Unlocking the Flavor: The Fine Art of Roasting

Once green coffee beans have been harvested, they must be skinned, de-pulped, washed, dried and sorted. Only then are they ready to be shipped to Van Houtte for roasting.

Roasting is a process in which hard, "raw" green coffee beans are placed in a large, gas-heated rotating drum where they are chemically and physically transformed into brittle, brown beans through the application of hot air. This process gives coffee beans their color, aroma and flavor – in short, everything that we associate with delicious Van Houtte coffee.

It sounds simple, but in fact the entire process requires precision, control and careful monitoring each step of the way. We use state-of-the-art computer programs to monitor roasting – all under the expert eyes of our Master Roaster.

The small-batch roasting method

At Van Houtte, we roast our coffees using the traditional European small-batch roasting method. This means that only 450 lbs. of green beans are roasted at a time as opposed to the 1,000-lb. quantities of other coffee roasters.

This roasting method allows us to control crucial factors such as temperature, roasting time, heating rate, ventilation and cooling time. The result? Consistently superior-tasting beans, batch after batch.

Light, medium or dark?

Broadly speaking, coffee is roasted to a light, medium or dark roast. The length of roasting time determines the grade and, more importantly, the coffee's color and taste.

A light roast produces a reddish-brown bean that has a soft taste, good acidity and light body.

A medium roast gives a darker brown bean with well-balanced flavors and good body.

Dark roast beans are almost black, have a rich, strong taste and heavy body.

Blending: Fully-rounded coffees

Apart from a few coffees from Kenya, Costa Rica and Guatemala, most coffees from a single country or region don't have the right combination of characteristics – acidity, mellowness, body, hints of spice or fruit - that make up a truly fine coffee. For this reason, most coffees we consume are blends.

Blending is an art that requires extensive knowledge of the various coffee bean characteristics. It can be done before roasting (two or more raw coffees are combined), after roasting (a combination of different roasts called post-roast blending), or both.

Van Houtte blends our coffees according to the original recipes of founder Albert-Louis Van Houtte. Our unique blends create fully-rounded coffees that capture the taste subtleties of each bean.

Not the same old grind...

Roasted coffee beans may look and smell inviting, but this alone isn't enough to make a good cup of coffee. In order for roasted beans to release their maximum flavor and aroma, the coffee has to be ground – and ground right.

Grind means friction and friction means heat. However, heat can adversely affect coffee's color, taste and aroma. To minimize the negative effects of heat during grinding, Van Houtte uses millstones that are cooled by water. In this way, our coffees keeps their delicate aromas and color acquired during roasting.

Coffee freshness

Coffee, like most foods that are subject to heating or other types of processing, can quickly lose its natural goodness if not packaged immediately. Among its other benefits, packaging protects coffee from the effects of oxygen which can destroy essential flavors and aromas.

The simplest and most effective way to handle roasted coffee is to use a package equipped with a one-way freshness valve. The valve locks flavor in and prevents the package from… exploding! Here's why.

Owing to its specific chemical characteristics, coffee not only loses some of its flavor when exposed to oxygen, it also emits a certain amount of gas. This natural reaction is called de-gassing and can continue for a few hours to a few days depending on the roast and the room temperature.

If coffee is packaged in an airtight bag immediately after roasting, de-gassing could cause the bag to inflate – and explode. One way to avert this is to let the coffee sit in a vented container until all its gases are released. As we've already mentioned, however, this would result in loss of flavor and aroma. So what's the solution?

At Van Houtte, we vacuum-pack our coffee – remove the oxygen – immediately after it has been roasted. So thanks to the freshness valve in each package, the coffee can still de-gas without causing our bags to explode. How? The valve releases the gasses, prevents oxygen from seeping in… and guarantees freshness!