The degree to which we roast a coffee has a significant impact on the taste profile. A light roasted coffee displays the trueness of the bean as the individual character of the coffee is fully revealed. The darkest roasted coffee, on the contrary, has lost most of its individual character in favour of maximizing the smoky, burnt nut note some coffee drinkers have become accustomed to. We are not saying lighter is better than darker, that’s up to the consumer, what we do want to do is be consistent in what we attempt to achieve with a coffee so that our customers receive the same coffee they expect each time they order.

To achieve roast colour consistency, we set roast colour targets for each of our coffees and measure our success each time we roast with a device called a “Spectrophotometer” or better known as a colour analyzer. Our colour analyzer is 10X more accurate than the human eye in determining how dark a substance is. In most cases, when we roast a batch of coffee, we attempt to roast the coffee to one of the four levels of darkness explained in the chart below.

Roast Colour

Full Flavour

The colour of milk chocolate where the character of the coffee is most revealed. Acidic notes are enhanced.

Viennese

Chestnut brown where flavours are slightly burnt and caramelized. The colour of our most popular espresso.

Continental

Dark chestnut brown with oils present on surface of bean. Syrupy smoky notes are prevalent.

French Roast

Very oily black bean with full burnt nut notes and muted brightness.

Note: In each of our coffee descriptions, we mention how dark we have roasted a coffee to better inform our customers on what they can expect in terms of taste profile. In each coffee description we mention one of the following four roast colours: