Learn about the roasting process

We love roasting coffee at Bayside Beans, and we’re excited to talk to folks who are also interested in our craft. Please send us a message if you have any questions about our operation, or just want to talk more about our process. This page is intended to be a high-level overview of the roasting process and we will dig more into the details in a future series.

When coffee beans are roasted, they go through a series of chemical changes, and we look for as many cues as we can for how far they are along in the roast. The most important of those cues are what’s known as first and second crack. The two cracks are named after the audible popping sound that occurs once enough steam has built inside the bean for it to crack open (first crack), and then once it releases enough carbon dioxide from first crack (second crack).

So, what does all this cracking mean? To put it simply, the secret to roasting coffee is heating the beans to first crack quickly, monitoring intently, and then cooling the beans before they reach second crack and burn. Darker roasts like French roasts are taken all the way to second crack, while lighter roasts are cooled much sooner. Going much past second crack can sometimes require a fire extinguisher. The time spent roasting after first crack should be about 20-25% of the total roast time, known as the development time. Then the whole batch needs to be cooled to room temp in 4 minutes to avoid baked flavors.

The Bayside Beans advantage

At Bayside Beans we have a lot of patience and attention to detail to figure out the nuance of each variety, and how to roast it to bring out the best characteristics of each bean. There are a lot of factors that need to be accounted for to get the ideal roast, such as size, hardness and moisture content of the bean. How the bean was processed. Even ambient conditions in the roastery. We roast each batch meticulously to ensure that we are showcasing the best flavor qualities of each variety, and supplying a consistent result that you can continue to enjoy over and over again.

We are data geeks at heart at Bayside Beans (see our about us page), so plotting charts and understanding how temperature curves affect the flavor profiles of different beans is exactly what we signed up for when we started roasting coffee nearly ten years ago. Our commitment to quality, and our obsession over details, is why we feel so confident that you will appreciate the results of our hard work as much as we do. We are excited to share more geeky details about our roasts when production ramps up in a few weeks, so be sure to follow us on Facebook and subscribe to our emails for updates.

Check out the tips on the Brewing page, then grab a bag in the shop and let us know what you think. We are excited to finally be able to share Bayside Beans coffee with you!