Beans and Roasting Affect Caffeine and Flavor in Coffee

Do you want the right amount of caffeine and expect the best flavor from your roasted coffee? Let us help you understand how the right beans and roasting will give you delicious flavor with just the right amount of caffeine. Beans and Roasting affect the caffeine and flavor in coffee.

Caffeine – Lighter Roasts have more caffeine

We don’t add any extra caffeine to our beans (we let mother nature handle that). Our coffee is already well caffeinated, so, in our humble opinion, it doesn’t need to be overdosed with what I like to call “Vitamin C” (caffeine).

Besides adding to their profits, there is a reason “Big Coffee” and others gladly offer additional caffeine shots to their coffee.
When it comes to caffeine in coffee beans, the more the beans are roasted, the less caffeine is in them. The caffeine weakens during the roasting process. West coast roasters tend to over roast their beans. As I recall, this started with cowboys out on the trail. It allowed them to carry coffee with them for months so that the coffee would still have some flavor months after roasting.

 

Freshness – Coffee Bean Storage and timing

Once coffee beans get roasted, it is like a timer gets set on its “freshness.” No matter how you pack the beans, they begin to oxidize, just like any food would. The reason being, coffee beans ARE food! No matter how you store them, even vacuum-sealed, the oils inside the bean will come out. If you were to look closely at a freshly roasted coffee bean (particularly, lighter roasts), you would notice the beans tend to look brittle and dry. The more the beans get roasted, the darker they get and the oilier they look. That is those oils coming out of the bean, and that affects the taste. But, just through aging in a sealed bag, the oils will start to come out.

Some people believe they can retain freshness by storing their beans in a freezer. Doing this is a mistake as freezing ruins the flavor. Those oils that contain a lot of natural flavors crystalize and change their properties. Freezing also introduces a lot of moisture to the beans. If not properly stored, the beans will suffer freezer burn (ice crystals on the outside), which will suck the flavor out and potentially damage the beans. Don’t put them in the fridge either because roasted coffee beans are an odorizer. Just like baking soda and charcoal, they will absorb the other odors inside your fridge.

The BEST way to store coffee is in an air-tight, air evacuated canister equipped with a one-way escape for naturally forming gases. The Airscape canisters we offer on our website from Planetary Design are an example.

Flavor – Fresh beans have best flavor

As the coffee beans age, their flavors diminish. The good ones go away and get replaced by bad, acidic, bland, or bitter tastes. Hence, most coffee you buy on a retail grocery store shelf doesn’t taste particularly good compared to high-quality freshly roasted beans. Now know why Roast2Order got started.

Over roasting a bean affects its taste, reduces caffeine, and makes it stay strong tasting for a long time. We hope the picture we are putting together starts to make sense. Suppose you ran a huge coffee business with many stores; you needed to store lots of beans to be transported all over the country and have consistent flavor. In that case, you’d probably opt for an over-roasted coffee, then offer to add shots of caffeine to it! You may also add “flavorings” to help mask the bad taste, then top it all off with a big dollop of whip cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon! But I am not trying to knock what someone else likes! To each their own!!!

That explains why the “Big Coffee” and others of the world offer 2x and 3x caffeine on the side. Our bodies become addicted to caffeine (you’re talking with the #1 addict right here!). Much like a drug, we crave it, and we will experience withdrawal symptoms if we don’t consume it daily!

 

100% Fair Trade (FT), Rainforest Alliance (RFA), Organically Grown

Another BIG reason why our coffee tastes so good, and we don’t need to add extra caffeine to it.

We only use the finest green beans that are 100% Fair Trade (FT), Rainforest Alliance (RFA), and organically grown beans available. That is a big expense to our bottom line, probably our most significant. So, if I were to guess, “Big Coffee” chooses lower quality beans (for the most part) and over roast. Then they add in a small smattering of the FT, RFA, organic beans. That way, they can still say they are using all those for great PR!

Some roasters offer the RFA, FT Organic in only certain coffees (that sell for much higher). Everything else is average low market beans. Since we are using those top-shelf beans, we don’t need to spike them with any more caffeine because they already have a pretty high amount!

Future research

Interestingly enough, there is a machine that will measure how much caffeine is in a bean. There is also a suggested max amount to consume from medical directives. One day, I will have someone look into all this, see if we can have our beans tested so we can accurately tell you which of ours have higher levels. Dare to dream!

Summary

So, if you were to drink an overroasted coffee in its natural state, it would provide far less caffeine than if the beans were just “roasted” the way we do them.
When drinking R2O, you don’t need to worry about getting the full daily dose of vitamin Caffeine! LOL. And, if you feel you need an extra jolt, our coffee is so delicious, you’ll want a second or third (or fourth, fifth) cup.