About Our Roasts Many coffees seem to be “best” in one particular roast range in the overall spectrum of from “Light” to “Dark”. Even while many coffees are “best” to different people in different roasts in that same spectrum. In some of our coffees, we find them separate but equal in different roasts from medium to dark. And anyway “Best” is ultimately an individual preference—even while certain characteristics or “traits” may be so attractive as to evoke consensus appreciation among small or even large numbers of people. A basic artisan roaster approach is to identify a desirable trait by “cupping” a coffee lightly roasted such that that trait is brought by the heat of the roast no longer in length that it takes to bring out that trait. This is on the General Principle that a trait comes out/develops, may strengthen or change and then may ultimately disappear the longer (darker) the roast goes. Next the roaster can go farther and do another roast to see what that trait is like as it goes through a longer roast proceeding out of light and toward “medium” and then on into “medium dark” and then “dark”—and hopefully before “burnt” (also known in some circles sometimes as “Fire in the Roaster!”)…. …At which point or before that trait is charred into Charbuxian obliteration. This latter phenomenon brings up the fact that roasting is not just about the “origin” traits BUT also about the effect on the origin traits of “roasting traits”: darker roasting of course begins to and proceeds toward and into inducing a dark roast flavoring into the origin trait—at some point just meeting the origin trait, at another ehnhancing it, and yet another overwhelming the origin trait or multiple traits. All this is true of every coffee. So bear with us as we try to put into print descriptions of this approach for each of our coffees along with occasional references to other coffee folk where hopeful. Three of about 20 or more traits recognizable to most palates are: · Sumatra’s “earthiness · Timor’s chocolateness · Huila’s “citrous” or “fruitiness” These distinct flavors are brought to the palate by some other traits including “acidity”, “body”, “sweetness”, and “body” or “mouthfeel”. For a wider and deeper listing of what “cupping” looks for, click the “cupping” link to see how all these individual characteristics are aggregated into an overall picture or characterization composite scoring and hence rating of the relative quality compared to other coffees.