underdeveloped roasting

I will just jump in and say it, Lemon, Lemon, Lemon. If I wanted to cup lemon in my fresh brew, I'd do what my grandma did, pick a fresh lemon off the lemon tree, then slice and squeeze a bit into my long black.

There is this micro line you tread when roasting lighter coffees, the parameters are within 11 degrees from failure to enlightenment of perfect flavours. A lack of control and comprehension of what on earth you are doing will produce a unpalatable composition of acid dominating the front palette that will destroy any other coffees' delicate profiles you intended to try within the line up of cupping for that morning, that is if you are cupping the coffee you are roasting before releasing it onto the market place..

Every dedicated coffee roaster out there is trying their upmost in finding the best profile for that origin in hand. A deep, complex, dedicated love with a dash of discipline is the true path for outstanding roasting.

Take a El Salvador for instance. The drop temperature and chosen fuel valve must ensure correct bean development so to allow the coffee to open up, releasing the right amount of moisture, puffing the beans out and doubling their size without tipping the faces or ends of each individual coffee bean otherwise you have cooked the coffee too fast, and that will inhibit the end aromatics, flavor, mouth feel, body. The coffee will prbably taste flat, gritty, a little charred, incomplete and missing whole notes of typical attributes associated with the El Salvador.
The opposite of a too hot/fast roast is the physical lack of expansion of the bean from not applying enough heat durning the profile. This I see and taste more often than burnt coffee. I think this style of roasting comes from a lack of experience and fear. Fear from not wanting to 'burn' that $60.00 kg cup of excellence origin so leads to a shyness of bean assessment prior to roasting. This is worse than tipping the ends of your El Salvador, as the coffee beans have not had the chance to open up and at least double in size from a good healthy amount of heat from the burners. The time and temperature when you judge to turn off the burners and then to dropping the beans out of the drum and finishing the roast will determine how fantastic or sour the coffee will be. br />