From Green Bean to Your Cup — How We Roast at caféAtaraxia
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Great coffee is not an accident. The cup you pick up at caféAtaraxia — whether it's a clean, floral pour-over or a rich, chocolatey espresso — is the result of a process that begins months before roast day, in farms thousands of kilometres away, and continues right up to the moment the beans are measured, approved, and brought to the café floor. Understanding that process is part of understanding what specialty coffee actually means, and why it tastes the way it does. We want to walk you through our process from beginning to end — how we choose our origins, why certain coffees are roasted differently from others, what happens inside the roaster, and why we won't put a bag on the shelf until we're satisfied it's ready. It's a process we care about deeply, and we think it shows in the cup. |
Starting with Origin — Why Where Matters
Coffee grows in a band around the equator known as the Coffee Belt — a stretch of tropical and subtropical countries that includes Ethiopia, Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, Rwanda, Kenya, Indonesia, and dozens more. Within that belt, the specific conditions of each growing region — altitude, rainfall, soil composition, shade cover, temperature variation between day and night — shape the chemical makeup of the coffee cherry and, ultimately, what the roasted bean tastes like.
This is what specialty coffee professionals call terroir — a concept borrowed from wine but no less applicable to coffee. A washed Ethiopian coffee grown at 2,000 metres in the Yirgacheffe region will taste fundamentally different from a natural Brazilian coffee grown at 900 metres on a large estate in Minas Gerais. Not better or worse — different. Each carries the character of its place.
When we evaluate potential origins, we're reading cupping notes and green bean data provided by importers, tasting samples where possible, and assessing how each origin fits within the broader portfolio we want to offer. We work exclusively with beans that meet SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) grading standards — a quality benchmark that filters out defects and guarantees a minimum level of cup quality before we ever consider roasting.
The question we're always asking is: what does this bean do best, and does it fill a gap in what we currently offer? Some origins are natural espresso coffees — they have the body, sweetness, and structure that high-pressure extraction demands. Others are filter coffees by nature — their bright acidity, delicate florals, and light body reveal themselves most fully in a slow brew. Our job is to understand those qualities and position each coffee accordingly.
Building a Balanced Portfolio
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Each season, we review the available green bean options and narrow our lineup to four or five origins that collectively cover the full flavor spectrum we want to offer. This isn't just about variety for variety's sake — it's about ensuring that every customer, regardless of their brew method or flavor preference, can find a caféAtaraxia coffee that's genuinely right for them.
We think about the lineup in terms of coverage. We want a reliable, approachable everyday espresso. We want a classic milk-friendly coffee that holds up in lattes and flat whites. We want at least one bright, fruit-forward filter coffee for the pour-over drinkers and home brewers who want something more nuanced. And we want something with enough complexity and character to reward the curious — the customer who's ready to explore what specialty coffee can be when it's at its best.
Some origins earn a place in two expressions — roasted at different levels for different purposes. Our Ethiopia, for instance, exists as both a light filter roast and a slightly more developed espresso roast. Same beans, different profiles, different destinations. It's a decision we make deliberately, and it reflects how seriously we take the idea that roast level isn't just a preference — it's a tool for expressing the best qualities of a specific coffee in a specific context.
A Few Examples of Balance in Our Offerings
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Our lineup reflects this thinking across five origins, each chosen for what it brings to the portfolio:
Brazil — Chocolate, Nuts, Caramel Sweetness
Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer, and its best specialty lots deliver something that many other origins can't quite replicate: a deeply consistent, low-acid sweetness that functions beautifully as an espresso anchor. Our Brazilian coffee is naturally processed — the cherry is dried whole around the bean — which amplifies the fruit sugars and produces a round, full-bodied cup with notes of dark chocolate, hazelnuts, and caramel.
In espresso, Brazil is the backbone. It pulls clean shots with excellent crema, handles milk beautifully, and provides the kind of reliable, satisfying base that keeps people coming back every morning. For customers who want their coffee to taste like coffee — not like a fruit salad or a tea — our Brazil is the answer. It's the kind of coffee that doesn't demand anything from you, and rewards you for it.
