Most coffee beans today are roasted in a barrel or a drum, which is the conventional way of roasting coffee. However, there is a better way to get this done and that is air roasting the coffee. If you are looking for answers related to air roasted coffee. This comprehensive guide will explain everything.
Air roasting elevates coffee roasting to a polished art form that few have heard of. Whatever technique you choose to brew coffee, whether it’s a French press, a pour-over, or an expresso, you’ll be seeking the best coffee grounds to use and, in my opinion, air roasted beans are the best ones.
It blew my mind when I first heard about air roasted coffee. If you’re like me, you imagine a giant barrel of beans roasting with an almost charred scent. However, with air roasted coffee that is not the case at all. Let’s find out more about air roasted coffee.
What is Air Roasted Coffee
In contrast to the conventional process of tumbling in a hot steel drum coffee roaster, air roasting coffee is roasted on a fluid bed of hot air. It is a 4-minute procedure in which air roasting warms the air in which the beans are hanging to uniformly cook the beans and blast off the chaff (the beans’ outer peel).
Air roasting beans on a fluid bed of hot air is more efficient than barrel roasting and claims to maintain more of the health benefits of coffee.
Fans of this type of roasting method swear by it, claiming that the cup tastes better and is less harsh. Let’s look at the history of this unique way of roasting coffee beans.
Air Roasted Coffee Beans – A Walk Through Time
However, on the outskirts of coffee-lover culture, there may be talk about air roasting coffee beans. It’s the way that could have (but never did) become widespread. Even though air roasting technologies exist since the 1970s, air roasting accounts for just a small fraction of the global coffee supply today.
The air roasting process was invented by many chemical engineers, but it wasn’t until 1970 that coffee consultant Mike Sivetz devised the fluidized air roasting bed. This new roaster altered the perception of coffee, and it became a specialty beverage. In 1976, Sivetz received a patent for his air roasting bed.
Sivetz worked hard to create the novel air roasting technology after being dissatisfied with the existing coffee roasting methods. Sivetz desired to make something better, so he began experimenting with coffee roasting in his workshop. For a brief while in the 1970s, air roasting was fashionable. Today, air roasting is not widely used, and most coffee drinkers have never heard of it. Let us now tell you how air roasting is done.
Air Roasting – How to do it?
Air roasting is a simpler, more scientific way of roasting coffee beans than the conventional process. Because of the obscurity of this roasting procedure, just 1% of coffee beans go through air roasting.
Then the still-green coffee beans go into a chamber with hot air blowing through them. The bean floats in the heated air, allowing it to cook evenly.
While the hot air uniformly roasts the beans, it also blows the chaff away, all while the roasting stage is being processed.
When the beans have reached the required amount of roasting, they are placed in a cooling tank to rest until they are ready for packing. In comparison to the barrel roasting procedure, which may take up to 15 minutes, this entire roasting time is only 4-8 minutes.
Let us now compare drum roasting with air roasting.
Drum Roasting Beans Versus Air Roasting Beans
If you arrange green coffee beans on a baking pan, the outcome will be uneven. The same thing happens when you try to roast coffee beans in a skillet and are unable to stir them rapidly enough.
Heat transfer between coffee beans is equally important as heat transfer between the beans and the drum. As a result, drum roasters move the coffee beans to get more consistent output. The drum roaster, however, is less consistent than the air roaster.
Another distinction between an air roaster and a drum roaster is chaff (or silverskin) control. Chaff burns within drum roasters, influencing the flavor and fragrance of coffee beans. Air roasters use a proprietary process to service the silver skin without burning it.
Finally, the roasting time is a significant variation between the two techniques. Drum roasters often take more than twelve minutes to roast a batch, whereas air roasters take five minutes on average.
While centrifugal roasters are the most efficient at handling huge quantities, they sacrifice quality. In this aspect, air roasters function faster without sacrificing quality.
How Is Air Roasting Coffee Better Than Drum Roasting Coffee
Hot air in the air roaster drives out the chaff (which would otherwise burn into the beans) as well as any other pollutants during this procedure. But only bean undergoes roasting not all other items. This ensures that the burnt chaff isn’t part of the coffee beans mixture.
Moreover, the fluid bed roaster can achieve greater temperatures in half the time of conventional cylindrical roasters. So the time for the formation of negative acidic chemicals becomes considerably less. Many people have discovered that these acidic components can cause stomach discomfort, and we have many clients who used to avoid coffee but can now consume it easily.
As a result, coffee made using drum roasters tastes cleaner and smoother, is more uniform, and is less carcinogenic.
FINAL THOUGHTS
For customers, our final say is that air roasted coffee is more likely to be precisely roasted every time than traditional drum roaster coffee. If you’ve ever purchased the same bag of coffee twice and felt disappointed that the second bag wasn’t the same as the first, air roasted coffee is worth a try.
For a roaster or a person who wants to start roasting coffee, air roasters are easy to operate and allow you to brew better coffee faster. If you want to try something new, even skilled roasters might profit from experimenting with air roasting. The main disadvantage for industrial application is the lesser capacity of air roasters compared to drum roasters.
Thanks so much for talking about how air roasting evenly roasts the beans and removes their outer layer. My partner and I love coffee and want to try all different types so we don't get tired of serving the same thing. we've heard about air roasted coffee and we've been looking into finding a place we can buy from so we can see what the difference is like.