At Bay Beans Coffee, we reckon great coffee starts with understanding the magical transformation that happens inside our roaster. Every morning, our roasting team rocks up before dawn to begin the careful process of turning green coffee beans into the aromatic, flavourful coffee you love. Today, we’re pulling back the curtain on this fascinating craft.
## What Happens During Roasting?
Coffee roasting is both an art and a science. When green coffee beans are exposed to heat, they undergo a complex series of chemical reactions called the Maillard reaction – the same process that gives bread its golden crust and grilled meat its savoury flavour.
During roasting, the beans change colour from green to yellow, then to various shades of brown. They also expand in size, lose moisture, and develop the oils and compounds that create coffee’s distinctive aroma and taste. The entire process typically takes between 8-15 minutes, but those minutes are crucial in determining your coffee’s final flavour profile.
## The Roasting Process at Bay Beans Coffee
### First Crack
Around 196°C, you’ll hear the first “crack” – a popping sound as the beans expand and release moisture. It’s like the beans are having a bit of a whinge about the heat! This marks the beginning of what we consider “light roast” territory. Light roasts preserve more of the bean’s original characteristics and tend to be more acidic with bright, complex flavours.
### Development Phase
Between first and second crack is where the magic happens – it’s like the beans are getting their act together. Our master roasters carefully monitor temperature, airflow, and timing to develop specific flavour profiles. This is where experience and intuition meet precision and data – it’s fair dinkum craftsmanship at its finest.
### Second Crack
At around 224°C, second crack begins – a quieter, more rapid popping. By now the beans are really feeling the heat (literally!). Beans that reach this stage become medium to dark roasts, developing deeper, more caramelised flavours with less acidity and more body.
## Our Roasting Philosophy
At Bay Beans Coffee, we’re all about what’s called “profile roasting.” Rather than just roasting to a specific time or colour, we develop unique roasting profiles for each origin and blend. Our Ethiopian beans might cop a lighter roast to show off their floral notes, while our Brazilian beans get a medium roast that brings out their chocolate and nutty characteristics.
We use a combination of traditional techniques and modern technology. Our roaster lets us precisely control temperature curves, airflow, and development time, while our experienced roasters use their senses – listening for cracks, watching colour changes, and even smelling the developing aromas – to make real-time adjustments.
Each of our blends tells a story. Our roasters don’t just follow a recipe; they taste, adjust, and perfect each batch. It’s like being a chef, but instead of salt and pepper, we’re working with time, temperature, and airflow to bring out the best in every bean. And unlike your mate Dave’s BBQ attempts, we actually know what we’re doing with the heat!
## Roast Levels and Flavour Profiles
**Light Roast**
- Bright acidity and complex flavours
- Retains more of the bean’s origin characteristics
- Perfect for pour-over and light brewing methods
- Higher caffeine content than darker roasts
- Bean surface appears dry with no visible oils
- Our recommendation: Try our **Forte** – it’s a ripper for those who love bright, fruity notes
**Medium Roast**
- Balanced acidity and body
- Caramelised sweetness with origin flavours
- Versatile for most brewing methods
- Perfect balance between origin character and roast flavour
- Slightly oily surface beginning to appear
- Our recommendation: Our **Super Crema** – the name says it all, mate
**Medium-Dark Roast**
- Lower acidity, fuller body
- Rich, caramelised flavours
- Excellent for espresso and French press
- Oils beginning to appear on bean surface
- More roast character than origin character
- Our recommendation: Our **Espresso Master** – this beauty pulls shots like a dream
**Dark Roast**
- Minimal acidity, heavy body
- Bold, smoky flavours
- Traditional espresso roast
- Shiny, oily surface
- Roast flavour dominates over origin characteristics
- Our recommendation: Our **Mocha Prince** – rich, bold, and absolutely delicious
Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about our mates who prefer decaf – our **Decaf** blend gets the same careful attention to roasting as all our other varieties. The decaffeination process happens before roasting, so we can still develop all those beautiful flavours without the caffeine kick. Perfect for those who want to sleep sometime before midnight!