Colombia — Passion Fruit, Caramel, Brightness
Colombian specialty coffee occupies a unique middle ground — bright enough to be interesting, sweet enough to be immediately accessible, and structured enough to work across multiple brew methods. Our Colombian lots are washed-process coffees from high-altitude growing regions, which produces the clean cup profile and vibrant acidity the origin is known for.
We carry our Colombia in two roast expressions: a medium espresso roast that emphasizes the caramel sweetness and gives the shot body and length, and a lighter filter roast where the passion fruit and floral qualities have room to fully develop. If you're new to specialty coffee and want to understand why people get passionate about origins, our Colombia is a good place to start — it's complex without being challenging.
Ethiopia — Wild Berries, Yellow Peach, Florals
Ethiopia is the origin of coffee. All Coffea arabica descends from wild plants found in the forests of the Ethiopian highlands, and the country's coffees carry a complexity and genetic diversity that can't be replicated anywhere else in the world. Our Ethiopian lots are washed-process coffees from the high-altitude growing zones, and they express a flavor profile that still surprises people who encounter it for the first time: vivid blueberry and blackcurrant, yellow stone fruit, jasmine florals, and a tea-like clarity that feels almost delicate.
We roast our Ethiopia light, specifically for filter and pour-over. The high-pressure extraction of espresso tends to flatten these delicate aromatics and push the profile toward bitterness; a slow filter brew at lower temperature does the opposite, opening the coffee up and letting every layer of flavor express itself fully. If you're a pour-over drinker who hasn't tried a high-quality washed Ethiopian, our Ethiopia is one of the most compelling arguments for why brew method and origin pairing genuinely matters.
Guatemala — Chocolate, Pecan, Structured Acidity
Guatemala's volcanic highlands produce coffees with a distinctive combination of depth and structure. The mineral-rich soils and significant altitude swings between day and night create beans with a firm body, a well-defined acidity, and flavor notes that lean toward dark chocolate, toasted pecan, and brown sugar. Our Guatemala sits at a medium-light roast that sits comfortably between the approachability of Brazil and the complexity of Ethiopia.
It's a coffee that performs well in espresso for customers who want something beyond a pure chocolate base — there's enough complexity and brightness in the Guatemala to keep the shot interesting through to the finish — and it also works well in filter applications for drinkers who want body and structure without the fruit-forward character of our Ethiopia or Colombia Filter. It's the coffee that tends to appeal to customers who think they know exactly what they like, and then find themselves curious about something different.
Rwanda — Chocolate, Caramel, Raspberry Finish
Rwandan specialty coffee has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past two decades, and the country's best cooperative and washing-station lots now rank among the finest in the world. Our Rwanda brings together the best characteristics of East African coffee — the brightness, the clarity, the fruit-forward finish — with a richness and body that makes it genuinely compelling in espresso.
The profile is: dark chocolate on entry, caramel sweetness through the mid-palate, and a distinctive raspberry brightness on the finish that lingers longer than you expect. In espresso it produces shots with real personality — not a safe, predictable cup, but something with character and a story. It's become one of our most talked-about coffees among customers who come in expecting a conventional espresso and leave thinking about what they just tasted.
From Selection to Roast Profile Development
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Once we've confirmed our lineup and the green beans have been delivered to the café, the work of profile development begins. A roast profile is a plan — a roadmap for how we apply and adjust heat over the course of a roast — and getting it right for each individual coffee requires genuine attention and iteration.
Different origins have different physical characteristics: moisture content, bean density, cell structure. A dense, high-altitude bean like our Ethiopia or Guatemala needs a different approach than a lower-density Brazilian natural. Apply too much heat too early and you scorch the exterior before the interior has developed; too little and you under-develop the sugars and produce a flat, grassy, underdeveloped cup.
We test profiles before we commit. A new origin typically goes through several roast iterations — different levels of heat application, different development times, different end temperatures. When the same origin is being roasted for two different purposes (our Ethiopia being the clearest example), we develop and maintain separate profiles for each, treating them as distinct coffees even though they begin as the same green bean.
