"Moisture Content in Coffee Roasting"

How Does Moisture Content Affect Coffee Roasters?

At each stage of the coffee supply chain, the moisture content of a green bean must diminish – or the bean might become moldy, defective, and less valuable than before. Ensuring a bean dries correctly is essential in order to optimize its quality potential and minimize the chance of problems.

Roasters, near the end of the supply chain, have two tasks when it comes to managing moisture content. On the one hand, they must?maintain the lots they store onsite within a narrow moisture range?that is acceptable to their quality standards. They need to hold their coffee in this range for a period that will, hopefully, not be longer than a year.

On the other hand, and in the span of a few minutes, the roaster is responsible for?driving the last remaining bits of moisture out of the bean?via the application of intense heat and pressure. In these minutes, the coffee is exposed to the most energy it will experience at any point in the coffee supply chain and the roast is set up for either success or failure.