And for those who care about where their coffee comes from, our **Fairtrade** blend ensures your morning cuppa supports farmers getting a fair dinkum price for their hard work. It’s good coffee that does good – what more could you want? Well, maybe a Tim Tam to go with it, but we’ll leave that up to you.
## The Science Behind the Flavour
The transformation from green bean to roasted coffee involves over 800 different aromatic compounds. During roasting, proteins break down into amino acids, starches convert to sugars, and acids develop that contribute to coffee’s signature brightness. The longer and hotter the roast, the more these compounds change.
Temperature control is absolutely crucial. Too hot too fast, and you’ll get uneven roasting – some beans burnt, others underdeveloped. Too slow, and you risk baking the beans, which creates dull, flat flavours. It’s trickier than getting the perfect sausage sizzle going, but our roasters have got it down to a fine art.
Humidity also plays a huge role, especially here in Australia where conditions can change dramatically. On humid days, beans take longer to dry out, while on dry days, they might roast too quickly. Melbourne weather has nothing on the unpredictability of coffee roasting! Our experienced team adjusts for these variables every single day.
## The Importance of Freshness
One thing many coffee lovers don’t realise is that coffee is best consumed within 2-4 weeks of roasting. That’s why we roast in small batches and print roast dates on every bag. The oils and compounds that give coffee its flavour are volatile – they break down over time when exposed to air, light, and heat.
Fresh roasted coffee also needs to “degas” for a day or two after roasting. That’s why you might notice your coffee bag looks a bit puffy – those are CO2 gases being released from the freshly roasted beans. It’s like the beans are taking a deep breath after their hot ordeal! For espresso, we actually recommend waiting 3-5 days after roasting for optimal extraction.
## Behind the Scenes: Our Roasting Schedule
We roast Monday through Friday, starting at 6 AM (yeah, we’re early birds – someone’s got to be!). Each batch is carefully logged with details about bean origin, roast profile, environmental conditions, and tasting notes. Our quality control team cups (professionally tastes) every batch to ensure consistency and quality.
We also maintain detailed records that allow us to track how different variables – humidity, bean moisture content, ambient temperature – affect our roasts. This data helps us maintain consistency even as conditions change throughout the Aussie seasons. We’ve got more charts than a weather bureau!
Our roasting room is a symphony of sounds – the rumble of the roaster drum, the distinctive cracks of the beans, the whoosh of the cooling tray. Each sound tells our roasters something important about how the batch is developing. It’s like listening to the beans have a conversation, though admittedly they’re not the chattiest bunch until they’ve had their coffee… wait, that doesn’t work, does it?
## Cupping: How We Taste Our Coffee
Every batch gets cupped – that’s the professional way of tasting and evaluating coffee. We grind samples from each roast, brew them in a standardised way, and then slurp (yes, slurp!) the coffee to taste it properly. The slurping helps spray the coffee across your palate so you can evaluate all the flavour notes. Don’t worry, your mum’s table manners don’t apply here – the louder the slurp, the better the evaluation!
We’re looking for balance, clarity, and the specific characteristics we want from each blend. If something’s not quite right, we’ll adjust the roast profile for the next batch. It’s this attention to detail that keeps our coffee consistently excellent – and keeps us caffeinated enough to care about the details!
## Sustainable Roasting Practices
Roasting coffee produces chaff (the papery outer layer of the bean) and requires significant energy. At Bay Beans Coffee, we’ve invested in afterburners that eliminate smoke and odours, and we compost all our chaff. We’re also working toward carbon-neutral roasting through renewable energy and efficient equipment – doing our bit for the environment, one roast at a time.
We source our green beans through relationships with importers who work directly with farmers, ensuring not just quality but also sustainable farming practices. Coffee is one of the world’s most traded commodities, and we believe in supporting the people who grow it.
## Brewing Tips for Freshly Roasted Coffee
To get the most from our freshly roasted beans:
1. **Store properly**: Keep beans in an airtight container away from light and heat. Don’t store in the fridge or freezer – the moisture and temperature changes will affect the flavour.
1. **Grind just before brewing**: Pre-ground coffee loses flavour quickly. Invest in a decent burr grinder if you can – it’ll make a huge difference.
