Summary:
If you want to get a great cake for dessert, you would go to a bakery to get it wouldn't you? That is, unless you are a great baker yourself. So if you want to have the best coffee beans, shouldn't you go to a coffee bean baker? Well, perhaps they won't be called coffee bean bakers, but these specialty shops are in the business of baking coffee bean nice and fresh. If you have ever used freshly baked coffee beans in your cappuccino maker to make cappuccino, you will know what...
If you want to get a great cake for dessert, you would go to a bakery to get it wouldn't you? That is, unless you are a great baker yourself. So if you want to have the best coffee beans, shouldn't you go to a coffee bean baker? Well, perhaps they won't be called coffee bean bakers, but these specialty shops are in the business of baking coffee bean nice and fresh. If you have ever used freshly baked coffee beans in your cappuccino maker to make cappuccino, you will know what the fuss is about. Many of these stores are real specialty locations and employ skilled roasters who roast the beans by hand, ensuring consistency and perfection throughout.
This type of roasting is truly an art, and the specialists who do it consider themselves artists. Each coffee bean is examined for size, shape, color and density. Each of these factors will affect how the bean roasts. A larger bean needs to be roasted longer, for example. When each bean is treated individually in this way, the result is a perfect blend of flavor. You cannot compare a supermarket cake to a cake from a master baker; you cannot compare beans roasted individually with mass roasted beans.
These specialist coffee roasters also specialize in deep roasting. All coffees are roasted, but an expert coffee roaster will know the exact way to roast a particular bean so that every quality of the bean is brought out to its fullest extent. This method will bring out the most of the flavor of the bean while reducing its acidity. It results in a perfectly roasted bean and a perfect coffee, one that you can feel by its unique combination of smoothness and energy on your tongue.
The main secret of this is slow roasting. Slow roasting is more time consuming and therefore more expensive, but a master coffee roaster will watch over the beans he is roasting and make sure the process is unfolding as it should. A bean will not be over roasted since he is watching so closely, and under roasted beans do not make the grade.
If you would like to learn how to test for proper roasting of beans, just crack one of your roasted coffee beans open. A properly roasted coffee bean will be darker inside than outside. If a bean has not been properly roasted, the bean will be darker on the outside than on the outside since the whole process was rushed. Do this test yourself, and you will make sure you have properly roasted beans.