Italian-style roasting
After selecting the best coffee beans from plantations all over the world, coffee is delivered to our factory for roasting. Inside the roasting equipment our “green gold” is heated to a temperature ranging from 200 to 230°C. Heating must be uniform to achieve a homogeneously roasted product.
During the roasting stage the bean loses 18-20% of its weight depending on the place of origin of the coffee itself, while its volume increases up to 60%. At this stage the aromas of coffee develop: there are hundreds of them. The consistency of the bean changes from hard to crumbly, and a variety of oils begin to appear on its surface. The colour instead depends upon the temperature degrees achieved: the longer beans are roasted (with the risk of burning them), the darker they become and their taste tends to become bitter. The more rapidly are beans cooled down, the better are their aromas preserved.
The duration of the whole process may vary depending on the type of roasting (15 minutes on average). However a roasting technician understands when “the right time” has come and may decide to stop the process just by listening to the “music” produced by the beans in the roasting equipment.
Cooling
Once the roasting process is over, coffee beans must be cooled promptly in order to preserve the desired roasting degree that has just been achieved.
The roasted coffee is left to cool naturally, with no addition of any substance, but only with the help of forced ventilation.
Then coffee beans are left to “rest” inside jute bags for about 9 days, during which time they stabilize and become easier to process with the espresso coffee machine.
Blending
Blending is a fundamental stage in the process that takes to a good espresso.
Several characteristics of the coffee beans must be evaluated in order to blend coffee properly: whether their type is Arabica or Robusta, whether the beans have been dry- or wet-processed, whether coffee is from South America, Africa or Asia, the percentage of the coffee beans from each of these geographical areas and, of course, the quality of the green coffee.
And it is precisely during this delicate stage, or the blending of the coffee beans, that the Caffè Venetico takes its origin.