So what do we mean when we say double roast and triple roast and what is the best coffee roasting method? Well every coffee bean is different. Some are high grown in the mountains, others are grown closer to sea level, and others are grown somewhere in-between. Some are grown in shady conditions, others in full sun, and still others are grown half-and-half. Soil conditions vary too. Some soil is volcanic, some rocky, some loamy, some full of clay. Some soil drains well and others don’t. The variables go on and on.
So what we do is roast each bean to a particular level. For the sake of conversation we’ll call it Light / Medium / Dark although there are a lot of variations in between like Light-Medium or Extra Dark, etc.
The coffee tastes different at each roast level. The lighter roasts tend to bring out lighter flavours like floral and fruity flavours whereas the darker roasts tend to bring out darker flavours like caramel and chocolate. So we determine the flavours we want to put the spotlight on and which flavours are most complementary to one another and we roast to that intended outcome.
Loco Leghorn for instance is double roasted. One light roast and one medium roast. We’ve found that a dark roast with this particular bean doesn’t yield the classic Colombian coffee profile. Add to that fact that The Lovely & Talented Roast Mistress can coax a lot of flavours out of the bean that the “speed roasters” can’t. She’ll roast a batch for 20+ minutes when a factory roaster will roast the same bean for only 7 minutes.
So that’s it, the best coffee roasting method is variable. Double roasted is the same bean roasted to two differnt levels. Triple roasted, likewise, is the same bean roasted to three different levels. When you drink Farmer’s Friend, a blend of three different coffee beans (Colombia / Ethiopia / Kenya) you’re drinking SEVEN different roasts. As you can see, we put a lot of work into each bag of coffee we produce.
