Translator’s Guide to Coffee Roasts
While we can’t assume that all professional translators drink coffee, the art of performing translation services is ideally suited to pairing with the consumption of some type of warm beverage. Long hours sitting (or standing) in front of a computer screen, intently focused on the day’s translation projects, is how translators spend a portion of their productive time. Having a favorite beverage at the ready to sip is undoubtedly standard procedure for many.
On a recommendation I recently visited a “small batch craft coffee roaster’s shop” near our office. I don’t drink coffee every day, although occasionally reward myself with a special cup (sorry Starbucks … seldom yours).
Out of habit (and apparently an uninformed one) I requested the shop’s darkest coffee. I was politely informed by the shop’s owner that “Well, actually none of our coffees are dark. Dark usually means burnt.”
To save others from similar potentially embarrassing coffee shop ordering missteps (and possibly enhance their future coffee consumption appreciation), a few coffee roasting facts follow:
- As coffee roasts get darker, they lose the origin flavors of the beans and take on more flavor from the roasting process.
- The body of the coffee gets heavier, until the second crack, where the body again thins.
- Light roasted beans are dry, while darker roasts develop oil on the bean surface.
- Dark roast coffees actually have less caffeine than lighter roasts. A strong, rich flavor might seem to indicate an extra dose of caffeine, but the truth is that light roasts actually pack more of a jolt than dark roasts.
- Of the 25 or so Coffea plant species, two species, Coffea arabica (Arabica coffee) and Coffea canephora (Robusta coffee), account for almost all commercial production.
- Because Robusta has more body than Arabica, it is often used in traditional Italian espresso blends where a full-bodied taste is desired. But more often Robusta is used in coffee blends as a less expensive substitute for Arabica. That’s why some higher-quality or gourmet coffees will tout the fact that they are “100% Arabica coffee.”
- A commercial drum coffee roaster can take 15, 20 or more minutes to roast a batch of green beans. The same batch size of green beans can be roasted in 6 to 8 minutes in a commercial air roaster.
