Roasting coffee to be brewed at high altitude

Q&A
1

Hey everyone

I am curious to know whether roasters ever roast darker when the coffee is to be brewed in places that are above 2.300 masl (7.450 feet) to compensate for the lower water boiling point and still reach high extracction %?
Case in point woud be Bogota, Quito, La Paz, etc
If so, how much darker? Agtron reference would be great.

Thanks in Advance!

JF

2

Hi Juan,

I think you’re on the right track, but roasting the coffee darker, only means you’ve caramelised the sugars to a higher degree, not made the coffee more soluble or developed. There is plenty of coffee that can be significantly caramlised, but still sour and astringent, due to underextraction.

Using suitably soluble coffee, whether it be light or dark, as well as tweaking your brew parameters to take into account the lower temperature water would, in my opinion, be a better plan of attack.

Cheers,

Tim

1 Like
3

Nice one Tim.
What you say makes total sense and i didnt really look at it that way when i first considered it.

Thanks a lot man!!

JF