriander seeds, flat, dull, slight
vegetal.

The final dedicated experiment was with the Ethiopian Kochere. Represented
above are two different cupping scores on the coffee. In the first cupping, we
see another round of successful roasts for the experiment (matching other
times within 0:10, and varying development time by at least 0:10). The
baseline compared with the faster development time shows either a decline or
a similarity with regard to qualitative evaluation, and (at least in the second
cupping) a significant increase in the intensity of the experience of the acidity.
There is also a shift from the more straight-forward lemon and berry in the
baseline to a heavier citrus (and potentially a more bitter citrus experience)
with the shift toward orange. The floral tea- like and bergamot characteristic
devolve into a more simplistic blossom. When comparing the baseline with
the slower development, we see coriander seeds take over for the floral tones
as “fragrant” tones dominate, and many of the interesting notes from the
coffee begin to soften and dull. This, once again, confirms the suspected trend
we are noticing with flavor development during the modulation of
“development” time.
Finally, as with the segment on Maillard reaction, I want to compare roast
data on the Ethiopian Kochere that I conducted by slightly varying our
production roasts.

Time Relative to
Flavor Profile
Baseline
-0:48 Seed-like, corn, orange, lemon, honey, citrus, musty.
-0:13 Orange, tangerine, bitterness, hibiscus floral.
-0:09 Orange, floral, tea-like.
Bergamot, seed-like, lavender, floral, lemon, orange,
-0:05
seed, orange rind.
-0:02 Lime, lemon, bergamot, tea-like.
-0:01 Citrus, lemon, blossom, tea-like.
Lemon, Meyer lemon, honeysuckle, Earl Grey tea,
0:00
bergamot, floral.
+0:02 Lemon, hibiscus, bergamot, tea-like.
+0:03 Sweet lemon, bergamot, lavender, floral.
+0:46 Seed-like, lemon, slight lemon, soft, earthiness.

Basically speaking, we can see that there is a correlative effect between the
length of the development time and the perception of the organic acids present
in the coffee. CGAs tend to cause bitterness and, in my opinion, the
slightly underdeveloped coffees tend to have more bittering present. Ivon
Flament says, “In summary, the conclusions were that chlorogenic acid
contributed to body and astringency …”11 (This note about body could be
linked to the idea that some of the CGAs end up entangled in melanoidins.12).
The experience of bitterness due to low development time can go from
metallic bitter/vegetal bitter, to a pleasing bitterness (like from an orange or
grapefruit rind think tannins) with more development, then a better balance of
acids such as citric, malic, acetic, etc. - thus giving some sweet tones to the
acidity in the coffee, which go from sour to sweeter before eventually
beginning to dull as you approach a deeper development. The longer you go
with development time, the lower the concentrations of organic acids and the
more soft and round the experience of acidity and fruit. An overly fast
development time will tend to yield bitterness from the organic acid balance
(whether metallic or vegetal) and the overdeveloped will soften or neutralize
the experience of organic acids present in the cup, dulling the “liveliness of
the coffee.” In my opinion, the interplay of degrading CGAs, citric and malic
acids with the developing acetic represent the greatest bulk of organic acid
contribution to flavor.

With regard to Maillard reaction byproducts during this phase, we can see the
transition from lack of floral tones (or more aggressive, less-structured floral
tones) to more structured and softened tones. As a general rule of thumb, the
longer the Maillard reaction is allowed to continue, the more complexity and
texture (with regard to mouth-feel) one could expect from a coffee. This tends
to be true whether it is reacting within the MAI Time (Color Change to First
Crack) or the development times.

