About roasting, a beginners guide
Introduction
There is a room with boxes to the right.
After completing a mission in the 4th store, a roasting machine will be available in this room.
At the beginning you will only have access to very low quality coffee beans.
And you will gradually unlock better quality, and more varieties from different continents.
Each of the 4 continents available offers specific varieties and some specific coffee notes (flavors).
For example if you want a coffee with a whiskey note, you’ll have to roast North American beans, because beans from other continents can’t have this specific whiskey note.
To start, select the roasting machine :
– See the challenges available, for example “roast beans from Asia 20 times”
– Then select “create roasting profile” at bottom right
– Here you can see a list of beans with infos : continent, variety, process, and possible notes
– Choose from your available beans, for this challenge of course you’ll need Asian beans
– And then choose your best roast employee
With a better employee you’ll get a better final score, but be aware that an employee with a lower roasting score won’t be able to use the beans roasted by an employee with a higher score.
The roasting machine : curbs and cracks
When you’ll click the green button to start roasting, the blue curb at left will start to decrease.
It’s the current temperature of your beans, it’ll continue to decrease until 195°.
When you’ll click “ignition” (red button at right), the temperature will slowly start to increase. If you click sooner of ignition, then it’ll increase sooner. But don’t forget there is a latency.
At this step you’ll just use 2 buttons :
decrease heat / increase heat, to vary the heat between 1 and 4 flames
i.e. the temperature of the blue curb will rise more or less quickly.
The green curb reflects the rate of rise.
The orange curb reflects the heat level chosen (1-4 flames).
Beans reach a first crack and a second crack.
The more you raise rate of rise, the faster you’ll reach the first crack.
So if you need to reach 1st crack after 7min40, you’ll have to keep a low heat so that the temperature of the blue curb doesn’t reach 360° (first crack temperature) before 7min40.
When you reach first crack, your beans will progressively reach multiple roasting levels : light roast, medium roast, dark roast. The second crack indicates that if you continue to heat your beans, soon they’ll be burnt.
The notes inside the blue zone
You can get up to 3 notes for your beans. On the image above, you can see at bottom right:
8:56 438° brown-roast 407° malt 376° mapple syrup
you can get a note for your beans :
– a mapple syrup note between 376° and a bit under 407°c
– a malt note between 407°c and a bit under 438°c
– a brown-roast note between 438°c and under ???°c
if you continue above brown-roast requirements or don’t reach mapple syrup requirements in time you’ll get a bad note (a disgusting flavor).
Here when you reach 8min56sec, you’ll see a blue rectangle :
– at left the current temperature of your beans changes in real time
– the longer you need to get a note, the lowest the number of points for this note
– the circle at top shows in this example 9sec remaining to reach 391°c if you want a malt note.
If you want a mapple syrup note, then wait for the square at the left of the name to be filled in green, keeping a low temperature so as not to reach 391°.
If you reach 407° you’ll no longer get mapple syrup note, you’ll get malt.
And you reach 438°c you’ll no longer get malt, you’ll get brown-roast.
You see the little green square mark on the vertical thermometer ?
If you slow the heat, it’ll go up slower. If you increase strongly the heat, it’ll go up much faster. Be aware that there is a latency. If you slow the heat to 1 flame, the little green square won’t magically stop going up, it’ll just slow down. This is the rate of rise, more or less quick.
If your challenge requires no bad note, you need 3 notes for your beans :
1st note : ashy, tobacco (wtf) or apple
2nd note : molasses, peanuts or honey
3rd note : brown-roast, malt or mapple syrup
If your blue curb didn’t reach the temperature required at the starting time, your roasts will get a disgusting note, for example a petroleum note.
Do certain notes fit together better ? Currently i don’t think so, it’s just that some challenges require specific notes and… your personal taste ? Apple, honey, mapple syrup… Yum ?
The tasting note at bottom left depends on the note and the time needed to reach it. Generally of course better beans give a better tasting note. The final score adds the roast (light/medium/dark), the quality of the beans and your employee roast points.
A skillfull employee
Chris Hotard has 491 roasting points. He is level 8.
To get a good roast employee, you can recruit a low level employee and train him/her with roasting skills until level 6 (max).
But if you’ve enough money, you better use max recruiting budget to interview a roaster. Then you can get an employee above level 6. For example Chris has been recruited directly, that’s why he is level 8.
About automation
Here you’ve 2 automation possibilies,
but you can’t automate the beans roasting in your HQ, you’ve to roast them yourself :
1st possibility : supply automation turned on and manual brewing
At level 4 with barista skill, you can automate the brewing using the freshest beans. But if your barista doesn’t want to use your best beans, then cancel the automation and brew your best beans yourself. If you automate supply, roasting, and brewing, the barista will probably use the 80 rate resupplied beans.
2nd possibility : supply automation turned off and automated brewing