1. **Use the right water**: Clean, filtered water between 90-96°C. Water quality matters more than most people think – your coffee is 98% water, so don’t cheap out on the H2O!
1. **Match grind to method**: Coarse for French press and cold brew, medium for drip coffee and pour-over, fine for espresso. Getting the grind size right is crucial for proper extraction. Think of it like choosing the right tool for the job – you wouldn’t use a sledgehammer to hang a picture frame, would you?
1. **Measure carefully**: Use a 1:15 to 1:17 coffee-to-water ratio. That’s about 60-65g of coffee per litre of water. Kitchen scales are your friend here.
1. **Time it right**: Different brewing methods have different optimal brew times. French press needs 4 minutes, pour-over about 2-3 minutes, espresso should extract in 25-30 seconds.
## Common Roasting Myths Busted
**Myth**: Dark roast has more caffeine
**Truth**: Light roast actually has slightly more caffeine. The roasting process breaks down caffeine, so the longer you roast, the less caffeine remains. So if you’re after a proper wake-up call, go light!
**Myth**: Oily beans mean fresh coffee
**Truth**: Oil on the surface actually indicates the beans are getting older or were roasted quite dark. Fresh light and medium roasts shouldn’t be oily. If your beans look like they’ve been through a chip shop, they might be past their prime.
**Myth**: You can’t over-extract light roast
**Truth**: Any coffee can be over-extracted if you grind too fine or brew too long. Light roasts might be more forgiving, but they still need proper brewing technique. Even the nicest person can have a bad day if you push them too hard!
## The Future of Roasting at Bay Beans Coffee
We’re constantly having a go at new techniques and technologies. Recently, we’ve been exploring fluid bed roasting for certain specialty lots and investigating how different cooling methods affect flavour development. We’re also working on expanding our single-origin offerings and developing seasonal blends that showcase the best of each harvest.
We’re excited about some new direct trade relationships we’re building with farms in Central and South America. These partnerships allow us to work directly with growers to develop specific flavour profiles and ensure sustainable practices.
## The Roaster’s Day
Our head roaster arrives each morning with a plan, but remains flexible. Maybe the Colombian beans are a bit denser than usual, or the humidity is higher than yesterday. Each batch is a conversation between the roaster and the beans, with adjustments made in real-time based on what’s happening in the roasting chamber. It’s like having a chat with a mate who doesn’t talk back – thankfully, the beans are better listeners than most people!
The first batch of the day is always a test – checking how the equipment is running, how the beans are responding to the heat. By the time we’re roasting customer orders, everything is dialled in perfectly. No one wants their morning coffee to be the guinea pig batch!
## Why Small Batch Matters
We roast in small batches – typically 10-15kg at a time – because it gives us complete control over the process. Large commercial roasters might process hundreds of kilos at once, but they sacrifice the ability to make fine adjustments. It’s like trying to have a personal conversation in a crowded pub versus a quiet coffee shop – one’s clearly better than the other!
It also means fresher coffee for you. We’re not sitting on massive inventories of roasted coffee that slowly go stale. We roast what we need, when we need it, ensuring you get the freshest possible product. No coffee sitting around gathering dust like that exercise equipment you bought in January!
## Experience the Difference
The next time you visit Bay Beans Coffee, ask about our roasting schedule – we love giving tours and sharing our passion for this incredible craft. You might even catch a batch coming out of the roaster, filling our shop with that unmistakable aroma of freshly roasted coffee.
Coffee roasting is where science meets artistry, where green agricultural products become the complex, flavourful beverage that starts millions of days around the world. At Bay Beans Coffee, we’re stoked to be part of this ancient craft, and we’re committed to roasting coffee that not only tastes exceptional but tells the story of its journey from farm to cup.
Every cup you drink represents months of growing, careful harvesting, meticulous processing, and finally, our careful roasting. It’s a chain of craftsmanship that we’re proud to be part of, and we reckon you can taste the difference that care makes.
