Introduction:Want to get into coffee roasting but don’t know where to start? This article shares hands-on experience from a seasoned roaster, offering an in-depth look at how cupping plays a central role in green bean selection, roast profile adjustments, and flavor identification. It also explores the evolution of China’s specialty coffee market. The article covers the importance of consistent output and the long-term process of customer cultivation, making it a great reference for coffee enthusiasts and beginner roasters alike.
Many newcomers to coffee roasting are eager to get their hands on a roaster but overlook the importance of learning to cup. In reality, cupping is not only a fundamental tool for evaluating coffee flavors but also a bridge for communication between roasters and green bean suppliers. One veteran roaster recalls that back in the day at Dou Shu’s shop, the staff would conduct triangular cuppings every afternoon at five. It wasn’t just a game—it gradually became part of their daily routine.
For roasters, cupping is a key skill in negotiation and price discussions. Dou Shu used to conduct annual green bean calibrations with green bean traders to ensure both parties had a shared understanding of the coffee’s flavor profile, avoiding procurement mistakes caused by exaggerated marketing. He pointed out: “Cupping ability is like learning to speak requires knowing how to read, or learning to sing requires knowing the musical notes. Without sensory judgment, you can’t actively choose cost-effective green beans, and you might even suffer losses as a result.”
Cupping also directly impacts how the roasted results turn out. Dou Shu mentioned that when he was an apprentice, he was once asked to roast the same Brazilian bean every day for ten consecutive months while thinking about the flavor profile he wanted to achieve. This kind of training taught him to describe his expectations more precisely—for example, enhancing body or adjusting acidity. He emphasized that the core of cupping training is to improve one’s ability to identify and judge flavors, which requires long-term and repeated practice.
In practical roasting, Dou Shu stresses the importance of consistent output. He recalled that in the early days of working in green bean trading, he mainly evaluated beans from a commercial perspective in terms of pricing and procurement feasibility. It wasn’t until he apprenticed at a European roastery that he gradually grasped the technical essence of roasting. He pointed out that roasting isn’t about creating flavors but rather using heat to reveal the potential inherent in the green beans—and this revelation requires a rigorous structure and consistency.
The storage environment of green beans has a significant impact on the final flavor. Dou Shu regularly checks the temperature and humidity of the storage room because even minor changes can alter the physical state of the beans, thereby affecting roasting performance. Before each roast, he adjusts the roast profile based on the daily measurements of the green beans to ensure flavor consistency.
China’s coffee roasting market has undergone significant changes since 2001. In the early days, roasters were concentrated in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions, with equipment mostly from Taiwan or domestically made, primarily serving intermediaries or the foodservice industry. Today, although the market landscape remains largely unchanged, the equipment and technical standards have improved significantly, and the number of roasters has grown from just over a hundred at the time to around three to four thousand.
The rise of specialty coffee has blurred the boundaries of division within the industry chain. In the past, the roles of growers, roasters, and baristas were clearly defined, but nowadays it’s common to see baristas involved in roasting or roasters directly engaging in green bean procurement. Dou Shu noted that this cross-boundary phenomenon reflects the market’s still-limited understanding of roasting techniques, as well as the lack of unified evaluation standards.
Customer cultivation is a long journey. In 2009, Dou Shu opened an independent roastery in Beijing. Business was tough in the beginning, but it wasn’t until he launched low-cost coffee experience classes that he gradually attracted a stable customer base. He recalled that although group-buying classes attracted 50,000 participants, only about a thousand actually converted into long-term customers. This experience proves that promoting specialty coffee culture takes time and patience.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