Roast Day — What Actually Happens
We roast in 2kg batches. This is a deliberate choice. Smaller batches give us significantly greater control over heat distribution, roast consistency, and the ability to respond to what's happening inside the roaster in real time. Every batch gets our full attention from the moment green beans go in to the moment the roasted beans hit the cooling tray.
The Stages of Roasting
For those who want to understand what's happening physically and chemically during the roast, here's a breakdown of the key stages:
Drying phase: Green beans contain significant moisture — typically 10–12% water by weight. The first stage of the roast drives off that water before any meaningful chemical transformation begins. During this phase the beans turn from green to yellow and the aromas shift from grassy and vegetative to something warmer and more bread-like. This phase sets the foundation for everything that follows; rush it and you create uneven development later.
Maillard reaction: As internal bean temperature rises, sugars and amino acids begin to react with each other in a complex series of browning reactions. This is the same process responsible for the browning of bread or the crust on a piece of toast, and it's where coffee starts to develop the hundreds of aromatic compounds that give it its characteristic smell and much of its flavor. The beans turn from yellow to progressively deeper shades of brown during this phase.
First crack: At around 196°C, the pressure built up inside the bean from expanding gases and steam causes an audible cracking sound — similar to popcorn, though generally less violent. This is a key moment in the roast. A light roast might end shortly after first crack; medium and darker roasts continue into or well past the development phase that follows.
Development phase: After first crack, the roaster makes the most consequential decisions of the roast. How long we stay in this phase, and at what temperature, determines body, sweetness, acidity balance, and how fully the origin's character comes through. Too short and the coffee is underdeveloped — bright to the point of sourness, with raw or cereal-like flavors. Too long and the roast character overwhelms the origin, producing bitterness and a generic "dark roast" profile that masks everything interesting about the bean. We aim for a development that serves the coffee — not a house style imposed on top of it.
The drop: At the right moment — determined by time, temperature, color, and the sound and smell of the roast — we drop the beans into the cooling tray. A fan rapidly reduces the temperature, locking the roast in place. The timing of the drop is one of the highest-stakes decisions in the process. A few seconds in either direction can meaningfully change the final cup.
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Rest, Measure, Release
Freshly roasted coffee is not ready to drink. After the roast, beans release carbon dioxide — a process called degassing — as the gases produced during roasting gradually escape through the cell walls of the bean. This off-gassing period is not just a waiting game; it's part of the coffee's maturation. Brewing coffee that hasn't degassed properly results in uneven extraction, agitated brews, and a cup that doesn't accurately represent what the coffee can do.
After each roast, we rest the beans for several days before taking measurements. This evaluation tells us whether the roast executed as planned — whether the profile we developed in testing has translated correctly — and gives us a read on where the coffee is in its flavor development.
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Our coffees are not released for sale until they have rested for a minimum of 7 to 10 days post-roast. That's the point at which the flavors have integrated enough to be genuinely representative of what the coffee is. But 10 days is a floor, not a ceiling. Most of our coffees continue to develop and improve beyond that mark, often reaching their peak somewhere between two and four weeks post-roast depending on the origin, density, and roast level. We note the roast date on every bag so you know exactly where your beans are in their journey and can make informed decisions about when to brew them.
This is what we mean when we talk about freshness. It's not just about being recently roasted — it's about being at the right point in the post-roast development window. A bag of coffee roasted three weeks ago that has been stored properly will often outperform a bag roasted five days ago that hasn't had time to rest. We take both sides of that equation seriously.
Why We Roast Our Own
The obvious question is: why bother? Why not source roasted coffee from established roasters and focus on the café experience?
The answer is control. When we roast our own coffee, we know exactly what went into every decision — the origin, the profile, the rest period, the release timing. There's no warehouse, no bulk stock, no months-old beans sitting in a distribution center. Every bag of caféAtaraxia coffee was roasted locally, in Parede.
We also believe that in-house roasting is inseparable from the identity of caféAtaraxia. Our approach to coffee — deliberate, detail-oriented, grounded in craft — is the same approach we bring to everything else in the café. Roasting is where that philosophy begins. Everything else follows from it.
If You've Made It This Far, Why Not Try Some Of Our Beans Today?
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