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Idea for sharing green coffee and roasting info
DiyDan
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Posted on 02/20/2025 2:02 PM
Hi everyone,

I've been thinking about something that could help each other choosing and roasting coffee. I feel like it's kind of a gamble when I buy green coffee. I like that some sites have reviews, but I would love to get more info about the process, roast level etc.

I'll preface with, I have no idea what the effort would be to create this as I know little about web development.
Basically a collection of profiles for the people who want to participate, maybe a page on this site. The "Roaster's profile" Grin can have personal preferences like roaster type, roast level, flavors, origin etc. that are searchable or filterable. A link on the profile takes you to the person's page that could have current coffees, roast profile details, tasting notes and any other pertinent info.

I searched some and didn't find anything like this except for a specific roaster like ROEST or Roastworld for the Allio bullet. Does anyone know of something like this?

Thoughts? opinions?

Thanks,
Dan
 
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renatoa
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Posted on 02/20/2025 2:27 PM
Profiles are more machine dependent than coffee origin.
You can't replicate a fluid bed machine profile on radiant machine, nor viceversa, for same coffee.
Also, the coffee is a seasonal agricultural product, as the wine.
For same parcel there could be good years and bad years... with the notable difference that you can't tell about coffee as for the wine... "'68 was a good year..." Grin
 
allenb
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Posted on 02/20/2025 3:05 PM
I agree with many of the points renatoa made in his post. Coffee is such a moving target, much more so than other beverages, it makes it very tough to nail down which green coffees are cupping good using X profile. For example, I found a stellar, easy to roast colombian from Happymug a while back and reported it in a post here. But, 3 months later, the same coffee from my own stock needed a very different profile to cup well and never cupped as it had previously. The next crop of the same coffee was just average no matter how it was roasted.
With that said, there could be some value, especially for newcomers to roasting in a database showing coffees that shine, where to get them, best profile in a given roaster type for light, medium and darker roasts. It could show date of arrival to the purveyor's dock so one could know if it may be past its prime by the time one sees it in the database.
A typical problem with databases is their lack of upkeep but if one is easily spotted on a site, it may get views. If you come up with some good ideas, shoot them out in this thread.
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
DiyDan
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Posted on 02/20/2025 5:53 PM
renatoa, thank you for your input. I have a couple more questions.

Do you think you could still get some useful info going between machines? Is this a case where info might be misleading? Like if I try to hit the same time past FC or weight loss from a radiant roaster on my fluid bed the final product will be far off?
If enough people participate then people could narrow by roaster type to get more accurate info.

I was thinking it would be more for deciding based on what the community is currently roasting at the time, not necessarily a historical reference for previous crops.

I'm looking at it from the perspective of being better than the info available now, or a more structured version of a "hey I just got this coffee I love from ___" post. Do you think it may not be sufficiently better info to warrant such an effort?
Edited by renatoa on 02/21/2025 2:25 AM
 
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DiyDan
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Posted on 02/20/2025 7:02 PM

Quote

allenb wrote:

I agree with many of the points renatoa made in his post. Coffee is such a moving target, much more so than other beverages, it makes it very tough to nail down which green coffees are cupping good using X profile. For example, I found a stellar, easy to roast colombian from Happymug a while back and reported it in a post here. But, 3 months later, the same coffee from my own stock needed a very different profile to cup well and never cupped as it had previously. The next crop of the same coffee was just average no matter how it was roasted.
With that said, there could be some value, especially for newcomers to roasting in a database showing coffees that shine, where to get them, best profile in a given roaster type for light, medium and darker roasts. It could show date of arrival to the purveyor's dock so one could know if it may be past its prime by the time one sees it in the database.
A typical problem with databases is their lack of upkeep but if one is easily spotted on a site, it may get views. If you come up with some good ideas, shoot them out in this thread.


Thanks for your input allenb,

That's interesting you needed to roast the same coffee differently 3 months later! So even as a reference for current crops one would need to consider timing. I agree it would take periodic updating as users roast and cup coffees, and it's easy for people to fall out of the habit of doing something like that.
 
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renatoa
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Posted on 02/21/2025 2:26 AM

Quote

DiyDan wrote:
Is this a case where info might be misleading?

Yes... for example today a lot of people is obsessed and convinced that nordic roast is the way to go... this style is characterized by unrealistic short roast times, with FC in the minute 5 ballpark, which is the realm of fluid bed roasters.
Well... some people try by all means to achieve this goal on any machine type, even if this means a beans torture on certain setups.
In this case, publishing such profile is misleading.

Quote

Like if I try to hit the same time past FC or weight loss from a radiant roaster on my fluid bed the final product will be far off?

... is about the journey, not destination... smile
There are slow start fast finish machines, and fast start slow finish machines.
Same FC and even same W/L for both would not guarantee the same in the cup.
Could be the difference between an even cooked steak, and a well done outside and raw inside, same piece of meat.
 
oldgrumpus
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Posted on 02/22/2025 3:25 PM

Quote

... is about the journey, not destination... smile
There are slow start fast finish machines, and fast start slow finish machines.
Same FC and even same W/L for both would not guarantee the same in the cup.
Could be the difference between an even cooked steak, and a well done outside and raw inside, same piece of meat.


Ain't that the truth! That's what I love and hate about roasting coffee. It's always chasing a goal sometimes attainable. But so amazingly frustrating that I often want to rip out my hair, and I don't have much of that to spare! No doubt there are those with "the gift". I don't think I'm one of them, but no matter how much info that comes from reliable sources, it often doesn't go as well as expected.

But despite that little rant, I'm quite happy to have coffee I roast at home that satisfies me way more than 95% of the coffee houses around this area.
 
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