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As for specialty coffee beans, Hidenori Izaki, 2014
World Barista Champion shared his insight that we still need to
think about the market while trying to bring out all the flavors
from the origin. “Japanese market don’t like a cup of coffee
that is too bright so we need to roast to maintain the flavors of
the coffee as well as making it more balance.” As the current
World Barista Champion, Sasa Sestic told us that his roasters
roast coffee differently for milk-based drinks, espresso and
filter. Milk-based coffee blends at Sasa’s shop concentrates on
flavors and trying to bring out as much flavors possible. Since
the blend is so concentrated, they add milk to create the bal-
ance. For espresso and filter, Sasa focuses more on the balance
and clarity for certain recipes they do which means the roaster
will try to roast coffee to suit the recipe in and out. Jake Hu,
WCE representative and owner of Taster’s Coffee, told us two
factors that goes into consideration when roasting specialty is
to showcase the bean’s characteristics from the origin or/and
to showcase that roaster’s purpose. For specialty, many roast- Kammie Hui
ers intend to roast to highlight the flavors and characteristics Roaster and manager of 18 Grams Specialty Coffee
of the beans’ origin.
However, roasting for competitions is another story, Roasting Trends
for different type of competitions the beans needs to be roasted Coffee roasters nowadays roasts coffee much lighter
in different style. “For barista competition, the roasting will be compared to the last decade. A few years ago, baristas are pull-
towards espresso extraction and based on the machine we use.” ing double ristretto and serving beans with chocolaty, nutty and
Ryan shared with us “We do ridiculous amount of roast profiles caramelized sugar notes as a norm. Now, they are extracting
and bring them all to taste at the venue because there’s no way longer espresso shots due to lighter roasts to be able to extract
to tell how the beans will react to travel, climate, temperature, all the deliciousness out from the beans and these coffee usually
altitude change, water, and we don’t want to compensate and tastes like fruit tea. In general, roasting darker to some point will
that’s why we just bring many different batches.” The roaster make it more difficult to reflect the true characteristics of the
behind many national champions, Jake suggests “I don’t encour- beans as it hinders the soft and delicate aromas and flavours.
age competitors to use very expensive beans because usually And by roasting lighter to a certain degree, consumers are able
the barista cannot afford to use it much for practice which to enjoy the fruitiness and sweetness of the coffees. But if it
means the competitor only depend on the coffee itself to col- was roasted too light, drinkers will receive undesirable raw and
lect the scores. But we are in a barista competition, by using a grassy taste from coffee. Discovering is part of the learning pro-
very expensive beans it will not be easy to showcase the barista. cess and maybe this is one of those stage. Kammie Hui, roaster
The barista should show the philosophy and skills through the and manager of 18 Grams Specialty Coffee, shared with us that
beans.” However, the 2014 World Brewers Cup Champion Ste- she strongly believes the trend of roasting will come back to
fanos Domatiotis gave an interesting insight “For me, champion- darker roasts coffee, not in a burnt way but a more developed
ship is championship but it is really important that if you roast profile when coffee actually tastes like coffee, not tea.
the beans more special in the championship, you don’t respect Consumers preference changes from time to time and
your customers because you have the best judge in your shop coffee have become an artisanal beverage. Farmers are pro-
everyday.” ducing higher quality coffees, baristas have never been more
focused on delivering consistency and roasting have become
about how to bring out the unique characteristics of each
beans. Each part of the chain acknowledged the importance of
relationship building from producers to consumers. Consumers
are aware of what they are drinking from seed to cup and this
means people in the industry have got to work a little harder to
find good quality beans and to gather all the relevant informa-
tions. This does not only mean that the trend in consumers’
preferences have changed, it also means that the industry as a
whole have improved.

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