Why we roast our Ethiopians light

There's a real debate, even among small roasters, about how far to develop an Ethiopian coffee. We roast ours light on purpose, and not everyone agrees with us. Here's the case for it.

Most Ethiopian heirloom varieties carry a delicate aromatic profile — florals, citrus, stone fruit, sometimes tea-like tannins. Those compounds are heat-sensitive. Past about a minute of development after first crack, the sugars in the bean begin to caramelize, and the volatile aromatics you bought the bean for start to give way to baking-spice and roasty notes that the bean did not produce on the farm.

We roast our Yirgacheffe to a finish temperature of around 410°F (210°C), with a development ratio under fifteen percent. That sounds technical. In practice it means the bean is just past first crack and out of the drum. The crust is fully developed but the bean's interior is still pale.

The trade-off is that this coffee is harder to brew. A light roast wants a finer grind and hotter water than people are used to. It doesn't play well with espresso, and it can taste sour if you rush it. But brewed carefully, it's the most honest version of itself.