Roasting trends for the future

Coffee producers roasting their own coffee is definitely becoming one of the hottest trends in the industry. Coffee producers have become aware of the fact that roasting your own beans is a much more profitable activity than relying on the slim margins of selling green coffee. Let’s discuss this roasting trend we probably going to see more of in the future.

Recently, I spent some time working with a client in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. He owns a vertically integrated coffee operation consisting of a beautiful biodynamic certified coffee farm, called El Equimite. A coffee processing facility and also a roasting company which supplies farm direct freshly roasted coffee to a clientele throughout Mexico and beyond.

Coffee producers roasting their own coffee is definitely becoming one of the hottest trends in the industry. In countries Coffee producers roasting their own coffee is definitely becoming one of the hottest trends in the industry. In countries throughout Latin America, I estimate that in the past five years at least hundreds of new coffee roasters have emerged. Obviously, this trend has a clear reason. Coffee producers have become aware of the fact that roasting your own beans is a much more profitable activity than relying on the slim margins of selling green coffee.

Discovering the beauty of specialty coffee

The overarching trend that facilitates this shift, is also the changing mindset of consumers in producing countries. In origins like Mexico, El Salvador and Colombia, consumers have started to discover the beauty of specialty coffee. One of my dear friends in Colombia is Jaime Duque. He has been building a thriving brand called ‘Catacion Publica’, which enjoys national notoriety. The business incorporates the direct trade supply of coffee beans from communities around Colombia. The beans are roasted in Catacion Publica’s state-of-the-art facility which features a new W15A Giesen roasting. Besides that, they feature the Giesen W1A small batch roaster and a WPG1A sample roaster. Jaime Duque’s newest concept store is in the prominent coffee producing department of Quindio, in the bustling town of Armenia. It also features a beautifully designed coffee experience center. Here, consumers can taste and purchase their preferred beans for home consumption.

One of the common challenges I run into while working with coffee producers who aspire to roast their own beans is the fundamental question of how to design the proper roasting profile for their coffees. Currently, coffee roasting software serves the prime objective of documenting and analyzing the key parameters of the roasting process. For example, bean and air temperature, energy input and the rate of rise (RoR) which measures the velocity of the roasting process.

Future roasting trends

As one of the future roasting trends, I expect that machine learning tools, powered through artificial intelligence, will become available to coffee roasters. What if the roasting software could incorporate an algorhitm that takes into account the barometric environmental pressure, together with bean moisture, water activity and absolute bean density? I also predict that in the near future significant technological advances will be realized that allow for the analysis of the coffee bean chemistry using affordable measuring devices which can permit the roaster operator to make intelligent projections about the drying cycle, the Maillard reactions and the development ratio of the bean in order to highlight distinct flavor attributes of the coffee. Although this might read like science fiction, I expect that the innovative mindset of companies like Giesen will facilitate such breakthroughs.

Willem Boot

Willem Boot is a roasting consultant and trainer and founder of Boot Coffee Campus in San Rafael, California. He is also one of the Giesen Ambassadors. Visit www.bootcoffee.com.