*Ready to taste the difference fresh roasting makes? Visit us at Bay Beans Coffee or order online to experience coffee at its peak flavour. Fair dinkum, once you’ve tried freshly roasted coffee, you’ll never go back to the stale stuff.*
## What Happens During Roasting?
Coffee roasting is both an art and a science. When green coffee beans are exposed to heat, they undergo a complex series of chemical reactions called the Maillard reaction – the same process that gives bread its golden crust and grilled meat its savoury flavour.
During roasting, the beans change colour from green to yellow, then to various shades of brown. They also expand in size, lose moisture, and develop the oils and compounds that create coffee’s distinctive aroma and taste. The entire process typically takes between 8-15 minutes, but those minutes are crucial in determining your coffee’s final flavour profile.
## The Roasting Process at Bay Beans Coffee
### First Crack
Around 196°C, you’ll hear the first “crack” – a popping sound as the beans expand and release moisture. It’s like the beans are having a bit of a whinge about the heat! This marks the beginning of what we consider “light roast” territory. Light roasts preserve more of the bean’s original characteristics and tend to be more acidic with bright, complex flavours.
### Development Phase
Between first and second crack is where the magic happens – it’s like the beans are getting their act together. Our master roasters carefully monitor temperature, airflow, and timing to develop specific flavour profiles. This is where experience and intuition meet precision and data – it’s fair dinkum craftsmanship at its finest.
### Second Crack
At around 224°C, second crack begins – a quieter, more rapid popping. By now the beans are really feeling the heat (literally!). Beans that reach this stage become medium to dark roasts, developing deeper, more caramelised flavours with less acidity and more body.
## Our Roasting Philosophy
At Bay Beans Coffee, we’re all about what’s called “profile roasting.” Rather than just roasting to a specific time or colour, we develop unique roasting profiles for each origin and blend. Our Ethiopian beans might cop a lighter roast to show off their floral notes, while our Brazilian beans get a medium roast that brings out their chocolate and nutty characteristics.
We use a combination of traditional techniques and modern technology. Our roaster lets us precisely control temperature curves, airflow, and development time, while our experienced roasters use their senses – listening for cracks, watching colour changes, and even smelling the developing aromas – to make real-time adjustments.
Each of our blends tells a story. Our roasters don’t just follow a recipe; they taste, adjust, and perfect each batch. It’s like being a chef, but instead of salt and pepper, we’re working with time, temperature, and airflow to bring out the best in every bean. And unlike your mate Dave’s BBQ attempts, we actually know what we’re doing with the heat!
## Roast Levels and Flavour Profiles
**Light Roast**
- Bright acidity and complex flavours
- Retains more of the bean’s origin characteristics
- Perfect for pour-over and light brewing methods
- Higher caffeine content than darker roasts
- Bean surface appears dry with no visible oils
- Our recommendation: Try our **Forte** – it’s a ripper for those who love bright, fruity notes
**Medium Roast**
- Balanced acidity and body
- Caramelised sweetness with origin flavours
- Versatile for most brewing methods
- Perfect balance between origin character and roast flavour
- Slightly oily surface beginning to appear
- Our recommendation: Our **Super Crema** – the name says it all, mate
**Medium-Dark Roast**
- Lower acidity, fuller body
- Rich, caramelised flavours
- Excellent for espresso and French press
- Oils beginning to appear on bean surface
- More roast character than origin character
- Our recommendation: Our **Espresso Master** – this beauty pulls shots like a dream
**Dark Roast**
- Minimal acidity, heavy body
- Bold, smoky flavours
- Traditional espresso roast
- Shiny, oily surface
- Roast flavour dominates over origin characteristics
- Our recommendation: Our **Mocha Prince** – rich, bold, and absolutely delicious
Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about our mates who prefer decaf – our **Decaf** blend gets the same careful attention to roasting as all our other varieties. The decaffeination process happens before roasting, so we can still develop all those beautiful flavours without the caffeine kick. Perfect for those who want to sleep sometime before midnight!
And for those who care about where their coffee comes from, our **Fairtrade** blend ensures your morning cuppa supports farmers getting a fair dinkum price for their hard work. It’s good coffee that does good – what more could you want? Well, maybe a Tim Tam to go with it, but we’ll leave that up to you.