Quick notes about the time from the beginning of first crack
and the end of the roast:
This is a really complex matter for the following reasons:
The Maillard reaction is continuing and is now reacting differently
as it comes in contact with new reactants being produced by sucrose
caramelization, organic acid degradation and pyrolysis. For our
purposes, this is why we break the Maillard reaction into pre-first
crack and post-first crack. Additionally, in my experiment / observe
/ record / repeat approach, I am unable to independently modulate
the Maillard reaction’s activities post-first without altering the other
chemical reactions mentioned.
As noted, sucrose (the primary sugar in coffee) is undergoing
caramelization. As caramelization occurs, the sugar breakdown
creates complexity and bitter/ complex caramel compounds as well
as volatile organic compounds.
Organic acid degradation is occurring as well, with chlorogenic acid
groups breaking down and forming other organic acids (acetic,
quinic, etc.), citric and malic acid degrading, etc. The length of time
from the beginning of first crack to the end of the roast will have a
lot to do with the final organic acid composition of the coffee’s
flavor profile.
Pyrolysis is also occurring during this stage of the roast. This is the
thermal breakdown of chemical compounds into their simplest
forms due to heating. Eventually what pyrolysis means is the
breakdown of all compounds into carbon and volatile residues. As
heat continues to decompose everything, the coffee continues to
evolve.
It is really difficult to wrap all of that information up into a nice, neat
little ball to tell someone what the adjusting of the development time of a
 coffee will do to overall flavor. In my experience, the two most
significant adjustments to the flavor profile of a coffee come from the
organic acid composition, and the complexity caused by the Maillard
reaction interacting with these new reactants and intermediate products.
In general, the way organic acids tend to shift is as follows (with
relation to “development time”):
Bitter
Bitter and vegetal
Bitter and citric/malic/other more pleasant acids
Bitter and citric/malic/other more pleasant acids and sour
Citric/malic/other more pleasant acids, and sweet and sour
Citric/malic/other more pleasant acids and sweet
Sweet
Dull
Bland
An example of this shift is as follows:
Bitter, unpleasant copper coin taste, strongly acidic but
disconnected
Bitter, unpleasant, slight hint of something vegetal (hops)
Citrus rind (like grapefruit rind)
Grapefruit or lime-like
Meyer lemon with a hint of rind
Meyer lemon
Lemon shake-up (if you’ve never had one, you should try it)
Sweet, more toward melon
Low to no acidity
The way that the Maillard reaction influences this is by modulating
the complexity of the beverage:
Introduction of more floral or fragrant tones to the coffee. The
suggestion would be that a longer development time should
accentuate these nuanced floral/fragrant/seed-like tones.
Conversely, a faster development time should hinder the ability
of the Maillard reaction to create complexity within this flavor
range and provide ‘ an even greater accentuation to the acidity/
fruit tones. However, at a certain point, the acidity will be
disconnected from our experience with flavor because of the
one-dimensional nature of an overly fast development time.
This could result in bitter, vegetal tones or the experience of
metallic tones associated with the acidity.

7 Rivera, Joseph. “Acetic Acid.” CoffeeChemistry.com.

Accessed December 22, 2014.
http://www.coffeechemistry.com/acids/acetic-acid.html
8 Illy and Viani, Espresso Coffee: The Science of Quality Second Edition, 197

9 Sivetz, Coffee Technology, 252

10 Michael Sivetz, A Critique on the Causes and Decline of: Coffee Quality
(Sivetz, 1996), 68
11 Flament, Coffee Flavor Chemistry, 37

12 Illy and Viani, Espresso Coffee: The Science of Quality Second Edition,

195
DEGREE OF
CARAMELIZATION-PYROLYSIS
Part of the development time of the roast (the ending, to be precise, but
meriting its own section here) includes the choice of degree of caramelization
to which one would choose to roast. Essentially we are asking the question,
“How much of the sucrose should we take to the point of caramelization as
the heat travels inward in the seed?” The degree of caramelization in the
coffee seed seems to be connected heavily to the final temperature to which
you are roasting. I say this because, through much tasting, sweetness seems
preserved with some long and drawn-out development times, but seems easy
to cover up or degrade with higher-end temperatures and at different rates of
development times. In other words, the sweetness, level of
caramelization/pyrolysis is disconnected to a great degree from the length of
“development time.” Therefore, we will be treating terminal temperature as
its own particular beast.

