We'll say it straight: if you don't understand how coffee roasting works, then you don't really understand coffee.

If you somehow manage to brew raw green coffee without breaking your grinder burrs, you'll find that it's pretty yucky and not coffee-like at all. That's because coffee is a roasted product–all those delicious flavours and aromas in your brew didn't exist in the raw product. As a brewer, you are limited to extracting the flavour present in the beans. As a roaster, you create flavour.

Who is this course for?‍

This course is perfect to lay the foundations for anybody wishing to start a roasting career, to roast coffee at home, or for anybody simply wishing to expand their coffee knowledge.

What will I get out of it?‍

Besides the take-home bags of coffee roasted by you, you'll be leaving with an entirely transformed understanding of coffee. There will be lots of learning, as well as plenty of tasting, smelling, feeling, and yes, roasting.

Have you ever wondered...

• Which flavours in your brew are contributed by the origin, varietal or processing, and which flavours are created through the roasting?
• How do different types of roasts change a coffee's flavour?
• This coffee sucks! Is it my fault for brewing it badly? The roaster's fault for roasting it badly? Or is poor quality green coffee to blame?

We'll explore all these questions (and much more) during the course. And of course, you'll learn how to roast coffee in a manner that maximises its sweetness, clarity of flavour and overall deliciousness.

The class is capped at four people so you'll get plenty of individual attention.

PLANNED TIMETABLE

9.30 Theory: a quick history lesson on coffee and roasting

9:50 Practice: cupping 1 [roast level comparison]

10:30 Break

10:40 Theory and practice: what makes different coffees taste different?

11:00 Practice: cupping 2 [same roast, different coffees]

11:40 Break

11:50 Theory: roast profiling

12:05 Practice: Roasting demo

12:45 Lunch

1:30 Theory: the relationship between roasting and brewing

1:45 Practice: roasting / sensory training / green grading

4:30 We're done!

COVID-19

To reduce any risk of viral transmission, we've adapted the course by reducing the class sizes, limiting cross-contamination and increasing ventilation.

If you feel any flu-like symptoms on the day of the course, please do not attend. We will re-book you at a later date at no extra cost.

ABOUT ECRE

The Ensemble of Coffee, Research and Education (ECRE) is co-roasting facility and coffee academy in Sydney, Australia.