Spanish Caramelized Coffee

BeanGrinder

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Aug 11, 2004
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I have a customer who talks about a coffee he bought in Madrid. The display, according to him, included a light roast in one canister, and another with a dark roasted, caramelized blackened bean. The two were apparently mixed in equal proportion.

Does anyone know about this? What are the beans and how are the darker roasted beans prepared?

-BG
 

jlyon10

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Feb 16, 2007
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Just a guess

This is just a guess not knowing the coffee. Coffee gets shinny and carmelized the longer you roast it. I like to mix light and dark together because then you get the flavor and the higher caffine.
 

BeanGrinder

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Jim - Thanks for that observation. As a professional roaster I actually did think of that and pursued that with the client. In fact, he said the beans had a crusty caramelized look as if they had been sprinkled with sugar as they were roasted.

It seems this is some different product that he has only encountered in Madrid. I don't know if it is unique to that seller of coffee on the square in Madrid, perhaps more common in the middle east.

Thinking it through, I suspect these beans were roasted in a wok. I know this is common practice in some places in the world. I'd like to learn more about it.

Of course, that may or may not be the technique applied in this case.
 

muzoon

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When i was traveling in Syria and Jordan i saw that locals were roasting turkish coffee in two ways light and very dark. the dark roast was shining from coffee oils.
in syria and jordan they make their coffees in 3 ways: coffee from light roasted, coffee from dark roasted and mixing them together...

i think your customer can try to eat fewe of his dark beans and taste if there is any other tastes present beside to coffee oils. that way he can approve if there is any extra oils or caramellike stuff sprinkled on his coffee.
 

Davec

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It's a technique of adding sugar to coffee during the roasting. I understand that the beans are sprayed with a concentrated sugar solution before being placed in the roaster and roasted. I jhave heard people say it is added during roasting, but can't see how they could easily do that.

I had thought of experimenting before I came to my senses and realised what a mess it would make of my roaster.
 

ElPugDiablo

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Davec said:
It's a technique of adding sugar to coffee during the roasting. I understand that the beans are sprayed with a concentrated sugar solution before being placed in the roaster and roasted. I jhave heard people say it is added during roasting, but can't see how they could easily do that.

I had thought of experimenting before I came to my senses and realised what a mess it would make of my roaster.

It's call Torrefacto coffee. They do that in Spain, and in Singapore and Malaysia as well. My understanding it that most are done by spraying sugar solution after beans are dumped. Sort of like flavoring coffee. I can't imagine adding sugar directly into the drum, but I suppose anything is possible.
 

BeanGrinder

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Well, I think it would be worth trying in a wok, but I'm not messing up my roaster on a whim!

Thanks for the info and putting a name on the technique. It gives me a next step to research.

-BG
 

du212

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[quote:20b5ffb00e=\"ElPugDiablo\"][quote:20b5ffb00e=\"Davec\"]It''s a technique of adding sugar to coffee during the roasting. I understand that the beans are sprayed with a concentrated sugar solution before being placed in the roaster and roasted. I jhave heard people say it is added during roasting, but can''t see how they could easily do that.

I had thought of experimenting before I came to my senses and realised what a mess it would make of my roaster.[/quote:20b5ffb00e]

It''s call Torrefacto coffee. They do that in Spain, and in Singapore and Malaysia as well. My understanding it that most are done by spraying sugar solution after beans are dumped. Sort of like flavoring coffee. I can''t imagine adding sugar directly into the drum, but I suppose anything is possible.[/quote:20b5ffb00e]

Exactly. In Spain you can see two types of coffee (roasting):

Natural: Only coffee roasted
Mezcla: A mixed product of coffee roasted and \"torrefacto\" coffee (10-50%)

The \"torrefacto\" coffee it''s a \"terminator\" coffe, deep black and plenty of caffeine. The origin of this style of roasting with sugar gaz is Portugal, this coffee is low quality coffee but it has more caffeine.

In Spain the most popular is the \"mezcla\" coffee, it''s used in the \"cafeterias\" and Bars, and you can buy it at the shops and supermarkets. The Spanish coffee roasters have always a \"mezcla\" coffee product.

The \"mezcla\" is worst (a lot) tahn an arabica roasted coffee from Colombia, or Costa Rica , they are more expensive but easy to buy here
 

Carmine Domenaco

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Torrefacto used to be very popular in latin america. Until a few years ago more than 60% of the coffee consumed in Costa Rica was Torrefacto.

I was at a mill with a torrefacto roaster and it was really scary. You''re about 5 seconds away from a major fire at any given time and the carbon build up on the equipment was downright sketchy. The exhaust was really gross due to the water quench that spewed a cloud of burnt sugar steam. I could smell it on me until I got a change of clothes and a shower.

This will ruin your roaster and it can only make the worst coffee taste less bad, it can''t make good coffee taste better
 
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