Coffee contains primarily sucrose with regard to the makeup of its sugar
content. How much of that sucrose do you intend to caramelize, and how
much of it do you plan to retain as residual sugars, which help give coffee
natural sweetness? If the bean temperature does not reach high enough, there
remains the chance for vegetal flavor contributors to remain in the coffee.
This could be due to a lack of pyrolysis of certain compounds that can lend
vegetal tones to coffees. It could also be because the strength of the caramel
tone in the coffee is not enough to obscure the compounds causing us to taste
vegetation in our coffee.

Conversely, too much caramelization and, eventually, too much pyrolysis

leads to an excessive amount of bitterness and flattens the complexity of the
coffee. You are left playing a delicate game.

Here are notes from one experiment with a SHB Guatemalan I did
specifically to test this theory.

Deviation of Roast:
Roast Phase Baseline Low Drop High Drop
Drying Phase 0:00 +0:03 +0:10
Maillard 0:00 +0:03 +0:03
Development 0:00 +0:03 +0:08
σ End Temperature 0 F -6 F +6 F

Please notice above that all of the deviations from the baseline roast are quite
acceptable, and to my ability to taste should have little to no effect on the
flavor of the roasted coffee. The only significant contributor should be the
final temperature (simultaneously representing the degree of caramelization
and pyrolysis).

SCAA Cupping Form:

Clean
Roast Fragrance Flavor After Acid Body Balance Uni Sweetness
Cup
Baseline 8.25 8.5 8 8.5 8.5 8.5 10 10 10
Low
7.75 7.5 8 7.5 8 7.5 10 10 10
Drop
High
8 7.5 7.5 7.5 7 7 10 10 10
Drop

Within the qualitative score numbers on the SCAA cupping form, there
definitely seem to be slight qualitative differences that end up resulting in a
significant difference in overall score. With the roast profile that I was using,
What these numbers seem to indicate is that there is a range of pyrolysis and
caramelization that is more desirable, and ranges on either side of that “sweet
spot” that are less desirable.

Intensity Scores:

Roast Fragrance Aroma Acidity Body

Baseline 3 4 4 3.5
Low Drop 3 3.5 4 3.5
High Drop 3.5 3.5 4 3.5
It is worth noting here that the intensity scores are not modified or changed
greatly. This would also suggest that the intensity of these elements are not
connected with the final degree of roast, but rather with the actual curve
representing the path the coffee follows through roasting.

Flavor Descriptors:

Roast Fruit Floral Herbaceaous Sweetness Body Aftertaste

molasses peach,
peach tea-like
Baseline pie spices and honey, tea-like honey,
pie floral
caramel floral
floral
garden pea / sweet- light, very
Low vegetal toward green tea,
cucumber and honey or tea-like,
Drop peach green seed-like
tea-like raw sugar honeyed
tea
peach savory,
High sweet, rich chocolate, pie spices,
pie, sesame seed-like
Drop chocolate jagged syrup
molasses seeds

Finally, when looking at how the flavor profile of the coffee changes, we see
significant differences forming between the coffees. The lower drop
temperature results in vegetal tones because of lack of caramelization and
pyrolysis (specifically, pyrolysis reducing or eliminating contributors to a
vegetal taste profile). The coffee roasted to a lower terminal temperature did
tend to remain sweeter, but lacked some of the complexity and balance
brought about by the greater caramelization/pyrolysis. The deeper levels of
sugar caramelization and pyrolysis gave the darker of the two roasts a more
savory characteristic with more bitterness from the caramels. The path that
flavor development seems to follow is from vegetal and sweet, to sweet and
not vegetal, toward mild, toward slightly bitter, then toward bitter.

Bottom line is, whatever you are going for in a roast, approach it with caution
and consideration when choosing your final end temperature. Also keep in
mind that darker flavors, greater complexity and heavier body can be made
without burning coffee!

