We’ve been in the coffee business since 1971, well before some baristas were even born. You can rely upon our experience. We know coffee and the business of supplying coffee. We are a full service coffee roaster serving the Office Coffee Service, Vending, Convenience Store (C-Store) and coffeehouse.

Great Coffee. Great Service. Click on either section to learn more.

degrees of roast

One of the more confusing areas for newcomers to specialty coffee has to do with roast names. Terms like "city", "full city", "French", "Espresso" and so on refer to radically different roast colors, depending on the roaster and region. Moreover, some roast names are also blend names; "Espresso," for example often refers to a particular degree of roast for a blend of coffees created for use in an espresso brewer. Even when the colors appear to be the same, the coffees may have entirely different flavors. The types of beans selected, how and when heat was applied, and the length of time in the roaster are invisible but critical factors in creating the ultimate flavor of the beans.

For simplicity's sake, we have divided roasts into four broad categories:

LIGHT: Lightly-roasted coffees (roughly the color of cinnamon) tend to have intense aromas, with crisp, lively acidity as the dominant flavor note and relatively light body.
MEDIUM: Medium-roasted beans (roughly light-brown in color) typically are full in body while still maintaining most of their acidity.
DARK: Dark roasts (dark brown in color with slight traces of oil on the surface) replace acidity with a slight roasty bitterness that creates a more pungent flavor.
VERY DARK: Very dark roasts (dark brown to black in color with oily bean surfaces) have a pronounced carbony bitterness as their primary flavor with a noticeable decrease in body.

The Roasting Process
The roasting process causes a complex series of chemical changes. Over a period of roughly 18 to 20 minutes, the green coffee loses moisture, turns yellow, and "pops" open, much like popcorn. As it does so, the bean nearly doubles in size, and begins to assume the very light tan color of lightly-roasted coffee. Once this stage is achieved (about 8 minutes into the roast), the heat source is turned down, and the coffee rapidly darkens in color. Once the desired degree of roast for a given coffee has been achieved, the process is stopped using either a brief spray of water followed by air cooling, or air alone.