## The Science Behind the Flavour
The transformation from green bean to roasted coffee involves over 800 different aromatic compounds. During roasting, proteins break down into amino acids, starches convert to sugars, and acids develop that contribute to coffee’s signature brightness. The longer and hotter the roast, the more these compounds change.
Temperature control is absolutely crucial. Too hot too fast, and you’ll get uneven roasting – some beans burnt, others underdeveloped. Too slow, and you risk baking the beans, which creates dull, flat flavours. It’s trickier than getting the perfect sausage sizzle going, but our roasters have got it down to a fine art.
Humidity also plays a huge role, especially here in Australia where conditions can change dramatically. On humid days, beans take longer to dry out, while on dry days, they might roast too quickly. Melbourne weather has nothing on the unpredictability of coffee roasting! Our experienced team adjusts for these variables every single day.
## The Importance of Freshness
One thing many coffee lovers don’t realise is that coffee is best consumed within 2-4 weeks of roasting. That’s why we roast in small batches and print roast dates on every bag. The oils and compounds that give coffee its flavour are volatile – they break down over time when exposed to air, light, and heat.
Fresh roasted coffee also needs to “degas” for a day or two after roasting. That’s why you might notice your coffee bag looks a bit puffy – those are CO2 gases being released from the freshly roasted beans. It’s like the beans are taking a deep breath after their hot ordeal! For espresso, we actually recommend waiting 3-5 days after roasting for optimal extraction.
## Behind the Scenes: Our Roasting Schedule
We roast Monday through Friday, starting at 6 AM (yeah, we’re early birds – someone’s got to be!). Each batch is carefully logged with details about bean origin, roast profile, environmental conditions, and tasting notes. Our quality control team cups (professionally tastes) every batch to ensure consistency and quality.
We also maintain detailed records that allow us to track how different variables – humidity, bean moisture content, ambient temperature – affect our roasts. This data helps us maintain consistency even as conditions change throughout the Aussie seasons. We’ve got more charts than a weather bureau!
Our roasting room is a symphony of sounds – the rumble of the roaster drum, the distinctive cracks of the beans, the whoosh of the cooling tray. Each sound tells our roasters something important about how the batch is developing. It’s like listening to the beans have a conversation, though admittedly they’re not the chattiest bunch until they’ve had their coffee… wait, that doesn’t work, does it?
## Cupping: How We Taste Our Coffee
Every batch gets cupped – that’s the professional way of tasting and evaluating coffee. We grind samples from each roast, brew them in a standardised way, and then slurp (yes, slurp!) the coffee to taste it properly. The slurping helps spray the coffee across your palate so you can evaluate all the flavour notes. Don’t worry, your mum’s table manners don’t apply here – the louder the slurp, the better the evaluation!
We’re looking for balance, clarity, and the specific characteristics we want from each blend. If something’s not quite right, we’ll adjust the roast profile for the next batch. It’s this attention to detail that keeps our coffee consistently excellent – and keeps us caffeinated enough to care about the details!
## Sustainable Roasting Practices
Roasting coffee produces chaff (the papery outer layer of the bean) and requires significant energy. At Bay Beans Coffee, we’ve invested in afterburners that eliminate smoke and odours, and we compost all our chaff. We’re also working toward carbon-neutral roasting through renewable energy and efficient equipment – doing our bit for the environment, one roast at a time.
We source our green beans through relationships with importers who work directly with farmers, ensuring not just quality but also sustainable farming practices. Coffee is one of the world’s most traded commodities, and we believe in supporting the people who grow it.
## Brewing Tips for Freshly Roasted Coffee
To get the most from our freshly roasted beans:
1. **Store properly**: Keep beans in an airtight container away from light and heat. Don’t store in the fridge or freezer – the moisture and temperature changes will affect the flavour.
1. **Grind just before brewing**: Pre-ground coffee loses flavour quickly. Invest in a decent burr grinder if you can – it’ll make a huge difference.