Additionally, remember that the SCAA Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel can
provide a helpful guide to understanding the progression of coffee flavor
through the caramelization process. Early on (with relation to end temperature
/ degree of caramelization), you start with more “enzymatic flavor tones”
residual from the terroir of the coffee and the balance of chemical compounds
in the plant. (Bear in mind that enzymatic flavor tones are not created during
roast, but may be covered up do to caramelization, pyrolysis, etc.) As you
continue to caramelize, you will shift into the sugar browning section of the
taster’s wheel and these flavors will become more dominant. Finally, if you
continue caramelization/pyrolysis you will arrive in the section marked “dry
distillation” which is due to the pyrolysis and carbonization of volatile
aromatic compounds among others in the seed.

The degree of sugar caramelization is the final point of consideration

within my paradigm for controlling the flavor development during coffee
roasting.
By controlling your final roast degree, you are essentially
controlling how much or how little sugar you are allowing to be
turned into caramel.
Unlike organic acids, which seem to be more greatly
affected by time (with regard to their development or
decomposition), sugars seem to need the addition of heat to the
environment in order to caramelize to a greater extent.
Essentially, the lower the end temperature, the more residual sugar
is left in the coffee, contributing to a sweeter cup.
Conversely, the higher the end temperature, the more caramels you
have developed — reducing sugar, adding complexity, and
balancing the sugar content with bitter compounds.
On the low end of proper caramelization lie vegetal tones. These
can be connected with development time as well; if a coffee is
underdeveloped, the sweetness takes on a more vegetal
characteristic. This could be tomato, cucumber, garden pea, etc.
On the high end of proper caramelization, pyrolysis flavors begin to
dominate, and chocolate and deep caramel tones become ashen and
carbon.
The SCAA Flavor Wheel tends to work decently well in
understanding what flavor range you will be experiencing at certain
levels of caramelization.
With lower levels of sugar caramelization, you will have a
heavily sweet coffee with notes in the floral and fruity range
(unless you mess it up; then vegetal).
Medium-range sugar caramelization will accentuate caramel,
chocolate, vanilla, nut, and the like.
Higher levels of caramelization lead to pyrolysis and the
destruction of volatile aromatics, resulting in super dark
chocolate, woody, carbon, and ashen.
BUILDING UP PRESSURE IN
THE COFFEE SEED DURING
ROASTING
Finally we come to a more abstract, but very important facet of coffee
roasting (one which is somewhat new to me and I think many in the industry).
This is the concept of being intentional as to how we build up pressure in the
coffee seed while roasting. An offhand comment by Illy and Viani in Espresso
Coffee: the Science of Quality got me thinking about the importance of
building up pressure in coffee: a build-up of pressure within the bean is
important for the generation of sufficient aroma.”13 I also saw a note in
Coffee Flavor Chemistry saying; “Kaufman (1951) observed that pressure
formed in the beans during roasting is necessary to the proper development of
coffee flavor.”14 I had previously been considering it because of my
understanding of the tipping defect. When we are roasting coffee, the heat is
not instantaneously being applied evenly to the surface of the coffee seed;
rather, it is being applied in a gradient (starting from the outside and working
into the middle of the coffee seed).
When we are roasting and heating the coffee, we are also attempting to drive
off free moisture by turning it into steam and forcing it out of the seed. This is
due to the fact that drying the coffee is necessary for desirable chemical
reactions (such as the Maillard reaction) to occur. As we drive off that
moisture, and as the heat infiltrates the bean, it forms a wall of pressure
forced from the outside moving in. If the seed isn’t dense enough the handle
the pressure being placed upon it, the steam begins to vent out of the softest
part of the bean, the tip where the embryo would have germinated had the
coffee seed been planted. As the steam exits rapidly, it causes charring around
that soft spot—the defect we know as tipping (avoid it).
Illy and Viani describe this process as follows: “The temperature of the bean
surface increases — with heat conduction into the porous material — due to
