At thechronicle we roast filter coffee and espresso with a similar approach to heat transfer but there are a few things that we tweak. We’ll explain this in a little more detail.

Filter Roasts

What success looks like to us

1. We have a coffee that is clean and transparent in taste, where we can clearly define it’s processing, varietal and origin.
2. Our colormeter, a Lighttells, measures consistently within the small window of allowance that we set for each coffee. For filter roasts the windows are usually +/- 1 and between 105 and 115.
3. Coffees have a decent solubility. This means that when we do quality control cupping sessions these roasts have a TDS between 1.2 and 1.5 at the 12 minutes mark.

4. What success looks like to us

   1. We have a coffee that is clean and transparent in taste while maintaining the charachteristics we want in espresso – namely, viscocity & high sweetness.
   2. Our colormeter, a Lighttells, measures consistently within the small window of allowance that we set for each coffee. For espresso roasts the windows are usually +/- 1 and between 95 and 105.
   3. Coffees have high solubility and extract evenly. 

   
   How we acheive this success

   • Our espresso roasts are usually between 9 minutes and 11 minutes in total roasting time. The reason we roast them longer than filter coffee is that we want the coffee more soluble and the acidity reduced a little.
   • Evenness of roasting is crucial and this is aided by the ability to control drum speed. Starting slow and gradually increasing the drum speed through the roast has aided us in controlling our espresso quality for years.
   • Espresso roasts have a development time (time after crack) of between 1:00 to 1:30 minute.
   • We aim to have an increase from crack temperature of around 5-10*C (+/- 2*C).