1. **Use the right water**: Clean, filtered water between 90-96°C. Water quality matters more than most people think – your coffee is 98% water, so don’t cheap out on the H2O!
1. **Match grind to method**: Coarse for French press and cold brew, medium for drip coffee and pour-over, fine for espresso. Getting the grind size right is crucial for proper extraction. Think of it like choosing the right tool for the job – you wouldn’t use a sledgehammer to hang a picture frame, would you?
1. **Measure carefully**: Use a 1:15 to 1:17 coffee-to-water ratio. That’s about 60-65g of coffee per litre of water. Kitchen scales are your friend here.
1. **Time it right**: Different brewing methods have different optimal brew times. French press needs 4 minutes, pour-over about 2-3 minutes, espresso should extract in 25-30 seconds.
## Common Roasting Myths Busted
**Myth**: Dark roast has more caffeine
**Truth**: Light roast actually has slightly more caffeine. The roasting process breaks down caffeine, so the longer you roast, the less caffeine remains. So if you’re after a proper wake-up call, go light!
**Myth**: Oily beans mean fresh coffee
**Truth**: Oil on the surface actually indicates the beans are getting older or were roasted quite dark. Fresh light and medium roasts shouldn’t be oily. If your beans look like they’ve been through a chip shop, they might be past their prime.
**Myth**: You can’t over-extract light roast
**Truth**: Any coffee can be over-extracted if you grind too fine or brew too long. Light roasts might be more forgiving, but they still need proper brewing technique. Even the nicest person can have a bad day if you push them too hard!
## The Future of Roasting at Bay Beans Coffee
We’re constantly having a go at new techniques and technologies. Recently, we’ve been exploring fluid bed roasting for certain specialty lots and investigating how different cooling methods affect flavour development. We’re also working on expanding our single-origin offerings and developing seasonal blends that showcase the best of each harvest.
We’re excited about some new direct trade relationships we’re building with farms in Central and South America. These partnerships allow us to work directly with growers to develop specific flavour profiles and ensure sustainable practices.
## The Roaster’s Day
Our head roaster arrives each morning with a plan, but remains flexible. Maybe the Colombian beans are a bit denser than usual, or the humidity is higher than yesterday. Each batch is a conversation between the roaster and the beans, with adjustments made in real-time based on what’s happening in the roasting chamber. It’s like having a chat with a mate who doesn’t talk back – thankfully, the beans are better listeners than most people!
The first batch of the day is always a test – checking how the equipment is running, how the beans are responding to the heat. By the time we’re roasting customer orders, everything is dialled in perfectly. No one wants their morning coffee to be the guinea pig batch!
## Why Small Batch Matters
We roast in small batches – typically 10-15kg at a time – because it gives us complete control over the process. Large commercial roasters might process hundreds of kilos at once, but they sacrifice the ability to make fine adjustments. It’s like trying to have a personal conversation in a crowded pub versus a quiet coffee shop – one’s clearly better than the other!
It also means fresher coffee for you. We’re not sitting on massive inventories of roasted coffee that slowly go stale. We roast what we need, when we need it, ensuring you get the freshest possible product. No coffee sitting around gathering dust like that exercise equipment you bought in January!
## Experience the Difference
The next time you visit Bay Beans Coffee, ask about our roasting schedule – we love giving tours and sharing our passion for this incredible craft. You might even catch a batch coming out of the roaster, filling our shop with that unmistakable aroma of freshly roasted coffee.
Coffee roasting is where science meets artistry, where green agricultural products become the complex, flavourful beverage that starts millions of days around the world. At Bay Beans Coffee, we’re stoked to be part of this ancient craft, and we’re committed to roasting coffee that not only tastes exceptional but tells the story of its journey from farm to cup.
Every cup you drink represents months of growing, careful harvesting, meticulous processing, and finally, our careful roasting. It’s a chain of craftsmanship that we’re proud to be part of, and we reckon you can taste the difference that care makes.
*Ready to taste the difference fresh roasting makes? Visit us at Bay Beans Coffee or order online to experience coffee at its peak flavour. Fair dinkum, once you’ve tried freshly roasted coffee, you’ll never go back to the stale stuff.*