the temperature gradient. When the local temperature reaches the evaporation
temperature of the bean moisture, a front of evaporation starts moving toward
the center of the bean. During the first part of the roasting process the walls of
the whole bean are still relatively firm. Thus the vapor that has been
generated cannot permeate and the pressure buildup makes the bean volume
expand. Mechanical and thermal stresses moving toward the K center of the
bean are created, which makes the beans crack [not necessarily referring to
first crack] or even burst if the superposed stresses overcome the tensile
strength of the bean.”15 In addition to causing a potential defect or problem,
this buildup of pressure completely changes how a coffee roasts.
But how can something like pressure change how coffee roasts and tastes?
The answer is fairly simple but difficult to fully grasp. Pressure changes the
rate of chemical reaction, and the effectiveness of certain chemical reactions
that occur during coffee roasting. The interesting thing about this is that you
begin to create this pressure wall at the moment you begin to drive off steam,
the moment when no chemical reactions are taking place: namely, the
moment you charge the drum. Even though the “drying” time doesn’t matter
directly for the flavor development in coffee (as there are no real chemical
reactions during that time other than the potential for defect), you are not only
establishing your momentum for the rest of the roast, but also for the potential
reaction rate and potential byproducts of the roast itself.
Essentially, increasing the pressure on a chemical reaction involving gasses
will increase the rate of reaction. This is because you are forcing the
compounds into closer proximity and will cause the chemical reactions to
occur much more rapidly. In addition, an increase in pressure will help bring
the coffee to higher overall temperatures internally, as pressure tends to
increase temperature. This will also cause an increase in the rate of many
chemical reactions. For our purposes, we are especially concerned with the
reactions (and reaction rate) of the volatile aromatic compounds being
modulated, specifically increasing reaction rate through shorter overall roast
times, producing desirable results by compressing the aforementioned roast
segments. Though it may seem odd, the amount of pressure built up can be
significant! “The high temperature (usually 170-230 C for 10-15 min) and the
elevated pressure inside the bean (up to 25 atm [ 25 bar for former baristas or
367 psi]) trigger a vast number of chemical reactions…”16 One notable
exception is the Maillard reaction, specifically with regard to the formation of
melanoidins, whose importance we covered earlier. Research independent of
coffee has demonstrated that an increase of pressure will actually hinder the
chemical reactions involved in the Maillard reaction, stating, “In conclusion it
appears that the volatile products of the Maillard reaction are generally
suppressed by the application of high pressure…”17 and specifically will
hinder the development of melanoidins. “Retardation of the rate of
decomposition of the ARP (Amadori rearrangement products) in forming
melanoidins was further confirmed in the present work…”18 which increase
the perception of complexity and body. Thus, you will tend to have lower
complexity and lower experience of body in fast roasts, which have increased
internal bean pressure. This is in contrast to medium or slower batches (that
are still within a reasonable time frame) which will have a heavier body and a
greater amount of complexity.
The dichotomy of how chemical reactions function under pressure could
mean that there is an acceptable way to scale the time we permit certain
chemical reactions to occur to arrive at a similar sort of flavor in the coffee.
That being said, the scaling will never be perfect, as parts of the Maillard
reaction will actually occur more slowly during faster roasts.
It is essentially a tradeoff. The faster you roast, the less body and complexity
you will have; but you can still roast quite rapidly and not have vegetal and
“underdeveloped” (i.e. grassy, vegetal, super bitter) coffee. This lends
credence to certain perspectives that roasts can be broken down into
percentages or ratios in order to achieve similar qualitative results. While this
theory may function to a degree, it would be better to maintain the same
buildup of pressure by maintaining a similar overall roast time in order to
preserve consistency from roast to roast.

