We’ve been roasting at Ferns for over 125 years now, in a craft that’s unchanged in that time. The roasting process brings out the aroma and flavour locked inside the green coffee beans and provides the essential elements for our different blends.
Coffee beans, as bought and traded aren’t really coffee as we know them until they are roasted. The make up of the bean is the same, but the flavour we experience in a cup of coffee isn’t available until beans are roasted. Beans are stored green, a state in which they can be kept without loss of quality or taste. A green bean has none of the characteristics of a roasted bean — it’s soft and spongy to the bite and smells grassy. Green coffee beans do not smell like coffee at all. But when we roast coffee, we develop up 1,000 different aroma blends.
Green beans are roasted in a rotating preheated drum – typically preheated to 200degrees C. As they roast the beans become become darker, losing their original flavour and taking on more flavour in the process. The body of the coffee gets heavier, until the dark roast stage. Traditionally darker roasts are assumed to have more body, as seen in our Italia Dark roast blend. A brew from Italia Dark will have a smoky burnt flavour, low acidity and great for a neat espresso!
Lighter roasts tend to have more acidity than darker roasts and the caffeine level also decreases as roasts get darker. Aromas in lighter roasts, like our ‘BCG’ blend tend to be complex – fruity, bright, citric etc, and traditionally they’re assumed to have less body.
Roasted beans are quickly cooled and packaged. At Ferns we use foil bags to allow them to ‘de-gas’. From this point, it’s all about maintaining freshness for our customers. The fresher the roast – the better the taste. So we roast, cool, pack and ship as quickly as possible.
And we roast in small batches for our customers only.
Talk about exclusive.
