W hile they don't smell like roasted coffee, healthy green beans do have aroma. In fact, a coffee buyer sniffs raw beans to assess their quality. O nce selected, green beans must be roasted to release the flavor and aroma locked in their 200-plus chemical compounds. Heat produces over 400 naturally-occuring compounds that create the flavor of roasted coffee. All the coffee's sugars are retained, so its varietal characteristics are primary in its final flavor.
Oils combine with proteins and salts while sugars caramelize and eventually carbonize.
Much as in a marshmallow over a campfire, the roast color turns from light brown to crisp black as sugars carbonize. W e often blend varieties of coffee to emphasize and balance their particular traits. Coffees are blended both before and after roasting. Before roasting O ur roasters select green coffees from different regions, blend them, and roast them together. All the beans are the same color at the finish of the roast.