Notes on pressure buildup in the coffee seed during roasting:

The buildup of pressure is essential for the proper formation of volatile

aromatic compounds, and the function of many chemical reactions
during coffee roasting.
Coffee beans have been shown to reach up to 25 atm (25 bar) pressure,
according to Illy.
The pressure buildup comes from the speed at which the coffee is being
roasted within the system. As heat is being applied to the coffee, water
begins to come off the coffee in the form of steam. This buildup of
steam, along with the traveling wall of heat, create a pressure wall within
the roasting bean.
The amount of pressure changes the rate of chemical reaction
(specifically for the Maillard reaction). This results in some of the same
reactions occurring at a much more rapid rate. It also inhibits certain
reactions from occurring (specifically mentioned are generation of
melanoidins).
This means that the amount of time needed for certain chemical reactions
during coffee roasting could be shortened relative to the speed at which
the coffee was roasted(lending some credence to the idea of applying
overarching percentage breakdowns of the coffee roast).
Reactions reducing vegetal aspects of coffee or negative organic acids
could be accelerated (allowing for “well developed” coffee), while others
resulting in body and complexity could be hindered.
Therefore, if done knowingly, it is possible to achieve well developed
 coffee at a much faster roast, though you will necessarily be sacrificing
certain aspects of coffee flavor development.
In a number of respected sources, such as Illy, I have seen the idea
presented that the pressure wall building up in the bean causes the
chemical reactions to operate differently, and higher pressure is preferred
for flavor development (obviously without creating defect).

13 Illy and Viani Espresso Coffee: The Science of Quality Second Edition, 184

14 Flament, Coffee Flavor Chemistry, 37

15 Illy and Viani Espresso Coffee: The Science of Quality Second Edition, 180

16 Illy and Viani Espresso Coffee: The Science of Quality Second Edition, 198

17 Mark Bristo and Neil S. Isaacs, “The Effect of High Pressure on the
Formation of Volatile Products in a Model Maillard Reaction,” Journal of the
Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions 2, (1999): 2218, accessed November
6, 2014, doi : 10.1039/A901186B
18 Bristo and Isaacs, “The Effect of High Pressure on the Formation of
Volatile Products in a Model Maillard Reaction,” 2217 doi:
10.1039/A901186B
A SUMMARY OF FLAVOR
MODIFICATION
In summary, I want to leave you with a list covering specifics important to
this approach to controlling flavor development during roasting, so you can
make adequate efforts to shift your roast profile in a direction to your liking.

“Drying Phase”
After the charge of beans into the pre-heated drum until the
beginning of color change to yellow
Responsible for causing some roast defects (scorching, tipping, etc.)
Sets up the roast’s momentum for the remainder of the time
Contains no true chemical reactions
Begins to establish pressure wall as it heats the bean and boils off
steam
“MAI” Phase
Short for Maillard reaction phase (though it is not an accurate
measurement of the entire length of the Maillard reaction)
Begins at the beginning of color change to yellow and the adoption
of a hay-like aroma
Ends at the beginning of the notation of development time (at the
beginning of first crack)
Incredibly chemically complex series of chemical reactions
Responsible for development of melanoidins, among other aromatic
and volatile aromatic compounds Strecker degradation of amino
acids
Less time in this phase results in lower body and reduced
complexity (less complex and lighter flavors)
More time in this phase results in heavier body and increased
complexity (more complex and heavier flavor)
“Development” Time
Begins at the beginning of the batch going into first crack (the
batch, not outlier beans)
Ends at the end of the roast
Very complex series of events
Maillard reaction is continuing and now has new reactants,
thanks to other reactions
Organic acid degradation: CGAs, citric and malic acid Organic
 acid formation: Acetic (from sucrose), quinic (from CGAs),
formic, and others.
Caramelization of sucrose
Pyrolysis
Focus was primarily on organic acids and Maillard-reaction
products
Organic Acids
Try to strike a balance between the loss of chlorogenic Acids
to the point of losing bitterness and vegetal acidic flavors, and
losing the beneficial citric and malic acids.
Tends to move from metallic and vegetal bitter acidic
compounds to sour and more pleasing compounds, to sweet
and more pleasing, to sweet and more dull, to dull, to low acid.
Maillard reaction
Specifically focus on development of floral and fragrant tones
during this phase, along with some browning tones caused by
the Maillard reaction
Complexity of floral tones increase with lengthened
development time
Presence of browning tones not formed through caramelization
increases with a longer development time
Sugar Caramelization and Pyrolysis
Focusing primarily on sucrose caramelization and thermal
breakdown
Related primarily to the terminal temperature of the batch of
coffee (not specifically the time).
As more sucrose caramelizes (higher end temperature), the
lower the sweetness and the more bitterness and complexity.
The less sugar caramelizes, the more sweetness and less
bitterness is revealed, but the coffee will have less complexity
as well.
If you roast with too low of a temperature, you run the risk of
not sending unwanted compounds through pyrolysis and could
end up with vegetal attributes and some bitterness in your
coffee.
If you reach too high of an end temperature, you may have
more pyrolytic tones in the coffee than intended, and you run
the risk of tasting carbon or ash.
Pressure
By establishing pressure in the bean through controlling the
overall speed of the roast and thus the overall roast time, you
are able to scale the length of the reactions you will need in
 order to achieve certain flavors.
Faster roast = higher pressure, more compressed times needed
for “MAI” and “development,” However, the Maillard reaction
will not be as effective, so you will miss out on some
compounds contributing to body and overall complexity. You
run the risk of a one-dimensional coffee.
Slower roast = lower pressure, so you will need longer times
for some chemical reactions to take place and potentially
should scale the MAI time and the development time
accordingly. The Maillard reaction will function well and
melanoidins will be present to contribute to complexity and
body.

