We blasted this 14lb batch. We started with a high charge temp (490°F on the bean probe) and then immediately hit the coffee with full gas. The gas pattern for this coffee was pretty traditional (stepping down on the gas quickly), but at just over 5 minutes, we felt excited to taste how an extremely fast roast would cup on the Loring system.

In his experience, anytime Danny^† had ever roasted a coffee with such extreme gas on a drum roaster, he mentioned that he always found the cup character to be harsher with carbon tones. With such a fast roast, he was expecting this coffee to have a more carbon-like character with some underdevelopment.

In our experience, Loring systems are much more reactive to changes in gas applications. Without a drum being heated directly by burners, we wondered if we could test a rule that Danny^† and Devin^§ were generally in agreement with – avoid adding gas back while roasting on drum systems.

Both had seen curves of aesthetically pleasing RoRs (steadily declining with a linear shape) with gas added back later in the roast to mitigate crashes (a sudden vertical drop in the RoR), only to find that the coffees suffered on the cupping table. They had less nuance with a harsher carbon-like character. Would this same concept apply on a Loring?

For this methodology, when we approached first crack, we cut the gas drastically (gas 20) and then added it back quickly at a high setting (gas 70) for a fast finish to the roast.

Cupping Notes

We tasted a blood orange citric acidity with a bit of tropical and stone fruit character. Despite adding gas back at a critical stage of the roast, cuppers did not find this coffee to portray a roasty or harsher character.

To soak a coffee is to initially provide the roasting system with minimal gas and energy to allow the green coffee to soak up the initial energy in the system. With traditional drum systems, some would argue that this provides the coffee a softer and more nuanced character because it mitigates initially damaging the coffee from too hot of a drum surface.

To our own knowledge, the fixed drum and paddles of a Loring do not get very hot, but we wanted to examine the soaking principle in an extreme scenario to see if there was something more to initially providing less energy to the coffee in a highly convective environment. We decided to soak this batch with gas 20 for a drastic 5 minutes before ramping up the gas intensely and stepping it down.

Truth be told, all cuppers found this coffee to be rather memorable on the table. On two blind tables, the coffee was easily recognizable for all cuppers present. It provided the ripest tasting sensations with a lingering and weighty fruit character.

Some further observations and roaster thoughts:

Approximately half of the roast was at gas 20. Since airflow is directly tied to the burner settings in Loring systems, it’s arguable that half of this roast was executed in the lowest possible airflow environment.

After the initial massive soak, the RoR for the rest of the roast is rather steadily declining. Some of our cuppers found the steadily-declining RoRs to have some livelier/zestier characteristics on the cupping table.

The Supersoaker methodology, we believe based on our own sensory analysis, deserves some attention. We’re currently testing this methodology on other coffees to see if it provides similar results.

Cupping Notes

We found this coffee to offer weighty, saturated, and ripe stone fruits, like peach and mangoes with a velvety chocolate cake like finish. There was a shared emphasis on the fullness, balance, and coherency of this rendition.

Loring’s can roast a coffee extremely fast. Since we blasted a roast with extreme gas in just over five minutes, we wanted to see what would happen with a lengthier roast and a softer gas application.

With a peak gas setting of 40, we were able to stretch this roast to 12 minutes. The RoR sags significantly in the beginning of the roast and flat lines midway through.

Cupping Notes

When tasting, we found this coffee to offer a softer peach character with a deeper sweetness and pleasant balance.

Since Danny and Devin have primarily roasted on drum roasters, we thought it might be eye-opening to see what flavors and cup characteristics we’d find with a traditional drum roasting gas pattern.

We provided ample gas up front while stepping it down steadily before and after first crack.

Cupping Notes

As a group, we found this roast to offer pleasant cutting/zippy acid. One cupper found the coffee to offer more of a melon character (watermelon), while another found the coffee to have a clean white peach character and lemongrass acidity.

This technique utilized a gas dip methodology. We also had another roast that we tried to purposefully crash very hard, so we tried to time the dip based on that roast (40 seconds away from the start of the crash with a dip that’s 50% of the gas setting before the dip. We tried to time our dip for 20 seconds). After adding the gas back, we quickly stepped the gas down to finish the roast.

Cupping Notes

Our group collectively found this coffee to offer a subtle sweetness and juiciness, akin to artificial peach, soft cherries and clementine. It is important to note that the RoR³ did dip down drastically. It would be interesting to to dip another roast to observe how it cups in reference to a more linear RoR.

This methodology could be a roaster operator’s greatest nightmare (haha), but Devin and Danny were up for a challenge. How could we, after all, have a project named Oscillations without oscillating one of the roasts!

The main goal of this roast was to oscillate the gas up and down at a controlled rate, meaning frequent gas changes with precise timing. We started with higher gas oscillation settings and stepped down to lower oscillation settings to taper off energy in the system.

The inspiration behind this methodology was partly inspired by some Loring automation roasts. For some automated Loring roasts, the gas fluctuates rather drastically down and up. We chose to explore a more controlled scenario where we tried to execute a roast with a steadily declining RoR with less drastic fluctuations. Collectively, we were rather pleased with the RoR shape of this roast and were excited to see if it would perform.

Cupping Notes

In comparison to some of the other roasts, we found this coffee to have a riper and richer character. We tasted heavy stone fruits backed by a rich chocolate sensation. We also found this rendition of the coffee to be more developed than the other batches.

Gas Pyramid

This roast’s gas pattern looks like a pyramid instead of the more traditional downwards staircase. We initially stepped the gas up to a peak setting and then finished our roast by stepping the gas downwards. Both of the roaster operators were excited after seeing the shape of this roast’s RoR.

Cuppers found this coffee to offer a slight oatiness, flatter character, and softness of flavors. We’d like to highlight that our cupping experience could be due to a roast development issue and not this given methodology.

Reverse

For this strategy, we decided to roast in reverse, meaning instead of starting with an initial high gas setting and stepping down, we started with a low setting and stepped up the gas to its highest possible setting near the end of the roast.

Collectively we found this coffee to be the most underdeveloped of all of our renditions. We tasted lemongrass acidity and green-like florals. The finish of this coffee was muted and quick. If given another chance, we’d aim for more adequate development to try and decipher the effects of reverse gas application.

Super Crash

RoR crashes (sudden vertical drop in RoR) are quite possibly one of the most controversial topics in the realm of coffee roasting. Some argue that a crash can rob coffee of sweetness and vibrancy, while others might argue that it can provide a roast balance or even enhance the sweetness of a given coffee. Naturally, we decided to try and make a coffee crash super hard to solve the crash debate.

We provided this coffee with ample gas upfront to plateau the RoR (a moment near first crack when the RoR stops declining and beings to flat line to create a plateau like shape). When we felt like we had provided the coffee with sufficient energy to create the plateau, we drastically reduced the gas to create our own super crash. As we watched the RoR fall, we felt like we had achieved our goal.

Collectively our team found this coffee to be intensely flat with mild and soft fruit tones. In comparison to other renditions, the acidity seemed lackluster. While we aren’t ready to say with full confidence that we know how crashes affect a given coffee’s flavor, in this scenario we did find a correlation with the super crash and a muted cup character.