At the end of the day, you pay your money and you make your choice. I don’t
want to tell you the “best way to roast coffee” because there is no such thing.
These are meant to be guidelines to help you get your coffee how you want it
to taste. I hope it was a helpful journey for you, and I hope my experiences
and words can help lead you to a better cup of coffee in your future.
AN ENDING OF SORTS
Through the intentional use of these guideposts and general trends, roasters
can make rather informed decisions as to where to start roasting a coffee
based on cupping the pre-shipment and arrival samples, and then make small,
educated tweaks to different parts of the roast curve as discussed above to
land where they are hoping to land with their coffee’s flavor profile. As a
friend of mine has always said, “there are no silver bullets,” but at least we
are able to develop vague guidelines.
I have been using this approach for over three years for all my product
development, sample roasting and production roasting. I have yet to run into a
circumstance where it has not been true. There have been small shifts I have
had to make along the way when confronted with more detailed evidence, or
interesting sides to coffee roasting I hadn’t initially experimented with. But
we are always learning and always in process.
Although I am continuing to monitor a number of different aspects of roasting
in addition to the process described above, this handbook details what I have
found to be pertinent to help an experienced roaster understand flavor
development in coffee.
APPENDIX A: THINKING
ABOUT FLAVOR
When it comes to understanding flavor, and how I perceive and describe
flavors, I think it is worth detailing my paradigm here as well. I do not think
in terms of raw chemical compounds causing me to taste certain things; rather
each taste reveals a complex mess of experiences that remind me of things
that I have tasted before. In the handbook, you may read that the taste/flavor
shifted from lemon to lime to me. What this means is that I had a greater
bittering experience than I did when I experienced lemon, because I find
limes to be slightly more bittering. Similarly, I would say citrus rind is more
bittering than the flesh, so I could describe the difference as lemon to lemon
rind. Another example: If I taste peaches, and then something with greater
complexity and a syrupy body, I would likely call it peach pie or cobbler. This
is because these flavors have a syrupy mouth-feel, often have molasses (more
complex and slightly more bitter than sugar), etc.
What I am getting at is, when you find yourself applying the style of roasting
I discuss in this handbook, it is more beneficial to think about how you
experience taste and how these guidelines will modulate that experience, than
to look at only the specific chemical reactions being discussed. Once you
come to grips with how you experience taste, you can willfully change the
details surrounding the coffee’s flavor profile into what you want or need.
CREDITS
Professional editing: Kelly Stewart
Book layout and design: Mark Carter
Some interior photos by:
Lucas Chemotti
Connie Blumhardt